The Mystery of Love

cooled-but-fired

Another one of my mystery fanfics. Well, maybe it's too corny and too "magulo" but I just can' t think any better. Sorry...Plz. bear with me :)

Chapter 1

The move

"But Mom, I don't want to move to Konoha!"

That was how this all began. Sakura and her parents were moving from the big city to some backwater town in the middle of nowhere.

'My life as a teenager was officially over. I mean, look at what living out here would do to my social life- not to mention my skin!'

As they unpacked the car, Sakura walked through the metal archway that read 'Vale Farm'. Yep, this was where her grandfather had lived, at least until her grandmother had died.

"There's probably no one my age! They're probably all old and… blehh!" She cried in distress, 'what is that gonna do to make my parents rethink this? Nothing, that's what.'

"Now, sweetheart, your grandparents were old, and they had me when I was growing up here," her mother tried to comfort me.

"Yeah, and now we have you. So don't you think anyone else in this town had children?" her dad pitched in. She knew he was trying to help, but this conversation was not making her feel better.

"Yeah, whatever," Sakura mumbled unpacking her things. As she pushed open the front door, her jaw dropped in shock.

"Mom! Dad! Come here, quick!" They ran forward, dropping what they held, and looked in the house.

"What's the matter, honey?" her mom asked in concern, peering into the house. 'Did she not see it? Was she blind? Could she not possibly see the horror that lay right before her eyes?'

"M-mom," Sakura said with the straightest voice she could muster, "there's only one room." Her parents looked at her in wonder, and her dad decided to take a closer look.

"Hmm, honey, why is that?" he asked in genuine confusion, "And there's no kitchen! What kind of house is this?" he said angrily, rounding on Sakura's mother. She only laughed.

"Well, I didn't know you expected our old house all over again. My parents were good friends with the innkeeper, so we ate out every night. I'd expect his son has gotten older by now. Aha, we should go visit them. Maybe as a nice welcome back gift, they'll treat us to dinner tonight!"

"Or maybe he won't remember you and will kick you out when he realizes that you're asking for free food," Sakura said quietly. It was enough to shut her parents up for a minute.

"Are they open on Tuesdays?" her dad asked.

"They're open every day," her mom replied, "well except holidays, of course. This town was very close knit. I think we'll fit in great!" That was her mother, always the optimist.

"Yeah… right," Sakura mumbled. 'I had a very bad feeling about this town, but I was hesitant to tell this to my parents. This move meant so much to them, and I didn't want to bum them out.'

Ten minutes later, all the things were out of the car and piled in the house, boxes and bags were piled up, almost making look as if the house were close to bursting.

"Man, I'm hungry," her dad said. He always thought with his stomach. The doorbell suddenly rang, making Sakura jump. She was so under the impression that this place was a ghost town that it seemed strange that anyone would even be there to visit.

Sakura answered it. There was a tall and burly man with black shiny hair and, umm... thick eyebrows standing at the door. "Hey, uh, the mayor told me that you guys moved here," he said, somewhat quietly. Funny, he looked like a louder guy.

"Uh, yeah. We did. What's it to you?" she said, always the instigator.

"Gai!" her mother squealed happily. Nearly throwing her aside, she gave the tall figure a hug. "Remember me? It's me, Rin!"

It took Gai a minute to register what Sakura's mom had just said, but when he did, he began chatting with her excitedly. Her dad even joined in. 'It was sickening, seeing adults chatting like little children.'

Soon after the introductions, Gai grabbed Sakura's mom by her shoulders and said excitedly, "I'll go tell the town that you're here, and we can all meet at the inn for a feast!" Her parents were delighted.

Sakura, however, was not.

An hour later, they were walking down a little dirt path. 'It was disgusting, how there were no paved roads, and not a car in sight. Even bikes were scarce. All that reassured me of was that the town was so small, EVERYTHING was within walking distance.' Her parents ignored her on the walk into town.

The inn must have been the biggest building in town, save the church, whose steeple was visible from their farm. As Sakura walked in, she saw perhaps thirty people. Leaning over to her mom, Sakura asked quietly, "Is this… the town?" Rin nodded and Sakura heaved a huge sigh of annoyance.

"Welcome back, Rin!" the mayor said happily as he ran forward, "Konoha would like to celebrate your return by treating you all to dinner, which was cooked up by our very own Iruka!" A brownheaded man smiled warmly and waved.

"I trust you know everyone here, Rin?" the mayor asked.

Sakura's mother scanned the waiting crowd and furrowed her brows. "There are a few new faces, mostly the young ones," she laughed, "but I suppose we'll all get to know each other in time!" Her father nudged her mother and indicated that Sakura was still present.

"Huh? Oh, yes! I almost forgot!" she cried, "This is my daughter, Sakura! She was born after I left Konoha, so she'd be about the age of all the other young ladies in the room, I suppose." As Sakura's family was bombarded with questions, she managed to stay far enough out of the way so she was not bothered.

As she edged away from the crowd, she saw a boy standing off to the side. He looked cool and always calm. He had pearl eyes that can melt anyone at sight. "Hey, what's your name?" Sakura started

He looked up at her blankly and smiled a bit while saying the words "Neji. 'I think he is cool, but he may be a little killjoy'.

"Let the feasting begin!" someone cried, and Sakura realized that it was the mayor. He has white hair and a tall mascular figure. Sakura made her way to the tables and sat near her parents. All the tables were tightly packed, and some people had to stand, but as refreshments and plates of food were handed out, the town housewives made their way to her mom.

"Oh, Rin!" one cried, "It's been so long! Remember me?"

"Shizune!" her mom squealed, "Oh, Shizune, dear! How have you been?"

Most of the conversations revolved around what had happened the eighteen odd years that she had been gone, but when Iruka walked up, her mom took the reins of the topics of gossip.

Giving him a hug, she began to talk eagerly to him. Sakura was under the impression that they had been the best of childhood friends. "So… where's your fiance?" she asked excitedly, "I heard that you two were going to be married after I left."

Iruka's face changed to utterly broken in a fraction of a second.

"She, uh, she passed away a few years ago" he said sadly. Sakura's mother looked embarrassed at having brought up such a sore subject. "My adoptive child, Ten ten"

He pointed to a brownheaded girl that was trying to talk to the 'Neji' boy, "She doesn't even remember her. She helps me get through the day. She has her smile, you know..."

'I felt suddenly guilty. I had suddenly realized how significant they all really were. I had been thinking that they all were just hicks with no real lives, but now I saw that even the innkeeper had more of a life than I would have ever hoped to have.'

"How about the other children?" her father asked, with a side-glance at Sakura, "Could you tell us who they are?"

"Oh, that's Hinata," Shizune pointed at a girl with short black hair, "she's Hiashi's…" breaking off, she looked at the other side of the room, "That little cutie is Temari, she runs the town library. Such a quiet girl really; Shikaku let his son move here from the city, his name is Shikamaru. He's very quiet too, as a matter of fact…"

Everyone seemed to go into a stupor as Shizune droned on and on about families and romances, and marriages and even cattle. Sakura just grew sick of it.

"Who's the dork?" she asked, indicating a young man wearing orange jumper and has blonde hair. He looked like, dare I even think it, the Dorkanator. He would have looked better in a white shirt and tie with a pocket protector and braces. He would need to have glasses insanely large, but his eyes were the most beautiful blue Sakura had ever seen. She was not going to say that though, not after calling him a dork.

"That's the mayor's nephew, Naruto… My daughter, Ino, is over there, talking with Ten ten," a woman with black hair that is tied up said sadly, "Their father left to find a desert plant that would cure me. I wish he had stayed, though… We really need him here."

'Oops. Sorry, lady. Just like my mother, I had 'foot-in-mouth' disorder.' Just as Sakura was about to ask about a girl on the other side of the room wearing an apron with a violet dress, her mother asked excitedly, all the while nudging her, "Who's that young man over there?"

All the adults standing around them turned their heads and saw exactly whom she was pointing at. He was tall, dark and handsome. He wore a blue shirt with its collar reaching his chin, and white shorts. His hair was raven and as jet black as his eyes.

"That's Dr. Uchiha's son…" the black haired woman whispered, "Don't you remember him?"

Sakura's mom nodded. "Dr. Uchiha's son? Sasuke? He was only a year old or something when I left here; how old would he be now, Anko? Twenty, nineteen? I remember when he was just a little tyke… I never thought that he would grow to be such a handsome man…" Her father cleared his throat and her mother laughed nervously.

Anko sighed and continued, "Dr. Uchiha… He and his wife died a few years ago, and he took over the family practice. Poor boy, he never really wanted to be a doctor, but his father felt it was in his blood."

"In his blood?" Iruka said darkly, "That man almost named his son 'Doctor'! If you ask me, the Uchihas were a strange bunch… Forced his boy into the practice… what was it he wanted to be?"

"A writer, I believe. Either that or an artist," Shizune chimed in, "I can't really remember. All I know is that it was a real waste of talent. He was only twelve when he was accepted into an art college, but his father wouldn't hear of it! He wanted to go to an art college so badly, and he had even won enough scholarships to make it through four full years, but his father said no and forced him to learn the family practice at home. Then, Sasuke did what any child would do, like what his older brother did, and ran away. They went out and found him on the Mountain's Peak, staring at the sky. Say, didn't Dr. Uchiha start having heart problems when they brought him back?" she asked.

"I think so… he sort of went screwy after awhile, but we all thought everything was perfectly fine, until one morning, we walked into the clinic and saw Sasuke crying over their bodies. He was mumbling over and over about how he couldn't save them…" Iruka mumbled.

"They died from heart attacks, didn't they?" Anko asked.

"Yeah…" another woman chimed in, "We managed to calm Sasuke down and ever since then, he's been a really sweet guy. I don't exactly like him, per se, but he's always been kind to us all. There is something about him, though…"

"Kurenai's got a point…" Anko sighed, "the poor boy has to act as not only a doctor, but as a vet. All the pressure builds up, having everyone's life depend on you like that. Sometimes, the stress really seems to get to him and he goes into a sort of slump; he does his job, but there's an apathetic sort of air around him…"

Kurenai whispered, "It isn't that that bothers me. It's how he reacts to deaths in the town…" They all leaned in nervously, even though Sakura could hear her perfectly.

"Does he act strangely when there's a death?" Sakura's mom asked.

"It isn't that…" Kurenai said quietly, "he doesn't act at all."

"What?" Sakura said before she could stop herself.

"It's as though nothing had happened. It was the same way with his parents. After they died, he didn't really even seem to care. Call me paranoid, but he just irks me. That's all…" Kurenai whispered.

Before Sakura knew what she was even saying, it seemed to burst forth from her chest.

"Don't blame him, I mean, his parents died when he was just a kid. It seems as though you're accusing him of being weird or something, but he's probably just a really nice guy that's trying look for someone to fill the void!" Everyone around them seemed to fall silent after she had finished ranting.

"Well, I sure can tell that she's your girl, Rin!" Iruka laughed nervously. Everyone in the inn, the adults at least, broke into nervous chuckles. Iruka jerked his head towards the other side of the room, all the while looking at her. Sakura looked up towards where he indicated.

Sasuke was looking right at her, his head cocked to the side slightly. Then it hit her: he knew that she was talking about him. she saw him glance edgily at her parents, then the townspeople nearby them. His black eyes narrowed slightly, giving an air of opacity.

She could not move; she could not breathe, nor did it seem any of the others could as well. As Sasuke slid off of his stool and walked towards the door of the inn, everyone inside seemed to avoid any sort of eye contact with him, except for Sakura.

"I'll be leaving now," he said in mock cheerfulness. As he gave the room one final viewing, she saw his eyes meet her own. They crinkled into a warm smile.

"Goodnight," he said quietly. As Sakura raised her hand to wave a goodbye, he walked out the door and slammed it.

It seemed as though the whole room breathed a sigh of relief. As Iruka went to clean up Sasuke's drink, Sakura's mother looked at her reproachfully.

Shizune, however, tucked her hair behind her ear and whispered, "I think he likes you." Sakura tried to smile, but it must have looked like a grimace.

Yahoo! New story, new life! Well, I just wish you understood what I was pointing in the story. Sakura feels uneasy about the whole town and more of that sort. Well, I'd like u to review so I would know if I still have to continue this story or not. Don't hate me, I just feel that no one cares for my story and it's just being a waste :(