::PROLOGUE – Haruno Sakura::
She made her way gracefully towards the balcony, while her taciturn jadeite hues gazed lackadaisically into the starry velvet horizon feeling the effervescence of the never sleeping coquettish Italian city, bristling with energy and high spirits, despite the late hour.
Ravenna always had an impressive mysterious fusion of a traditional, romantic and elegant touch that made one`s pulse run zealously and his spirit dance along its symphony and it looked particularly attractive at night time, the exquisite young woman inwardly decided.
The crisp cool wind lulled her into the distant lone beauty of the starry night scenery of the Italian city, allowing Sakura to relax and revel into the tumult of its colors and music and she had to admit that the fascination of the never sleeping nightlife helped her tame down the coldness of her lonely room; a quietude which spoke the same language as her steel heart and screaming into Sakura`s mind that she too needed someone to show her affection, to whisper tender words into her eardrums, to caress her lustrous coral locks when she was sleeping, to hold her firmly into strong arms when she slept, to kiss her passionately against her lips.
One can never have everything in his life but it was exactly those things that she could have to bring completion and grant her felicity what kept her trapped into an illusory realm of an idyllic romance, albeit Sakura was hardly a contemplative woman waiting and searching desperately for the one to show his face.
And that was the reason why she had quite a hard time in keeping up with Karin`s steamy escapades; her flamboyant attitude and the stories that she was telling in details making Sakura feel the need to hide under her bed in shame, but she loved her friend exactly for her independent forthright attitude, the zeal for living her life at its fullest and her nonchalance, unlike Sakura who was more traditional in both beauty and preserving modesty.
Her unparalleled diaphanous elegance enhanced her refined manners and gracious moves as she propelled her form on the rattan chair of her balcony, enjoying the floral perfume of the gentle summer zephyr blowing through her feather like light caramel long tresses, making the subtle hints of pastel pink blended into her unique locks shimmer like a bride`s veil.
Entwining her nude gazelle legs together placing a pink cute hand-made Diary onto her lap, darting her vitreous jadeite hues to the neatly word written in golden glitter letters –Diary–Sakura flipped the antique sepia designed empty pages aimlessly, deciding to linger on the very first blank one, when a subtle crease on her face made her frown as no figments were ruminating into her brain.
What would a woman write on the first entry of her Diary? Sakura vaguely wondered trying to ponder over the underneath motive that Karin might have had when deciding to offer her a diary as a birthday gift and knowing that her sworn sister did nothing on a whim always planning ahead even if she seemed superficial and air headed, but she could not reach a logical conclusion.
Her life was coated in luxury and fame all right, but at the same time, it was pretty vapid and crisp since Sakura was a young single agent living on the swell of glory as a CIA Agent with only a handful of close people that she could trust with her life and beyond, so there was nothing poetic or descriptive in the way she lived her life –one to be mentioned into a diary.
My story belongs to the waves –it comes rolling in foamy spheres brushing over the shoreline just to disappear into the sea like it has never been there before…
"I have not even started this stupid mission and it is already taking a toll on me... just great." Her soft bell like voice musically echoed through the stillness of her lonely spacious home and she was aware of the fact that she was having a monologue addressing to the lonely silent walls around her, but she did not care.
Working for the notorious CIA Office –the Sound– implied a certain dosage of insanity, one that had a great influence over the agents' ability to complete their life-threatening or unconventional missions with so much skill and ardor and Sakura was no exception; loneliness was both the greatest bliss and the most heart-jerking proof of her inner demons.
The lady shifted her body on the cozy piece of furniture, searching for a more comfortable position making the expensive lace and silk fabric of her embroidered with blossom petals, red phoenix birds and red Chinese motifs nightgown uncover the porcelain skin of her creamy toned thighs. She touched the pages with the tip of her pen, letting her thoughts materialize as words, written in a messy calligraphy.
"Oh well... better make the best of my mission... can't have Papa disappointed on me."
She refused to look at Uchiha Sasuke`s glossy photograph resting under the pile of papers attached to her mission file because she didn't want to start her task with a biased preconception about a man that she has never met before, simply because of his juicy reputation.
Albeit he was overly praised for his genius business skills and unmistakable intuition into the art of negotiation, it was undeniably that he was also notorious for his fugitive adventures with flamboyant ladies squirming around him twenty four seven and hoping to become the next Mrs. Uchiha Sasuke.
That was a piece of gossip that could only be considered hot material for someone with Karin`s penchant for the latest celebrity gossip but not someone as meticulous, down to earth, serious and independent as the stoic Sakura Haruno.
She was hardly a digger for good looking men with infinite amount of money overflowing into their bank accounts and whose brazen can only be topped by their splendiferous attitude towards the ones they deemed as inferior in social status to them; Sakura has never forgotten where has she came from –the slums of the society– and thus she loathed the crème de la crème of the society for mistakenly considering that they were entitled everything simply because they had money.
That arrogance was most likely latched to Uchiha Sasuke`s shadow as well –especially him whose name was as famous as his apparently exquisite Adonis looks.
Only the mere thought of interacting with someone with such a repulsive concept about life in general and superficial sense of arts and aesthetics was revolting to Sakura, but she had no choice since she has been asked to pass as a maid and work undercover to protect him and his company from an elite society which had the power to change the face of the world as they knew it.
Alarmingly enough, Lorane has always been successful in its precise flawlessly executed plans and whatever tortuous machination they were concocting, judging from the fact that they were already master puppeteers pulling the strings of the economy from the shadows and infiltrating into almost all the key governments and organizations, it was definitely serious business –one that CIA could no longer ignore.
Lorane, as the self–proclaimed avatar of the Freemasonry, was rapidly becoming too strong, too resourceful and too hermetic to be penetrated from the inside so any leak of information was as utopic as their ambitions were, and yet they proved to be mischievous, calculated and precise in their thirst for power and dominance.
In reality, Haruno Sakura was overly praised for everything that her agent skills compelled –her implacable wisdom, the brilliant intelligence and strategic mind, the phlegmatic conniption which made grown up adults shy away from her, the unsurpassed intangible grace and the aura of noblesse exuding from the nonchalant and refined manners, the superior combat skills.
But at the same time she was the paramount of a woman`s enigmatic duality and it was exactly that unexplored and unexploited ineffable the thing that made Sakura irresistible in the other people`s eyes.
But nonetheless, she remained the same trustworthy, meticulous girl that she always been, without becoming conceited and rude towards the others. She worked so hard to reach to this point and deserved every single word of praise, albeit she was never looking for any confirmation from the others.
Deep inside and secluded into the vault of her chest, her genuine heart was shrouded –so fragile and breakable and begging to be found and adored by someone.
It was only within the privacy of her own home that Sakura was allowing herself to fall prey to the unmistakable sound of her solitude trapped into every slow tick of the pendulum`s swings, reminding her of how lonely she was.
She bitterly surmised that the condition of the world must be very precarious if Orochimaru was willing to assess his best CIA agent with an undercover mission to protect Uchiha Sasuke –the last remaining barrier in Lorane`s way to conquer the world and overrule the economy– and albeit it looked like the type of mission that a regular special agent like an Akatsuki would take, the fact that such a hermetic exclusivist society affiliated to the Freemasonry was concocting a Delphic strategy to ensure its domination, made the situation to re more pressing and thus the other notorious CIA Office –Orochimaru`s Sound
Office– must get entangled and no one was more versatile and prolific than Sakura Haruno.
…Dear my journal…
...My name is Sakura… the silvery Parker pen was resting on her fumbling fingers as no figment of what should she fill those blank pages with churned into Sakura`s mind simply because she found the notion of spilling her inner tumult on a piece of paper that only she would know of was plainly juvenile and pointless.
She had a handful of really close friends like Uzumaki Karin, Akasuna Sasori and her tutors and dearest mentors which have become more than simple teachers and somehow fitted into the avatars of a family in the presence of Orochimaru, his wife Anko Mitarashi and Senju Tsunade, but she did not feel the need to write about something so trivia into a diary.
So much waste of missives, words and unspoken phrases wasted into the cool zephyr of the night that Sakura found herself vanquished by something so simple and yet it only stood as a cruel memento that her private life was in complete antithesis to how her agent life was.
Haruno Sakura and Athena of the Sound were polarized avatars belonging to the same body but their eyes and souls were reflecting a different hue of that world; one was the implacable smooth CIA agent while the other one was the introvert, rather demure and lonely young orphan, and to keep a balance between the two of them, Sakura relied on her best friend Karin and the patriarch figure Orochimaru, knowing that those were the people who knew her soul like no other and thus she was not forced to fake her emotions in front of them, like she did in every other context.
How shall I begin... how does my story begin?
There were people who taught me about life, but they didn't teach me about warmth. They told me that I am free to spread my wings and fly, but I am not aware of any direction. And love doesn't come with any address.
I don't have a perfect life like everyone would think no… far from it… from my point of view, it is merely a mission that I have to carry on diligently without compromises and mistakes but… what is life supposed to be like anyways?
What is the solstice of life`s most sublime meaning? What was the point of people`s ardent endeavor to live it at its fullest when everything is ephemeral and bound to come to an implacable end one day?
What is the point in clinging to every endearing word when everything around me is only a honey coated sophistic veneering with no genuine kernel?
...living… running… searching for that something to make me feel… complete… desired… adored maybe?
People are such feeble mindless creatures; always running and clinging to affection, to ardent whispers, to everything that they cannot have and yet nothing feels sufficient, nothing will add to that void inside their chest.
We keep on looking back to how we used to be in the past and trying desperately to deny the similarities because they serve as the solid token of the fact that we weren`t capable to surpass our past selves and become better persons.
A custom made pink and white laptop was placed on the small glass coffee table in front of her, along with a thick file she has just been given and a crystal glass of velvety honey imported Chateau d'Yquem wine in a rich claret consistency.
The influence of her dearest people was vividly reflecting through her now recherché mannerism, elegance, finesse and cultivation and every iota of her uncivilized rudimentary behavior from her torturous dark stained past has been secluded into a dusty shelf inside her savvy mind, because the aristocrat young woman that Sakura has become bore no earmark of her previous past self, except for the immeasurable feeling of solitude and emptiness and the humble and committed attitude towards her dear ones.
But instead of submerging herself into a tear-jerking daunting melancholy and depression, Sakura has quenched that loneliness by focusing solely on honing her agent skills rapidly tasting the sweetness of glory, notoriety and perfection on the tip of her tongue, when she became a supreme CIA agent and Orochimaru`s most trusted assassin; she only took the riskiest jobs and the most lethal unconventional missions –along with her equally prodigious but nutty comrades.
As she was being immersed into studying the depths of the gruesome mission that Orochimaru entrusted her with, Sakura was occasionally delighting her senses with the rich fragrance of the sweet honey-like grapes beverage and Belgian pralines in her favorite combination, throwing knowing glances over the flashing screen and the constantly beeping of her phone, not quite in the mood to hear her friends rambling about how unfortunate the undercover mission she has been given was.
If Uzumaki Karin would not stop her fits of jealousy regarding the 'sexy specimen' –like she so superficially called him– she was supposed to keep an eye of, then the other eccentric CIA colleague of hers, Hidan was probably working on a novel of her unavoidable embarrassment.
Her boss has personally made sure she was never going to hear the end of her friends` or rivals' mockery, handpicking her attire, even going as far as to call the horrid looking pink wig stylish, smirking down at her misfortune. Damn sadistic serpent freak… Orochimaru had an unparalleled dark sense of humor and thus she was almost always the target of her friends` perverted jokes.
And hearing Hidan`s masochistic debauched jokes about her posing as a maid and going into a mission to coquet a rich bachelor, roleplaying and even bondage with that horrible man nearly made her kill the Janshinist on the spot –and he would have loved it.
Maybe she should consider her own threat and head towards an exotic island, confined from the nagging eyes and far away from the man she had to guard. His name alone made all the caviar and Tiramisu she had earlier come back into her throat.
A tiny crystal drop of salty liquid that pooled at the corner of her shimmering emerald eyes rolled down her delicate cheek, tracing her pearl white smooth face, not able to stop the small tremors of her lean fingers, when she reminisced the harsh years she had to endure as a young girl, and even though those times were long buried deep inside the pits of her mind, they were still haunting her dreams and plagued her hours of restless nights.
"Heh... would you just look at me Isaribi... here I am crying again when I promised to be unswerving and toughen up." She brought the back of her hand towards her moist orbs and wiped away the angry tears, trying to envision the gentle face of her beloved deceased childhood friend. "I am such a crybaby, aren't I?"
Isaribi was Sakura`s only friend and sister when she lived into the seclusion of an orphanage, enduring those torturous years of pain together, becoming inseparable and depending on each other and Sakura will never forget her.
It was only into the seclusion of her home that Sakura allowed herself to be so weak and display human emotions because once she garbed into the clothes of an agent, then her personality voltefaced completely and she grew into a splendid, ruthless, conniving and skilled Sound assassin; one that was shimmering in beauty and intellect and never failed a single mission before no matter how potentially dangerous it was.
And plus, she was mentally living her last days of quietude and serenity before the upcoming of her apprehensive horrendous mission which was in exact 4 hours and 30 minutes and Sakura felt bile raise her throat bristling in repugnance upon realizing that she will have to pose as submissive and respectful to a male that she wanted nothing more than to pummel back into the last four centuries.
Why was so much acrimony sizzling inside her chest at the mere idea of posing as a maid for Uchiha Sasuke which made Sakura seething on the inside, one that she could not conceptually explain, but she felt it physically; something about their inevitable meeting made her –dare she say– uneasy, restless, fidgety like she has known this man from before, albeit she has never met him.
Someday… somewhere… maybe in another time, a paralleled existence…
Rubbing her overtired glossy orbs with the back of her palms, Sakura slammed the diary that she filled with half of a page with a rasped calligraphy on the coffee table, fine-combing her lustrous tresses backwards, staring down her lap and trying to recollect her scattered thoughts. "I think I will go insane if I keep on thinking about that pompous prick, damn him..."
What was that fugitive feeling that has just passed her by and made the ticks in her steady heart almost lose the race with the time, skipping a beat and making her feel the familiar sensation of oxygen being stuck halfway her windpipe, unable to breathe normally?
In fact, if she should be honest to herself Sakura could not limn all those myriads of emotions that were amassed into the pits of her belly upon thinking about her upcoming mission and Sasuke Uchiha –as a simple man and not one of the world`s wealthiest billionaires– and something... something about his name in association with his person made Sakura feel a strange connectedness with him, which was ridiculous and chimerical since she has not even bothered to gaze at the picture attached to his file, not interested in anything related to him; not even the juicy details from the glossy magazines and the hot gossip about him that Karin was trying to fill her up with, in vain.
"Nah... I am just being tired, paranoid and fidgety about a long term mission in another country, that`s all. There is absolutely not a single chance for me to feel anything else for that unscrupulous man than disdain."
Sakura knew that she will probably be forced to stick to Uchiha for as long as it was mandatory and that was until Lorane was being annihilated, so it could have been years, months or minutes –an apocalyptic scenario that she did not want to envision.
"I should consider myself lucky that Papa hasn`t asked me to pose as his girlfriend instead. Oh the horror..." Albeit she knew that seduction missions were Karin`s specialty, it wouldn`t have been surprising if Orochimaru would have asked her to coquet Uchiha Sasuke rather than guard him from the shadows, so she should consider herself lucky that she was a maid.
The only thought-provoking trivia about Sasuke was his international corporation and Lorane`s ambition to make it go bankrupt considering the heavy influence that it had on the world's economy, hence the reason why someone with the zeal of taking over the world would want to bring him down and from what Sakura has grasped from Uchiha`s file, albeit his private life was questionable and scandalous, his skills as a businessmen were unrivaled; he was touted to be a versatile modern genius.
Gazing at the spying tools and the clothes she would need to garb herself with and fit into the role of an orphan maid coming from the bottom of the chain and reenact parts of her darkest moments in life made her stomach churn and fill with constricting knots.
It has been such a long time since she abandoned the lifestyle of a hobo and embraced a ritzy life similar to the one that Uchiha himself lived into in the company of Orochimaru, Tsunade, Karin and the rest of the CIA agents and that was one of the reasons why this particular mission, albeit it was not one of the most life-threatening that she has ever completed, challenged her psychologically because it twisted the knife into her scars for making her remember what she was trying desperate to forget.
Sasuke was reducing her to the past Sakura by being forced to pose as a poor obsequious woman, far from the fine lady that she has become during her training years into the CIA.
Not only the young agent had to pass unnoticed into the high society, consisting of luxury people she loathed for their shallow minds and narrow vision or lack of tact and attitude, but the man she had to pose as commoner for was a reputed philanderer, notorious among the beau monde for his taste stunning women that fitted into the archetypes of fashion model beauty and style, and that made Sakura snort inelegantly imagining how much of an illusory Sasuke Uchiha`s life was as it was sprinkled with characters which were equally empty on the inside and no amount of money would make up for the lack of finesse and cultivation of their characters.
Sakura knew exactly what it was like to nurture the feeling of being surrounded by exquisite people and luxuries and yet not to be capable to grasp the concept of genuine fulfillment because at the end of the day, feelings and sentiments which were supposed to overflow the void in her heart collided upon her shoulders like the heaviness of her solitary nights, but she will not be sympathetic towards Uchiha Sasuke who was probably just one of the multitude of superficial rich bachelors and worthy of no real admiration and acclamation.
...Maybe that I too fall into the cliché category of the narcotized people who are mere prisoners of their own limitations; a glass puppet with invisible ropes maneuvered by the Destiny`s skillful puppeteer on this Grand Play that we call Destiny...
A quick peek at the pendulum in her living room showed her no mercy, announcing the unholy hour of 4 a.m, finding the agent right in the middle of another insomnia and depressive state. It came with being an agent and an assassin, she tried to reason.
'It is because you have no one to hold you tight when you sleep and kiss you good night' Her inner argued.
"This is so not the case." She stopped filling in the pages of the journal she was gripping, considering if she should have spent the night at her friend's place like she often did. "I have Karin. A single beep and she is going to come here in her fancy car with tears burning along the streets."
'It is not that kind of warmth you desire. Only a man can place protectiveness and reassurance inside your void heart. You know it.'
"Just shut up, will you? Fuck, I am so tired!" She took another sip of wine, mentally cursing the trembling hand for sipping a drop down her full heart shaped lips, and right on the sheets. She was careless.
And the latest news channels were all showing the same economic issues the world was facing, that threatened to throw all the countries into another crises as a solid proof that Lorane was not sleeping on the contrary, the collapse was imminent and she knew it all too well, hence the urgency of her mission and the tremendous importance.
Long lashed viridian irises flew on the laptop, eying the plane ticket she has booked, checking the time of departure and name of the airport. She had to go by car to the next city, she observed.
Another email coming from the Sound's Otokage Orochimaru provided her additional information of the upcoming mission and a small guide of basic Japanese. She rolled her eyes at that shaking her head in disagreement and pure vexation.
No matter how much she tried to learn Sasuke`s native language it just wouldn't stick to her.
Though, Sakura always admired and cherished the paternal figure in her life for his caring nature, despite his stoic attitude and worry for her wellbeing. He has been there for her whenever she needed, since they first met. Just like his wife and his college friend and colleague Tsunade.
"Mm... I should at least learn how to properly ask for directions. I heard that taking the metro in Tokyo could be quite the adventure... good thing my dear future boss speaks English." In fact, it looked like he was fluent in more than four foreign languages and that particular trivia should have rung a bell into her brain and click to the button of her alertness, but Sakura put it past the fact that he was a famous businessman probably travelling around the world frequently, thus he learned them easier by coming in contact with his business partners.
…Killing someone just because it is your mission… without questioning, without knowing it throws you into a welcoming oblivion and only and after you get used to the smell of blood on your hands… or katana… it becomes a second nature and you start to forgive yourself for the sins you so willingly chose to commit…
She has been reminded by the first time she killed someone and the crimson blood staining her hands was always there, never washing up completely, along with the pungent smell of a life leaking out of the corpses.
But she got used to the idea pretty soon, when she realized that her mentors, the ones that taught her how to taint her hands, have been her saviors. The ones that gave her an identity, a shelter and a new goal in life.
Peace.
...darkness might just be the only way that I know to stay alive and to preserve whatever feeling I might have left into my grieving heart, because feeling nothingness is another form of feeling something. I like to think that emptiness is the easiest feeling in the world because it does not bear the burden of having to seek for another one to share it…
...people call me Sakura 'Athena' Haruno… and I am an elite agent and assassin… and, as a solid proof of the fact that, at a certain point of life, Destiny decided to test us like persons and help us reconsider our priorities and the others` value, I have been assessed with the toughest mission of all: help the other CIA office and our sole reputed rivals-the Akatsuki-to prevent the most powerful Freemasonry organization take control over the world: The Lorane…
…Not only that, but I have to protect a man that I absolutely despise with my very being for embodying the archetype of everything I came to loathe; but what I hate the most about Uchiha Sasuke is the fact that I feel this unexplainable impulse to get close to him and find out who he is behind the mask, in addition to my growing acrimony towards him and the world he lives in…
...But no matter what unexplainable feeble images I have with a man I have never met before, there is nothing in the world that can make me feel anything else for him except darkness and hatred…
…How am I supposed to get close to a man who seemingly has everything in his life and is accustomed to have people -mostly gorgeous women- swarm around him, when I am nothing but incredulous and lonely by nature? We are completely antithetic, two opposing personalities and thus I feel that we are going to have many clashes in the future -mission or not...
Orochimaru probably had a good laugh about imagining Sakura Haruno –the independent disquisitive unyielding young woman and Tsunade`s younger replica– having to pretend that she was servile and not hostile; she will never ever permit anyone to treat her like a no one and act accordingly, no way and that was the reason why they all knew that Sakura Haruno will not accept anything rude or harsh from Uchiha Sasuke, no matter the reason for her approaching him –to be his maid.
She will most likely be the type of maid that is going to stun and make Sasuke fret in her presence and that was not only because of her contradicting eloquence and the knowledge of high class etiquette, but also because she will have a hard time concealing her inborn beauty and elegance from a notorious player.
If there was someone among the CIA that has been following Lorane`s every step and had deep knowledge about their ideology and tendencies, it was the Sound Office –CIA`s darkest gloomy Office and Akatsuki`s only rival– which was focused on missions involving the unconventional and occult and Lorane, as the Leader of the Freemasonry, was digging deeper into the palpable empirical ideals searching for mystique powers buried into the sand of time.
They were the first to be given missions involving the most powerful organizations, such as the Freemasonry. Akatsuki only provided necessary occasionally back up.
They had deep insight of apparently insignificant details about them, that made it easier for them to be identified, like the well-known gold and red ruby ring which represented power and embodied pain and the fearsome pair of compasses, as their symbol.
They were on the move, scheming, planning, plotting and Sakura was well aware of it. And that was precisely why she didn't turn down the mission. Lives of millions depended on her success –or failure.
And its very existence would have remained suspended on a myth if a member wouldn`t have betrayed the Order 30 years ago and tell the CIA everything he knew about the Lorane and the Freemasonry, stealing one of their most sacred precious books including top secret information about the hierarchy, the structure, their funding and their purpose and that brave man was Jirayia –one of the Sannin and Tsunade `s current fiancé.
She entertained the idea of checking her luggage for the millionth time, but decided against. She didn't want paranoia to lead her out of the home she was leaving, for that would do her no good.
In two hours, she was supposed to take her leave and Sakura already missed the familiar scent of her friend's fruity perfume whenever they met for shopping, or Anko's famous almond and chocolate biscuits she served along with hot milk pepper chocolate.
...In order to save the world from total annihilation and put an end to Lorane` supremacy, I need to protect the sole and the most powerful business heir left uncorrupted by their ambitions and the one the Lorane is planning to annihilate –Sasuke Uchiha- a man I despise, loathe and will ever feel anything for except for hatred…
Dear my journal…
…My name is Haruno Sakura currently touted as the finest CIA Agent working under my Papa`s strict tutelage and I have been entrusted the top secret mission: protect the irresistible rich bachelor Uchiha Sasuke from Lorane –an exclusivist elite branch of the Freemasonry– and impede it to conquer the world, and so does my story begin… this is how everything begins...
...as his personal maid.