Beauty and the Beast

Still, You Do Not Answer

Fire!

Every where she turned there was fire. The bright red glow of the flames taunted her as she ran through the forest. The heat from the hellish flames were making her arms and legs turn red as sweat trickled down from her neck to her back.

She could still hear the faint sounds of the people chasing her as she ran, not knowing what they were yelling to her because the beating of her own heart thumped in her ears. Her instincts just told her that she was to avoid the fire and the screaming.

And that was fine with her.

Her white blouse and pink skirt were now blackened with ashes and dirt from falling down to many times. Her long pink hair was now matted with mud and had grass sticking out of it. Her green eyes were filled with terror from possibly being burned alive or being tortured by the man chasing her. But all she could do was run.

But where was she to run too. Every tree that surrounded her was on fire. She was trapped.

(Flash Back -6 Hours Before-)

"Sakura, be sure to come home earlier this time ok," an old woman said while washing dishes.

"Kay! I'll be back before dark," a young girl replied slipping on her shoes and slamming the door as she left. As she walked down the dirt road she couldn't help to admire the little village of Konaha she lived in.

There were little houses in either side of the dirt road and children climbed in trees or chased each other around while their mothers worked in their gardens or hung laundry out to dry.

As she rounded a corner she gasped at the sight of the large market filled with people. Every thing was cheap sense the village was poor, but everyone still managed a peaceful life.

There were people rushing around trying to keep their children from running off and some that just lazily looked at what the market had to offer but never buying anything. They just liked the excitement in the air.

Sakura liked it because there were so many people around and sometimes she even met up with people she knew. But she couldn't wander around today because she had a job that required her to leave the small little village.

Sakura made her way to the flower shop she worked at she when she noticed a little boy crying on the ground clutching his knee which was bleeding.

The rosette girl was about to make her way over to the boy to see what she could do when a man and a woman who were probably his parents beat her to him. "Daichi, don't scare us like that again," the woman said sternly whipping the blood from the boy's knee with a handkerchief she pulled from her pocket.

The father picked the boy up patting him on the back as the boy continued to cry on the man's shoulder. "Why don't we get an ice cream? Would you like that Daichi?" asked the mother while stroking the boy's back. The small boy nodded his head and the couple disappeared into the crowd.

Sakura watched the family walk into the ice cream with envy.

She had always wanted a family like that. But sadly her parents had died when she was five and the only things she could remember about them was her mother's short red hair blowing in the wind and her father's green eyes staring at her with loving affection. Her grandmother never told her why they died she just said she would tell her when she was older.

Well she was 17 years old now and still had no idea why she had no parents. She didn't even know where they were buried. How sad is that?

Lost in thought she ran head first into some one and fell to the ground. "Nice going forehead girl." Sakura instantly recognized the voice's owner and looked up to see her only friend Ino smiling at her holding her hand out for Sakura to take.

"Hey Ino," Sakura said accepting her offer and grabbed the blonde's hand.

"What took you so long? I was just about to come get you," the blonde snapped at her. Sakura had to hold back a smile as Ino attempted to look cross. Ino could never be taken serious because she was always smiling the gorgeous smile of hers. In fact every thing about her was gorgeous. Her gorgeous blonde hair, gorgeous blue eyes, and a gorgeous body that would make any girl envy her. Even Sakura envied her beauty.

Ino seemed to have a perfect life.

A boyfriend every for everyday of the week.

Friends that came to see her every day while she worked.

A pretty face and body that made every guy in Konaha drool.

And a family that loved her.

Sakura how ever had none of those things.

She had only had one boyfriend in her life.

Ino was her only friend in the village.

She wasn't as pretty as she would like.

And her only family was her Grandmother.

Yep times like these made Sakura want to kill her so called "Best Friend".

The two girls made their way over to the flower shop that both Ino and her parents owned in silence, if you count Ino constantly saying hi to people in the street silent.

A bell chimed as Ino opened the door to her flower shop but didn't hold it open for Sakura, who got the back of her head nailed by the door as it tried to close on her.

"Your basket is in the back and let me grab the list of flowers you need to collect," Ino said cheerfully as Sakura rubbed the back of her head where the door had hit her. The pink haired girl smiled feebly as she tried to ignore the throbbing pain in her head.

Ino disappeared behind the counter for a minute and returned with a small piece of paper that contained the list of flowers she was to collect from the fields in the forest. "I know it doesn't say Fire Lilly's but we are almost out of them so don't forget to pick them too ok," Ino said just as the bell chimed again signaling that a customer had arrived.

"Hi there!" Ino said putting on a fake smile as two boys walked in.

"Hi you're self," one of the boys replied. Sakura recognized the boy who had spoken to Ino. His name was Naruto and he was currently the only guy who had dated Sakura in her life. So it was natural that a blush started to spread across her cheeks.

Right.

Sakura had to admit that even after two years she still liked him even after the messy breakup. From his spiky yellow hair to his big goofy grin Sakura was totally in love with him.

But unfortunately for her he was crushing on Ino along with the other guys in her village.

"What do you guys need?" Ino continued pulling on a white apron.

"We just came here to chat," said the other boy who Sakura also recognized as Shikamaru who was also crushing on Ino.

"Sakura shouldn't you be going now," Ino called making Sakura jump. The two boys snickered at Sakura as she left the store her eyes prickling with tears. She really wished she was pretty like Ino then maybe she would have real friends. But her long pink hair made her stick out in a crowd and she had a large forehead she kept hidden with her bangs.

When she was a child, other kids would make fun of her for having such a large forehead. They would call her names and poke her with sticks. So she decided just to cut her hair to hide her large forehead. And it seemed to work because other than Ino people would call her by her proper name and wouldn't stare at her while she talked to them.

But she knew that she didn't really have as large of forehead as people said. She compared hers to Ino and found that hers was only slightly bigger. But she still didn't understand why people just didn't like her.

The next thing on her flaw list was her body. She had normal size boobs which looked like mosquito bits compared to Ino's. Sure they were bigger than other women's chest but her size C36 was nothing to Ino's DD's.

Her legs on the other hand were the only thing Sakura liked about her body besides her eyes. When she was little her Grandmother would make her run up and down hills all day when it was nice out. Sakura thought it was because she didn't want her granddaughter to get fat. But later she found out that there were people who would kill other people just for the fun of it and if she wanted to survive in this world she would have to learn to run fast and hard.

So when she grew her legs turned out to be nicely shaped and she secretly thanked her Grandmother for being so cautious.

But besides her legs she also liked her eyes. They weren't just a plain old green but they were as green as the grass in her back yard or the leaves on trees in the summer time. They even seemed to glitter in the sun light.

But she wasn't like Ino so she would never be satisfied with her self.

Breaking away from her deep thoughts she stepped out of the village's boundaries and made her way towards a small path in the forest that led her to the fields of flowers.

The trees were becoming denser the farther she walked so she knew that she was getting close to the stream that she had to cross. And she was right because she soon heard the small trickling of water nearing her as she walked.

Besides the sound of trickling water it was pretty quiet. 'Where are all the animals?' She thought.

Not being able to withstand to silence any more she began to sing a song she remembered her mother singing to her once.

Hi miss alice
Anata garasu no
Me de donna yume wo
Mirareru no?
Mirareru no
?

Her pace began to quicken as she sang so it looked like she was some what skipping now.

Mada atashi
Kokoro ga sakete
Nagarederu

As she hopped from rock to rock across stream she suddenly stopped singing and turned around. She had the strangest feeling that she was being watched. But it was probably just an animal.

She tried to turn on the small rock but she slipped and fell on her butt in the freezing water.

Even though the water wasn't that deep, it was still deep enough so that she was now soaked and that her white blouse was see through so that you could see her pink bra.

Sakura's head jerked around once again. She could have sworn that she heard some one snicker from the trees. Thinking it was just the wind she got up out of the water and looked around to see if any one was around.

Satisfied with the fact that she was all alone she began to unbuttoned her shirt and tried to dry it a little by squeezing the water out of it. But Sakura still didn't like the fact that she still felt like she was being watched so she put her shirt on quickly and continued on her way.

Swinging her basket slightly she continued to sing.

Tsukurotta
Sukima ni sasaru
Kioku-tachi

Hi miss alice
Anata ga jitsu no
Kuchi de dare ni ai wa
Nageteru no?
Nageteru no?

The wind began to pick up and she couldn't help but shiver a little. Luckly the trees were thinning now so patches of sunlight warmed her body.

Mou atashi
Kotoba o tsumaku
Shita no netsu

Same kitte
Meteru outamo
Utae nai

A bright ray of sun light suddenly warmed her body as she stepped out into a large field covered in flowers. She breathed in heavily loving the smell of the flowers as she finished her song.

Still, you do not answer

Being careful not to step on the flowers she made her way towards a small patch of bare grass she liked to sit on and admire the different colors and smells of the surrounding flowers.

"Ok so what's on the list?" she said out loud reaching into the basket she carried. "Yellow Lilly's, Passion flowers, Foxglove's, Iris, and Fire Lilly's if I'm correct," the girl said placing her basket in the middle of the patch of grass.

While searching for the flowers the wind picked up making Sakura pause so that she could enjoy smell the combination of the flower's sent. But something else lingered in the air in the direction of her village.

Smoke!

The wind picked up and with it she heard a voice whisper from behind her.

"Turn around."

The voice was barley above a whisper and it sounded like a growl almost.

Still she obeyed and turned around only the see people walking towards her with knives and lit torches. They were still pretty far away but just the sight of them stalking her made her jump to her feet and take off towards the opposite direction of her village.

"Run faster!" the voice said again and she didn't bother questioning it as she forced her legs to move faster. But little did she know that there was a reason she was told to run faster. Her village was currently being burned to the ground and the fire was quickly catching up to her. And so were the men.

"Get Her!" One of them yelled.

(End Flash Back)

And that's how she ended up running for her life. Surrounded by fire and blinded by smoke. Her heart was beating so fast that her chest started to ache and soon she just couldn't go on any more.

She didn't even realize that she had stopped running until she felt her legs give out from under her. Sakura collapsed onto the ground and just closed her eyes hopping that it wouldn't hurt when she died.

All she could do now was wait until death took her into his embrace.

She began to feel light headed as her head spun from the lack of clean air. Sakura opened her eyes one last time hopping to see Grandmother sitting besides her bed and tell her that she was just having a night mare. But instead she saw a blurry figure approach her.

And that was the last she saw before she was surrounded by darkness.

And with her last breath she whispered.

"Still, you do not answer."

Yay! I finally started my new story. Sorry if it's kind of bad but I'm really tired and I haven't eaten any thing all day so please if there are any grammar mistakes of if any one has any ideas please don't be shy. Oh and if any one is wondering the song that Sakura sang is called Still Doll by Kanon Wakeshima. I will try to update soon so in the mean time I really need some ideas for my story ok.