I paced back and forth in the living room. My fists were clenched and I couldn't help but grind my teeth. I tried to forget the 'incident' that happened a few minutes ago. My temper had been extremely short lately, especially since I had started changing a few months ago. I was barely beginning to control it and was able to go out in public -most of the time- without bursting into a wolf in front of everyone. But do anything to even slightly upset me and all bets were off. Luckily, whenever I went out I was with Ino so she was there to calm me down. I would never be able to compromise her safety so, the fact she was near usually prompted me to regain rational thought. But when that group of guys approached us I could already smell what they wanted to do. The sickening odor of soiled clothes, stale beer, and pheromones had me shaking when they walked near us. Ino gripped my arm when they stopped us by walking in the middle of our path. A low growl tried to escape my throat as I could see them leer at Ino's body, looking her up and down. Then the unshaven man in front with greasy blonde hair and a stained blue shirt said something about joining them for the night. Ino looked up at me feeling that I was shaking, nearly convulsing, I didn't hesitate to let a low growl bubble to my lips. Ino told them no, politely as she pulled me around the group and continued walking. Then under one of their breathes I heard them call her a fucking cunt. My heart thudded in my ears and I stopped cold in my tracks. Ino tugged my arm to keep walking. I took a moment to look in her anxious blue eyes, troubled that we were alone at 3 in the morning near an alley with a gang of possibly dangerous men a few steps away. I sighed and tried to relax my tense muscles. We walked only 2 steps before another man, with a shaved head, grabbed Ino's arm and told her they didn't give her permission to leave. Then I snapped. I remember grabbing his throat and slamming him into a nearby brick wall.
"Sakura!" Ino shouted I turned my body and kicked the blonde man who rushed me. He flew back a few feet and rolled on the floor-probably broke a rib. The other guy stood frozen looking at the blonde guy on the ground.
"Sakura let him go" I nearly forgot that I was choking a man, he was starting to turn blue. I let go and he crumpled to the floor. I looked around and grabbed Ino's hand. After a moment of straining my ears to hear everyone's heart beat, I quickly ran off with Ino. When we got to our apartment she slumped down on the couch with her face in her hands. I kept pacing trying not to go wolf in our living room. I tried to stop replaying the fight over again in my mind but all I could think about is what they wanted to do with Ino. Another shudder rolled through me making my body burn with need to release the animal inside me. I looked over to Ino to see her face buried in her hands, she looked absolutely mortified.
"I'm sorry" I started but I stopped when she lifted her head. Her big blue eyes were shining and she looked so...broken. I kneeled down in front of her and I grabbed her face gently. "What's wrong?"
"You Sakura" She spat out after she turned her face away from me.
"Wh-"
"I don't know how to help you. You don't even talk to me any more." She stated trying to keep her voice from cracking. "You've changed and it's scaring me." She finally admitted as she looked at me in the eye. "You're always angry at someone or something... Did I do something?" I guess I didn't hide the change as well as I thought.
"I-I" I was speechless. Do I tell her or not? Will she even believe me?
"Just try Sakura, please." She grabbed my hand desperately as if she would never let me leave her side. I ran a hand through my hair and sighed. Here goes nothing.
"I don't expect you to believe me but...please let me explain, kay?" She nodded her head slowly in response. Her blue eyes filled with concern."Remember when you left during winter break?" She nodded her head slowly, guilt started to spill into her eyes. That was the only time she left our apartment for more than a few days. "Well I got...attacked by an animal or what I thought was an animal." I could hear her heart skip a beat and her sharp inhale. "I remember hearing the growling and snapping and before I knew it this thing crashed into me" I glanced over at Ino's unreadable expression, I could tell she was concentrating intensely on my story. "It hurt like hell. I thought I was going to die especially when I felt a sharp stinging pain in my side. I-I couldn't move and I knew I had at least…several broken bones. It felt horrible but I blacked out not long after that. When I woke up, I was in the middle of the forest and sore. I got up and-somehow-managed to find my way home. Every part of my body ached but there were no cuts, bruises, or broken bones, except for a bite mark on my hip." As I said this my hand unconsciously rubbed my hip where the scar was. "It turned into a scar a day or two after" I said taking a break to glance again at Ino to see the same expression on her face. "Then stuff started to get weird...I would have these moments of...clarity where everything seemed so much more...clear, vivid, and...alive. I could hear things I've never heard before, see things I've never saw, smell things I've never smelled..." I closed my eyes and remembered the first time it happened "during a class I started to hear everything like I had suddenly and unexpectedly had the volume turned up. My ears rang and everything got excruciatingly bright. It was horrible? not to mention that a lot of the people smelled like a garbage dump. I got through half the class before running out and puking in a nearby trashcan."
"But why were those things happening?" Ino asked confusion clearly written on her face.
"I was changing but I had to wait for..." I hesitated not wanting to hint at being a werewolf yet. "Something to trigger it. It took about a month for it to happen but during this I still had to deal with those moments and I started shaking, getting extremely high fevers, and muscle pains. It happened to the point to where I couldn't attend class or even get out of bed." I licked my lips, my hands shaking from nervousness rather than anger. "Sometimes I would have moments where I was fine but I would get this pull, almost an ache in my body and chest to go outside- to the forest. I actually spent a lot of time out there. There just so many things here that gave me a headache like our neighbors" I gave her a small smile remembering our difficult times with them before, when I was going through my pre-change senses and marched over there and interrupted them mid-party to demand them to stop. This altercation ended with several people getting there ass kicked and them never turning on any type of electronic device ever again. "Anyway things started getting worse and worse until the full moon." Ino looked at me even more confused than before.
"Why?"
"Because that night was what all these things lead up to: my change."
"I still don't ge-"
"Ino...that night I fell asleep and had a bizarre dream that I was out in the forest running from this massive wolf. Before I had dreams like this and I'd wake up in cold sweats screaming and sometimes I wouldn't remember where I was and I'd lose track of days and I'd wake up in strange places just strange things...but this time the dream was so real...so vivid like I was having a moment in real life. When I woke up I was laying in the middle of the forest. I looked up and there was a full moon hanging in the sky. Then I felt my body burn, it felt like I was on fire, crushed, and being ripped apart at the same time. I started to tear at my skin it felt like things were crawling into it and after what felt like hours everything stopped. Nothing hurt and everything was clear except it didn't hurt it felt natural normal to be able to hear, see, and smell everything in total darkness in the middle of nowhere. Then I realized that I wasn't human any more...I turned into a wolf" I looked up at Ino and she had her mouth open to say something. I waited and waited but she just opened and closed her mouth. "Pleases say something, anything" I pleaded with her trying to catch her eyes so I could tell how she really felt. She stood up, closed her eyes, and started to rub the bridge of her nose with her thumb and forefinger. After another few moments she locked eyes with me and my heart ripped in half. Her blue eyes were filled with tears; I could see the anguish and frustration in them. She put her hand over her mouth before replying in a shaky voice.
"You're crazy." She covered her mouth to prevent herself from crying out loud. "What happened to you really, please Sakura, I need to know." She put both of her hands on my shoulders and shook me desperately, pleading me to take back what I told her and tell her something more plausible.
"Ino please, you have to believe me." My voice cracked and I could feel the familiar lump building in my throat and sting in my eyes.
"I-I can't" She stated looking at me her eyes hardening.
"I'll show you." I replied frantically trying to get her to believe something I didn't accept until a few months after my change. "Can you please come with me, to the forest?"
She looked at me for awhile weary all I could do was look at her pleading her to trust me. She nodded before she moved toward the front door.
"I'll drive" She stated before I could grab my keys.
"Okay"
Our drive was silent and tense. Ino gripped the steering wheel tightly making her knuckles bone white as she drove us toward a secluded trail we both knew of. Once we got there, we got out and I led her down the trail about a half-mile before turning off of it and walking for another few miles.
"Are we al-"
"We're almost there I want to take you to a clearing up ahead do you see it?" I turned and she shook her head before I realized that it was dark out and she probably couldn't see a few feet ahead of her. "Thank you for trusting me enough to come out here" She nodded her head silently before I continued to hike toward the clearing. We arrived at the opening of the meadow ten minutes later, I hesitated before walking toward the middle of the area. Ino stood at the edge staring at me.
"Well what can I do to prove it to you?"
"Turn into a wolf." I immediately regretted asking her, that was the one thing I refused to do around her. I never wanted to put her in danger and I've had urges to kill people before. Not to mention that there was something about Ino that always put me on edge, in a way that always had me bordered in the middle of changing. Something about her made me and my wolf restless, to a point where I didn't trust myself in wolf form around her. Somewhere deep in my gut I knew what I wanted. The deep instinctive needs of an animal have not been met and were only amplified by me being a werewolf. Needs that had me some nights either trying to cool down or stop from throwing up after a dream. I tried to shake my head of these thoughts as I answered her.
"It's too risky for you to be here." She huffed and pouted adorably even though I know she was legitimately angry.
"Then why did you bring me out here?"
"Just ask me to do something humanly impossible" She raised an eyebrow and opened her mouth before I cut her off. "Except for the wolf thing"
"Well I don't know Sakura I never met a werewolf before." She snapped at me.
"Fine, I'll show you some...stuff then." I looked around wondering what to do. I could feel my muscles start twitching, I was getting restless; my body knew I was finally going to use its full potential soon. I looked at a tree that towered near the clearing and ran full spead toward it. I leaped and landed about ten feet up the tree. I started climbing rapidly to the top of the tree, jumping from branch to branch, clawing, and swinging my way up. The feel of the rough bark against my skin made me growl in delight. After a few seconds I was at the tip of the tree looking over the tops of most of the other trees in the forest. I strained to hear Ino's gasp then she started shouting.
"Sakura be car-" Before she could finish I let go of the trunk, closed my eyes, and pushed off the trunk forcefully with my legs. I could hear the trunk creek and Ino scream. For a few seconds all I could feel and hear was the brisk night air whooshing past me. Naturally, my body re-oriented itself so I was stomach down with my legs and arms spread out to catch my fall. Moments later I opened my eyes just in time to adjust my arms and legs to land on the floor crouched over. I landed with a muted thud; my limbs left craters in the soft malleable earth. I erected myself and immediately looked to Ino and shrugged.
"What do you think?"
"I-I think I believe you now."
Just randomly thought of this one-shot story of Sakura convincing Ino she's a werewolf. Please leave feedback and comments about what you thought and critique.