Beta by: Cherry Hime chan and Blood Tained Sakura blossom x3
Disclaimer: I don't own naruto or their characters
Hitogoroshi no Noroi
Rubbing at the bandage wrapped around her head, the twelve year old frowned at the dull pain still echoing in her bruised head. Her long and smooth hair was parted rather unfortunately, she thought with dismay. She was dirty, sweaty and her knees were scratched from the fall she took at the hands of one Ami Watanabe.'At least,' inner Sakura intoned vehemently, 'she's got detention right now with Iruka-sensei for playing dirty!'
"Yeah, you don't kick people in the head when they're already down!" Sakura huffed angrily under her breath, completely oblivious to the fact that much worse could happen to her in a real fight between enemies. 'But we still got out of training early.'The voice in her added helpfully. "Much good did us, though. We wasted the day away at the hospital, just to be discharged with a mild concussion and some stupid pain killers."
'And orders to rest. We have to rest!'Sakura's inner personality admonished her. "Yeah, yeah. Now stop nagging me."
When Sakura neared her destination, meaning home, her eyes narrowed in confusion, for on her house's doorsteps laid a snow white box. From what she could see there was a note attached to it in the middle. She walked up to it briskly, swiftly snatched off the notepaper and read it.
"Dear Sakura,
These here, are your grandmother's old porcelain dolls.
I ask that you take care of them with utmost devotion.
They are very precious to me, my dear.
You ought to always carry them around for luck.
I hope no harm will come to you while they are in your care."
'Grandma.' Sakura thought longingly, her index finger tracing a soft line down the ornamental wooden lock. While Sakura was feeling longing, her counter personality was anything but. 'Creepy, I tell you. There's something creepy about that note.'Inner Sakura warned uncertainly not quite able to put her finger on anything specific.
Pondering on what to do, an annoyed groan escaped her lips as another wave of nausea hit her. With a shake of her head, Sakura took a hold of the heavy box and balanced it on her hip. With her left hand she inserted the key and turned it, opening the door. Walking inside, carefully minding her steps, she positioned the box on the kitchen table. The pink-haired soon-to-be-genin wondered whether it was worth the trouble of opening it now. It was now the rising of queasiness versus her never-ending curiosity.
'I'm telling you girl. You should just get rid of that damn thing in woods, cha! It's giving me some bad vibes, that thing!' But Sakura, being contradicting to most things her inner voice advised upon on principal, did exactly the opposite thing. Besides, from what Sakura had read, these dolls were important to Hana-no-baa-chan and it just wouldn't do to disappoint her like that with no apparent reason. She was, after all, instructed to care for them. Emitting a soft sigh and ignoring her inner ranting, Sakura unclasped the lock and opened the wooden chest.
Her green eyes landed on ten different porcelain dolls, each one unique. After Sakura scrutinized them all closely her trimmed pink eyebrow rose in question. 'They look kinda girlish.'Inner commented in amusement. "They're definitively all men, though..." Sakura answered, her voice lingering thoughtfully. "All, but this one, at least." She stated with certainty, as Inner nodded her head in agreement.
She turned her gaze to the only female-doll. It had dark blue hair, - 'Indigo,' - the other part of her stated, and it was gathered in a bun at back of her head, the lose strands brushing it's collarbone. A while origami-flower clipped on the left side of the bun. The doll's eyes were light amber, taking on an orange hue.
"The eyes look so realistic." Sakura mumbled absentmindedly while reaching out to pick it up. When her hand barely brushed the doll, though, she hastily withdrew it with startled yelp. 'It shocked us? It frikking shocked us!'Inner exclaimed indignantly.
"Wha? Don-Don't be ridiculous! It's a doll. A dead doll. It couldn't have shocked us!" Sakura sputtered, and yet she couldn't help feeling flustered. She had, after all, felt it. A shudder went down her spine when the unbidden thought wormed its way into her mind. The porcelain had indeed had a skin-like quality to it. Soft, yet icy cold. 'Like in dead people.'She pursed her lips at the comment, ignoring it wholly.
Staring back at the doll Sakura blinked, and then she blinked again, her mouth gaping open because really, she could swear it had blinked at her first!
"Christ!" Sakura choked out as a blast of something wiped her wholly around. She barely had the chance to regain her balance when another gust of something wind-like turned her to the right. It was cold and yet, she was sweating profusely. Her nausea was nearing the end point from the constant turning; this way and that, this way and that. She tried to pull her swaying hair out of her face, but to her growing horror found herself unable to.
She was shaking like a leaf and feeling weak to her very bones. Being disoriented wasn't a nice feeling, she decided dazedly, ready to just about collapse. And then, out of nowhere, she was sure she felt it. It wasn't her imagination either, not at all. Something touched her. Someone just touched her, right on her left shoulder-blade. She jerked around by the sheer will of force alone, and saw exactly no one.
She just couldn't take it anymore. She felt so drained, as if she had just ran in a marathon. Sakura swayed, collapsing onto her hands and knees. Arching her back like a cat she convulsed, her stomach heaving. A few short minutes later, which felt to her like an eternity, black dots were swimming before her unfocused eyes. The last conscious thought registered by her mind was that of a doll. A female-doll laying not far from her, forgotten on the ground, a tag with a name attached to its back - 'Konan'.
Hatake Kakashi may be lazy and he may read porn in public, but he wasn't stupid. At the present moment though, he was annoyed.
It just wasn't natural, he admitted. The chakra emanating from the civilian district was strange, to put it lightly, but most of all it was irregular. And he knew exactly what, or rather who, was the cause of it. It wasn't all that hard to recognize, really. One could liken it to trying to put a kunai thru a key-hole. It just doesn't work. But had that ever stopped him? No, of course not!
'Damn you, Uzumaki Naruto, I was just getting to the good part.' Why couldn't that kid just let it go? The additional seal was on him for a reason, to keep large amounts of chakra from going through his path-ways. And yet the kid kept on going; training more, practicing more, and thus in the process establishing wider chakra path-ways.
With a tired sigh, the Copy-ninja flickered over to the kid's rough location. Kakashi was near, he was getting tingly. Before he even took a step though, he winced. 'No, please no! Anything but him!'Kakashi lamented mentally.
"Kakashi, my eternal rival of youthfulness! I challenge you!" Kakashi froze mid-step, resigned.
With a slump of his shoulders he turned to his self-proclaimed rival and best friend.
"Hello, Gai. I'm sorry, but I've got to check up on the Uzumaki-kid. Can't entertain you."
"Ah, come now, Kakashi. Leave the boy alone. He has the right to train just like everybody else." The tai-jutsu master admonished. "Besides, I spoke with Yuuhi. She and Anko are already waiting for us in the dango shop. Asuma mentioned he'll stop by, as well."
Kakashi sighed, his hand reaching up to rub his neck in an old habit. "Fine."
Walking the busy streets of Konoha, trying to keep an acceptable distance from the spandex-wearing man, Kakashi couldn't get rid of the feeling that something was off. Shoving his hands deeper into his pants pockets, the copy-cat slouched into his typical stance. While Gai attempted to strike up any kind of conversation, Kakashi strongly attempted to ignore him.
'At least,' Kakashi thought in relief, 'We're almost there.' He could already hear Anko yelling from afar. He was about to wave back to Asuma when his attention was averted.
"Oi! Old man, where's my ramen?" Shouted theone and only Uzumaki Naruto, claiming a stool next to the Third. One empty miso-soup already waiting to be cleaned by his elbow. The Hokage shook his head as if in resignation at him, silently instructing Kakashi to walk along. And Kakashi being Kakashi, silently moved on, his millisecond pause noticed by no one as questions clouded his mind.
Sayuki Haruno, a thirty-two year old merchant and a mother of one soon-to-be ninja frowned. The front door was unlocked and wide open. When the blond woman stepped inside, the scroll she was holding in her right hand including the exact place and time of the next merchant convention tumbled down. Her daughter, her only baby, was sprawled on the floor in a pool of vomit. Quickly coming to her side, she quickly checked the pulse. Finding it, a sigh of relief escaped her lips.
'Just out cold then, thank God.'
Twenty-five minutes later, Sayuki was locking the front door behind herself. She felt dirty and sweaty after cleaning up the kitchen-floor and dragging her daughter up the stairs and to her bed. It was hard work, Sakura was heavy. The first few minutes she was scared witless, but then she took a hold of herself and began to work. She was no stranger to such things. Ninja often accompanied them on their travels and they often got injured while protecting their goods. She was aware of the profession her baby had chosen for herself, and she feared every day for Sakura's safety.
Waking covered in sweat was never a pleasant experience. With hair plastered to her face and neck, shaking all over and desperately gasping for air, Sakura took a few ragged breaths to calm her erratic heart-beat. Momentarily disoriented, she tried to regain her memories. 'Ah, I remember now.' Though she wasn't quite sure how on earth she has found herself back in her room. The last thing she recalled was meeting the kitchen floor. And that wasn't a pleasant experience either. She smacked her lips in distaste, a sneer curling her lips downwards, as her hand unconsciously traveled to her neck.
Pushing her bright red comforter down with shaky hands, Sakura attempted to move. She ached everywhere. 'Is it even possible for your hair to ache?' She wondered, feeling literally chewed and spat out. Glancing at her alarm-clock, she discovered it was only 7 past 4 in the morning. The sun wasn't even up yet. Pushing herself up onto her elbows, Sakura surveyed her surroundings. Everything appeared to be fine and in its proper place. That is, everything beside the chest which contained her newly acquired dolls. It was set in the middle of her desk, opened. The dolls were all positioned vertically appearing is if they were staring at her.
It was plain creepy, Sakura decided. They were frikking staring at her! 'Like, seriously.' Inner Sakura reminded of her unnatural existence, voice high and flabbergasted. Their glassy eyes though empty, appeared piercing to her. An involuntary shiver ran down her spine when their hair-raising gazes brought up her most recent nightmare.
Standing in the middle of nowhere in complete darkness, Sakura was looking around and seeing nothing but pitch blackness, feeling confused and somehow wrong. She was not supposed to be here, not at all. This place was meant for bad things. How she knew that though, she had no idea. The knowledge was just there and she decided not to question it.
"Hello? Is anybody there?" She called out and immediately felt stupid. If anything at all was indeed out there, it now knew that she was here, as well. And her presence in this strange, creepy place, smelling of sandal-wood, cinnamon and sand was faulty, to say the least. Sakura prayed internally that no one had heard her, that her call was quiet enough, but like in most cases of her short life of twelve, she had no such luck. Her voice frikking echoed in there. 'Damn.' Her counterpart cursed, but her voice was not quite right. It was muted, strangely soft. Nothing like her usual boisterousness.
"Come, puppet." Was whispered seemingly inside her mind, and it was not Inner for sure, Sakura determined. The timber was soft and yet, power was oozing from that silky whisper, making her feel small and weak. Just two simple words and Sakura felt her knees buckling under her own weight, heart racing. "What is wrong with me?" She panted out, sweating in buckets.
"Come to me!" Now it was definitely an order. The velvety whisper turned into an impatient hiss. Her head exploded in pain, flashy dots swarming her vision. Her body jerked suddenly, but not on its own volition. Something scalding hot and liquid-like attached itself to her. Wires, Sakura had likened it to. It was as if she was wired up to something. Her body jerked again, the strange wires were pulling her up. When she was in a standing position, she noticed they lessened their hold on her. She didn't feel as stretched now. And again they tensed, jerking her around until she almost fell down from queasiness. Just when she thought her limbs were about to be ripped out from their sockets, they violently pulled her left. She was disoriented.
"Walk." And again, they jerked her left. When Sakura still remained in her place, she started unceremoniously walking against her will. Her moving legs were jerky and heavy to her. After what felt like miles, she was finally stopped. What was the purpose of this? Why was she here? Most importantly, where was she? All these questions quieted however, when she saw him.
His features were truly angelic. He seemed so…so ageless. Young, and yet old at the same time. So entranced was she by his inhuman beauty, that when he suddenly appeared right before her face and cupped her cheeks, she was startled. Up close he didn't seem so angelic, though. His eyes were frightening. Empty, haunting and glassy. A gasp escaped her already parted lips when his palms slid down her face and settled on her collarbones with his thumbs at the hollow of her throat.
"Worry not, doll. It won't hurt… much." He laughed at her mortified expression, delighted by her fear. She tried, she really did. She struggled, kicked and clawed, but to no avail. All that she managed was to rip her nails. His creamy and unblemished skin was not skin at all! Dark spots were starting to appear before her eyes.
"Hush now, puppet. Soon, you'll be just like me." Was all she heard, before her eyes snapped open and she was no longer dreaming, but thankfully awake.
Sakura shook her head and pointedly avoided looking at the white chest. It was no use going back to sleep now. She got up and entered her adjoined bathroom. She spent a good hour under the shower scrubbing, lathering, washing and conditioning. Then rinse and start all over again.
Being careful not to slip, Sakura stepped out of the shower and dried herself. Now all she needed was her toothbrush and a strong minty toothpaste. She turned and stopped mid-step. '
This, is… is…' She swallowed, her mouth parting. There, on her white ceramic sink, was him. Sitting innocently on the edge was a miniature version of her night tormenter.
Sakura gave off a hysterical giggle, right after which she promptly fainted. Again.
This isn't the end of the story xD I can't end it like this can I?
I hope you like it ^^ Fufu the akatsuki turned into porcelain dolls and what else appears at Sakura's doorstep xD Hope you like my new found idea xD Cause I like it so much, awesome idea to make them porcelain dolls hehehe ^^ Tell me what you think ^^I'll appreciate it and be happy :)
I have started a poll for this story, pls go and check it out and hopefully vote too ^^The voting is about Sakura's next guy encounter in dream xD now exited to vote?
All spaces Fixed I think? Well if not then point it out thanks!