"Fading Dreams and Blossoming Faith"
Summary: "Time will always play the villain. Faith will always make the impossible possible. Will love also bloom?"
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, and never will, but the plot would always be MINE! XD
Note: This story had already been posted some time ago, but was entirely deleted due to an authors' major dilemma. I just reposted everything again due to the great support of my beta and some other supporters of my works. And everything is also re-edited...
If you guys want to go straight to where the couple will be, it would be better to start on the fourth chapter (if it's already available), since the first chapter will be dedicated to introducing some of our characters, and the second chapter would give hints about how the story will go, and the third chapter will more than likely be where the whole story starts.
Reminders: Italics for inner thoughts/past/narration; Inner Sakura's dialogue will be all underlined.
Chapter 1: Introductions
"Sakura, listen to me."
"O-okay..."
"When I help you get out of here, I want you to promise me you'll never waver from your plan. Once you do..."
"I know... You'll bring me back here."
"I'm sorry if I'm not fair."
"Thank you for helping me. Doing this much is already more than enough."
"You know, I will always be by your side, Sakura."
"I know. And that will be the one thing I will be forever grateful to you for."
A pink haired girl's eyes snapped open, revealing their emerald green color, as she sat back to look at her surroundings. "That dream again..." she said in a small whisper.
She was sitting near the riverbank. Lost in her thoughts, her eyes wander aimlessly over her surroundings. The water was still, the morning birds were still asleep, and the sun was just starting to rise. She was in her school uniform, a white blouse with a black necktie that streamed down to the waist, and a black skirt that went to about two centimeters above her knee.
She sighed every now and then. She took something out of her school bag, which was placed near her back. It was a small, rundown, brown booklet. She then flipped a few pages, and started to remember how she received the booklet from her grandmother. It was the time when her grandmother was on her deathbed. She suddenly reached for the booklet, and gave it to the little, pink haired girl who was crying at her side. The little girl loved her grandmother very dearly. She had always been there to comfort the little girl in times when she was down and alone. Her grandmother would always tell her fascinating stories, especially about the history of her grandmother's birthplace, Konohagakure.
"Granny would always tell me this story." She gave a small smile as she remembered past times with her grandmother. She then started reading the first page of the small booklet. It was hand-written by her grandmother. The ink was fading, but the condition was still good enough that anyone was able to read from it.
A long time ago, Konohagakure was one of the five great ninja villages. Wars frequently happened over every small dispute of the five nations, and there were a lot of lives lost in times of war. In order not to lose any more lives of each nation, all the leaders came to a decision to seal all the chakra of every ninja out there. There were a lot of disputes about the decision made, but as time went on, the leaders from each nation, even the clan leaders, agreed that making such a huge sacrifice may bring about what was best for everyone. Each was then was influenced by the other, and as time passed, every ninja had surrendered and lost their power and become a normal citizen. All scrolls and knowledge that was connected in the world of nin was disposed of, and would never be seen again. As a respect for clans with bloodlines, they were still given some privileges, like to hold onto their name and power, even if only brought out in the field of politics. Even so, after a sacrifice as large as giving up being a ninja, all harshness was lessened, and all were able to live normally and peacefully.
The pink haired girl stopped reading through the pages of the book, and flipped it to the last page. She read the lines that always struck her most. "…Even though things have settled down, history will always repeat itself…" She then closed the book, and lay back on the grass, bumping her head against her school bag. She rested for a while, looking up at the sky, and sighed, remembering her small past with a certain boy who also did this to slack off the whole day, and she smiled thinking about it.
Then the town's bell tower rang, which indicated to the whole village that it was already six in the morning. She sat up again, slid the booklet back into her school bag to its proper place, and stood up. She brushed the dirt off of her school uniform from top to bottom, and continued on her way to school.
As she got nearer to the school gate, one of her favorite teachers was there, opening it. He then noticed her, and waved his hand in greeting. As she came closer, and stopped five feet away from him, she bowed low in respect and then stood up straight to greet him. "Good morning, Iruka-sensei," she said, then smiled.
"Really, Sakura-san, you don't need to be so formal," he said, as he scratched the back of his head. "You always amuse me. Why do you always come to school so early?" he asked curiously.
"Well, Sensei, I pretty much don't know why myself. Maybe I need to live up to my reputation, being one of the few, legendary junior year students to gain one of the top scores in the nation in terms of academics," Sakura said jokingly. Then both of them laughed together.
Sakura bowed down again, and headed to her classroom, which was located on the second floor of the building, and was in total front view from the school main gate. She slid open the door of her classroom, and noticed that she was the first one to arrive.
'Well, yeah, since you are the real reason why the school tries to open so early,' Inner Sakura said.
She then went to her seat near the windows. It was the second seat from the back. As she placed her bag at the foot of the table, she leaned on the window in front of her and stared at the sky. Sakura would always tend to look outside the window to watch out for her one true love. She'd loved him the moment she laid her eyes on him.
It was at that time when she and her parents visited to Konohagakure years back. As she walked around the streets, she saw a group of children that looked like a class in kindergarten, and the one that caught her eye was a boy with raven hair and dark eyes...
"Ah, staring again out the windows, Ugly?" A pale man from behind Sakura said near her ears, as he was leaning closer to her.
Sakura flinched, and unconsciously stood up. "Sai!" What the hell are you doing here?" she asked.
"This is my classroom, of course. Maybe you forgot," he replied, as he smirked and went towards his seat in front of her.
'Sai, he was one of those people that could be classified as blunt. He didn't hold back, and said anything that came to his mind. He didn't even know how to socialize with people, which was his weak point. The most important thing was that he didn't even know how to express his feelings, even though he is one of the most artistic students,' she continued in her thoughts.
"Really, Sai, don't try to sneak up on people," she said, and sat back in her seat.
Sai, on the other hand, placed his sports bag on top of his table and turned around, looking back at Sakura. "Waiting for him, Ugly?" he asked.
"Well, yes, of-" Sakura cut off her sentence. She then slammed her fist on her table with a BAMthat didn't even make Sai react. "You called me UGLY twice already! I do have a name, you know!" She almost lost her temper, but was stopped as she felt that the man of her dreams had just entered the school premises. As she was about to turn to the windows, a gust of wind forcefully shoved Sakura and she fell to the floor.
A blonde stood in front of her, leaning on the window as she watched the raven-haired guy, who was also the man of her dreams, walk by on the school grounds and inside the building, giving Sakura no time to see him.
"Oh, Sasuke, when will you ever look at me?" the long haired blonde said dreamingly.
"Ino-pig!" Sakura burst out in anger, and stood up.
'Ino's family, the Yamanaka, was also said to belong to one of the clans in ninja history. They had the technique of controlling over another human's body. In school, she was one of the loudest mouths that you could ever get to know. Once a rumor reached her ears, she would either complicate the rumor, or spread it to her connections. It could be really bad if you went against her. And to top it all off, she's my best friend slash love rival,' Inner Sakura thought.
"Oh, Sakura, were you there?" she asked, as if she didn't knew that she was actually the one who had pushed her down.
"You Pig, what the hell was that for?" she said in a low voice that only her, Ino, and Sai could hear.
"Well…" Ino placed her hands on her hips, "I am the rightful president of the Sasuke Fan Club, and I also do have the privilege to be able to look at him, unlike you, who is a bottom-level member and always will be, and lastly, I was the first one to set my eyes on him, and not you!" Ino proclaimed.
"Ino-Pig, don't you know that he doesn't belong to anyone, and everyone has the right to look at him!" Nerves were bulging out of Sakura's forehead, and she poked Ino in her shoulder.
"My, my, my… How daring of you to talk back to me, you lowly-"
Then, in the midst of the shadows, a raven-haired girl appeared at Ino's back."I-Ino-san…" she called in her low voice, as she clasped her hands together.
"Hi-Hinata-chan!" Ino reacted, surprised, and jumped back.
Sakura was just as shocked as Ino. 'Hinata was the type of student who didn't really gain much attention, especially since she was too shy to speak up. She was also famous for being the cousin of one of the most famous guys here in the high school division, Hyuuga Neji, who was one year older than us. Hyuuga was also said to be one of the clans that possessed one of the Great Three Dōjutsu, the Byakugan (The other remaining three were the Sharingan and Rinnegan.). And lastly, the most distinctive feature of their clan was having white eyes.'
"Y-you know, Ino-san, Sakura-san is right. P-people don't belong to anyone," she said in defense of Sakura.
Ino then backed up, and was about to slap Hinata, but stopped when she saw that Neji was just at the door of the classroom, looking at them, glaring at the next action Ino would make.
"Tsk." Ino went to her seat in the back on the other side of the room near the door.
"Arigatou, Hinata-chan," Sakura thanked Hinata with a smile.
Hinata, on the other hand, flushed red as she also went back to her seat in the front. Sakura sat back down again in her seat, and noticed that Sai was still looking at her. At first, she didn't mind it, but as the silence grew, she was about to break it.
"Was Gorgeous on her cycle?" Sai asked, straight-faced.
Sakura almost flipped out in her seat as she remembered the first time she saw Sai. At that time, Sai was introduced first to the two class representatives. One of them was Sakura, and another was a loud-mouthed, blond guy. He had a hard time calling them by their names, and so he gave them nicknames. The blond guy was Dickless, and Sakura was labeled Ugly, which was, of course, not a good thing for her to hear. She couldn't just burst out in anger, as she had an image as the ideal student that the teachers praised to uphold. And so, she gave him pointers, like when giving nicknames to people, it should be something acceptable to the other party, even if is a lie or flattery. And so, Ino was labeled Gorgeous, when in fact he also thought her ugly or a hag, but only Dickless and Sakura knew that the next nickname he made was exactly the opposite of what he thought.
"Why do you keep calling her that? She is not Gorgeous, as you say, and she's a PIG," she reminded him. Then Sakura realized something else. "And why did you just kept quiet and just watch us fight, while Hinata-chan had to become my knight in shining armor and save me from the evil, monstrous Pig!"
"It's pretty much nothing to do with me," Sai replied, and faced his back towards Sakura, who was gasping for breath after her outburst.
One by one, their classmates came into the classroom, and went to their seats as they waited for the school bell to ring. The school bell rang, and Iruka-sensei came in while holding a book. He placed it against his shoulder, and greeted his students.
To be continued...
Background INFO:
Sakura, and the rest of her year group are at the age of 17 and in their junior level of high school.
Neji's age group will be 18 and in their senior level of high school.
Preview:The next chapter will probably give us some hint about the main plot of the story, although it is already in the summary.
AN: …REVIEW!