Misfortune to happiness
"Is she going to be alright?" asked a male voice.
"Physically… yes," replied the voice that was recognized as Tsunade, "Could you tell me what happened?"
"I don't know what happened…" said the male, "I found her unconscious in the forest."
"Well… I have a slight idea what might have happened," said Tsunade, "but I want to know who was responsible for this. Whoever did this to Sakura; is going to pay."
"What in your medical opinion, do you think happened," asked the male.
"I don't think that it's necessary for you to know," said Tsunade.
"Troublesome," said male. Sakura stirred, "She's waking up Tsunade-sama."
Sakura slowly opened her eyes and saw the figures of Shikamaru and Tsunade surrounding her bed.
"Sakura," said Tsunade, "are you alright? Does it hurt anywhere? Do you have a headache?"
"I'm fine," said Sakura weakly, as she struggled to sit up.
"Here… let me help," offered Shikamaru, as he leaned over to help Sakura sit up.
"No!" Rejected Sakura, as she flinched; and tried to get away from Shikamaru reach. She calmed down before saying, "Sorry…"
"Shikamaru… I think you should go out for a minute," said Tsunade. When Shikamaru left she turned to Sakura, "I have an idea on what happened to you… who did it, Sakura?"
Sakura burst into tears, "I wasn't strong enough… I wasn't strong enough, Tsunade-sensei…"
"Sakura," said Tsunade, as she brought her into a hug, "who was it?"
"It was… Itachi," said Sakura.
Outside the room, Shikamaru was leaning against the wall, completely bored. Tsunade suddenly came out.
"How is she?" asked Shikamaru, who was still leaning against the wall. Tsunade messaged her temple before sighing.
"She's alright," said Tsunade, "but I think that she shouldn't be alone… that's why I'm assigning you to look after her."
"Come again?" said Shikamaru.
"Sakura was raped by Itachi… you are going to move with Sakura into a new apartment," explained Tsunade, "I think that Sakura's life is endanger. I don't know why yet… but it might have to do with her heritage."
"Her heritage?" asked Shikamaru.
"The truth is… Sakura is in fact from Mist Village," said Tsunade, "her parents who died last year, were not her real parents. Her parents passed away the same year Sakura was born and was sent to Leaf Village."
"Sakura's from Mist? Does she know that?" asked Shikamaru with a frown.
"No… that's why I'm telling you, so you can tell her," said Tsunade.
"Why me?" asked Shikamaru. "What about Ino or Naruto?"
"Naruto is on a mission in Sand and won't be coming back until tomorrow I think," said Tsunade, "Ino's in the same mission."
"Hinata?"
"Same mission…"
"Chouji?"
"Same mission…"
"Neji?"
"His whole team's investigating Sound…"
"Right then…" said Shikamaru defeated. "Why not you?"
"I'm too busy with paper work and I'm Hokage here," said Tsunade.
"Yes… I know… sorry," apologised Shikamaru before mumbling, "Troublesome women."
Time skip
"Well this is the place, Sakura," said Shikamaru. Sakura stayed quiet and look around the apartment. It reminded her of Naruto's apartment in, it was just tidier.
"If this is just like Naruto's apartment…," started Shikamaru he went to the bedroom and found… only one king size bed. "How troublesome…"
Shikamaru let out a sigh, "Sakura… you can take the bed, and I'll sleep on the floor."
"There's a couch though," said Sakura quietly.
"It's too troublesome to try dragging it in here," said Shikamaru, "the floor will be just fine."
Sakura looked out the window and watched the sun set.
"You hungry?" asked Shikamaru, "we could go to Ichiraku for dinner. Come on…"
Sakura followed him out and they both headed to Ichiraku, Sakura kept her distance from Shikamaru and trudged slowly behind him. When they arrived they found that no customers were there.
"What do you want to order, Sakura?" Shikamaru asked. Sakura looked blankly at him, he sighed, "two pork ramen please!"
While they were eating… well Shikamaru was eating and Sakura sort of ate.
"Sakura I need to tell you something…" said Shikamaru, "how can I say this… um... Tsunade informed me that… you're not from Leaf village… you're really from Mist… the people that you call parents… they aren't really you're parents…"
Sakura said nothing, they ate in silence and then went back to the apartment. Before Sakura walked past Shikamaru, she stopped and said in a silent voice, "I already knew…"
She then walked into the bedroom. Shikamaru looked after her, after a minute he followed her after locking the front door.
"When?" asked Shikamaru.
"Three years ago… during Team seven's first major mission outside Konoha," said Sakura.
"You knew? How did…?" asked Shikamaru.
"It was an escort mission to Mist, I was protecting the person by myself when it turned into a protection mission, while Kakashi was still training the other two. I followed the subject into the Library, there I found an old history book," interrupted Sakura, her face was completely blank of expression. She got into bed, "When I flicked through it, that's when I found out. I asked them if I could borrow, they said no… instead they let me buy that book. They also gave me a few scrolls…"
Sakura lie in bed then fell asleep. Shikamaru started to prepare his sleeping bag, he too fell asleep.
During the night Shikamaru woke up to Sakura's tossing and turning.
"No… stop… no… stop it…please…" mumbled Sakura as she thrashed around.
Shikamaru shook her, "wake up Sakura! Wake up… you've got to wake up!"
Sakura bolted up… and started to breathe heavily, "It was… it was…"
"Sakura… it's alright, nothings wrong," Shikamaru said, as he pulled Sakura into a hug. "Its fine Sakura… there's no need to tell me… go to sleep…"
"No…" shook Sakura, as she clings onto him. "He's coming back… I know it…"
"Sakura…" said Shikamaru, "it's okay… I won't let anything happen to you… go to sleep."
Shikamaru started to rock Sakura to sleep and thought, 'if you already knew about you're heritage… was that smile you put on a way to mask what you feel? What happened to that happy go lucky girl I always knew?'
Shikamaru woke up to find that Sakura was still in his arms and her head was resting on his chest. He carefully got out of bed trying not to wake Sakura and crept out of the bedroom.
Coincidently, there was a light knock on the door when he reached the kitchen. Shikamaru grumbled about troublesome people and opened the door.
"Tsunade-sama," greeted Shikamaru.
"I have good news and bad news," said Tsunade, "I'll make it quick… the good news is…Itachi is dead. The bad news or could be bad news is that the person who killed him is Sasuke and he's back. Now I'll take my leave and get to my sake… I mean office."
Shikamaru frowned, he found that the Hokage was very out of character. After much deliberation, he came to the conclusion that the sake must have finally gotten into her brain.
"Sakura? Are you awake?" called out Shikamaru as he neared the bedroom, "there's something I have to tell you… it's about… Uchiha?"
Shikamaru came into the bedroom to find Sakura at one end of the room while Sasuke on the other end.
"What are you doing here, Uchiha?" asked Shikamaru in a surprised yet not so surprised tone. "If I didn't know any better I would have thought that you were a stalker."
"I'm here to collect…" said Sasuke, "Sakura… come on… I'm back. I finally got my revenge, and I'm choosing you to revive my clan."
Shikamaru could see that Sakura was uncomfortable. He could see why… Sharingan… it reminded her of Itachi. Not only that, but Sasuke's appearance resembled Itachi in more ways then one. Sakura did the only thing that she could think of… she quickly went into the bathroom and closed the door.
Sasuke was about to go to the bathroom but a figure blocked the door. It was none other than Naruto.
"Sasuke-teme," greeted Naruto with a sneer. "What are you planning to pull? Back for round two in breaking Sakura-Chan's heart?"
Crash
"What was that?" asked Sasuke as he heard sounds come from the bathroom.
"That would be the sound of Sakura's fist breaking the window," said Naruto.
Poof
"And that would be the sound of Sakura using chakra to scale down the building," informed Naruto.
"You've become smarter dobe," said Sasuke with a smirk, as he jumped off the veranda and disappeared from sight.
"Shouldn't we be going after Sakura before Uchiha finds her?" asked Shikamaru, as he looked at the grinning Naruto.
"No need," said Naruto, "Sakura! You could come out now… he's gone."
The bathroom door opened and revealed Sakura. Shikamaru couldn't help but agree with Sasuke for once. Naruto has become smarter.
"I lived with Sakura-Chan for three months, I get use to hearing different sounds that Sakura makes when she's frustrated," said Naruto with a grin, "so Shikamaru, what happened while I was away?"
"Tones," said Shikamaru, as he watched Sakura go back into bed and pulled the blanket over her head.
"Sakura-Chan?" questioned Naruto.
After Shikamaru explained everything to Naruto
"Itachi! I'm going to kill him!" said Naruto.
"Too late," said Shikamaru.
"Huh?"
"Uchiha beat you to it,"
"So that's why he's back. Look after Sakura-Chan for me Shikamaru, you're a good person to help her through this. I've got to go see Hinata at Ichiraku," said Naruto as he waved goodbye and went.
"Che… Troublesome. Sakura, are you hungry?"
There was no answer.
"You can't stay in bed forever…"
Still no reply.
"You may not be hungry, but I am… come on! I'm going to leave you here all by yourself," said Shikamaru. Shikamaru smirked at himself when he saw the bedroom door open. He was greeted with a plastic bag full of instant ramen to the face.
"Troublesome woman…" mumbled Shikamaru, "I wonder if Naruto will notice some of his ramen missing?"
After preparing the ramen he brought one bowl and chopsticks, into the bedroom and left it on the bedside table.
"There's ramen here when you're hungry," said Shikamaru, and he left the room.
Lunch time
Shikamaru came back with a bowl of rice and fried chicken for Sakura, and found that the bowl of Ramen untouched.
"Sakura… I brought you lunch, Naruto came over and brought it here… he said it was one of you're favourite dishes," said Shikamaru. He left her lunch there and picked up the untouched bowl of ramen and walked out. Not before looking over his shoulder to see that Sakura was still under the blankets.
Dinner time
Shikamaru came back again, this time with a plate of dumplings from Tsunade. Again he saw that lunch was still there untouched.
"Sakura… it's very unhealthy skip meals," said Shikamaru, "especially at the rate you're going."
No answer…
"You're starting to worry me, Sakura," said Shikamaru.
Those last words started to repeat themselves in Sakura's head.
Flash Back
two years ago
A flash back of a boy with light purple hair, older than her stood in front of her and took a lethal blow of poisoned needles. He fell back, and Sakura caught him. Sakura was crying, as she tried to heal him.
"You're starting to worry me, Sakura-Chan," said the boy, "I guess that our family reunion was short lived, little sis… I'll say hi to Mum and Dad for you…"
The boy then grinned, "Then I could brag about how I'm the first one in the family to see you and that she's scarily strong… keep… smiling… for… me…"
The boy's body went limb…
end of flash
Sakura started to cry. Shikamaru heard her cry and pulled down the blanket to see if Sakura was alright.
"I wasn't supposed to worry you…" cried Sakura, "I wasn't supposed to worry you… I'm sorry Kuri…"
"Sakura… Sakura…" said Shikamaru, "Come on, it's alright…"
Ten minutes later
After Sakura calmed down, both Shikamaru and Sakura ate dinner. Sakura was eating the dumplings and Shikamaru was eating the rice and fried chicken.
"Who's Kuri?" asked Shikamaru.
"He's… he's… my brother," said Sakura quietly, "but he died protecting me… he was hit with a full attack of poison needles. He died when I was trying to heal him."
Sakura then smiled, "he told me to keep smiling for him… I think it's a family trait… to keep smiling…"
Sakura clenched her fist and slowly blood started to slip through her fingers, "I hate being weak!"
Shikamaru's hand covered hers, "you're not weak, you're already have, as Naruto would say, monster like strength and amazing healing powers."
Sakura looked at him, her eyes were gold, and she gave him a sincere smile, "Thank you, Shikamaru-kun."
"Sakura, you're eyes…" stated Shikamaru. "They've changed colour… gold to be exact."
"Chikyu Mizu…" said Sakura. "The eyes which control water and air, it's at level two."
"What do you mean?" asked Shikamaru.
"Kuri once told me, in our family there's a special eye acquired in some people of the family," explained Sakura, "he said that most times it wouldn't even appear. There are five levels: red for the first level which gives them the power to control earth. Gold is the second level, controlling both earth and water. Blue is earth, water and fire. Silver is earth, fire, water and gravity. The final one is purple which earth, fire, gravity, water and wind. The eyes when changed will permanently stay that way."
"But, you just skipped to level two," said Shikamaru.
"I don't know…" said Sakura desperately, as she held her head and shook it, "I just want a normal life, with normal friends and a normal family… I don't want this… I didn't want to find out that, I from a powerful clan or have changing eyes… I just want an ordinary life, is that too much to ask?"
Shikamaru somehow saw himself in Sakura. He too wanted a normal life; a normal family… marry an ordinary woman, live a normal life and died of old age. But life was troublesome… he was born to be a ninja, do troublesome missions and probably die in a troublesome way.
"Do you like clouds?" asked Shikamaru out of the blue. Sakura looked up to him; her gold eyes met his brown ones.
"Huh?"
"Do you like watching clouds?" clarified Shikamaru.
"I guess," said Sakura slowly, "I do look at them when I'm at the hospital sometimes."
"Well the clouds are hard to see at night," informed Shikamaru as he took her hand and lead her out of the apartment, "But the stars are out and it's a clear sky."
Shikamaru lead her to his usual cloud watching hill, and they sat there looking at the stars. There was a comfortable silence. Neither spoke a word, but that was just fine with them.
"It's pretty," said Sakura quietly.
"Yeah it is," agreed Shikamaru, he turned to her to see her looking up into the sky with the most pleasant smile his seen her have.
"You should smile like that more often," said Shikamaru, Sakura looked blankly at him, "It suits you…"
Sakura smiled at him, "thank you Shikamaru-kun… for doing so much for me…"
Shikamaru smile slightly, "it's alright I guess…"
"I'm going back to the hospital tomorrow," said Sakura, "I think that I've gotten well enough to continue healing people."
"Don't over do it," said Shikamaru, "then it would be troublesome that you have to recover from overworking."
"I won't," reassured Sakura, "I'll just do things how I use to… do what I can."
"Let's go home," said Shikamaru, "get some rest before your big appearance."
"Yes… let's go home," repeated Sakura, she stood up and linked her arm with his as they started to head back to the apartment.
"Tsunade-Shishou?" asked Sakura "Is it alright if I work in the hospital today? Don't worry… I'm better now."
"Are you sure your ready to heal people today?" asked Tsunade seriously.
"Yes," answered Sakura in a serious tone.
"Very well… but don't push yourself," said Tsunade.
"Okay," said Sakura with a smile, Tsunade smiled back.
"Shikamaru, what are you doing here?" asked Sakura.
"Making sure nothing happens to you," said Shikamaru.
"Tsunade-Shishou put you up to it?" asked Sakura. Shikamaru remained silent. Sakura sighed and went to work on some patients.
Though out the whole day, Shikamaru made sure that Sakura did not overdo healing anyone.
Time passed and Shikamaru and Sakura were getting ready to go home.
"Quickly, get him into the emergency room," called out Shizune.
Neji was carried on stretcher past them. He was covered in needles, his face was pale and his breathing was shallow.
Ten-Ten and Lee came after them.
"What happened?" asked Shikamaru.
"We were ambushed and there was an attack of needles heading towards me," said Lee.
"Neji took the hit," said Ten-Ten
They all waited outside the emergency room, Ten-Ten looked nervous and Lee was pacing. Shikamaru just sat there, occasionally looking at the door. He had a strange sense of déjà vu. He started to feel that he was back to the time when he had returned from his first failed mission; to bring back Sasuke.
Sakura sat next to him; she was looking on the ground and was bitting her nails.
Tsunade came out, and everyone looked at her.
She shook her head, "there's nothing I can do… the needles are tipped with a type of poison that I even can distinguish. He only has a few more minutes left… I'm sorry."
A boy with light purple hair, older than her stood in front of her and took a lethal blow of poisoned needles.
Sakura started to have irregular breathing; her eyes were shifting into different colours. It finally stoped, at the colour… purple. No one noticed it, Sakura walked into the emergency room.
"Where's Sakura?" asked Shikamaru. Everyone heard the emergency door open, they turned to only see a flash of Sakura's pink hair.
They rushed through the door to be greeted by a gush of strong wind. If Shikamaru didn't know any better, he would have thought Temari was in there.
Sakura was in the middle of the room, kneeling near Neji. Her hands glowing purple over the needles that still remained on Neji. The needles shot out and dropped into Sakura's hand. Herbs came flying towards her as she caught it and placed it into a bowl and crushed it. Her hands stilled glowed over Neji and slowly liquid started to seep through his wound and hover over Sakura's open palm. She placed it into the bowl; Sakura then filled an injection with it and injected Neji with it. As soon as Sakura took out the injection Neji started to spit out blood and gain consciousness.
"You're… alright," said Sakura, as she fainted on Neji.
"Sakura?" questioned Neji, as he looked at her. He recognised the hair… but the eyes…
"Sakura!" called out Shikamaru, as he rushed over to her, "troublesome woman… you were ordered not to over do it… what do you do? You over do it."
"Shikamaru…" informed Tsunade, "take Sakura home… she is relieved of Medic duty until further notice."
Shikamaru started to carry her home, "You couldn't help yourself could you?"
"Hmm…"
"It reminded you of your brother, huh?" asked Shikamaru, and then he stopped abruptly. "What do you want?"
"You know what I want," said Sasuke. "Hand her over."
"Why do you want her?" asked Shikamaru, "Why her?"
"To revive my clan," said Sasuke, "because she said that she loves me."
"Do you love her?"
"She will revive my clan."
"He's Orochimaru…" whispered Sakura, as she started to stir.
"Orochimaru!" called out Naruto, "Obaa-chan said you took over Sasuke-teme's body!"
Orochimaru was surrounded by Anbu. He was about to move but he couldn't, Shikamaru had done his Shadow technique. Then Tsunade turned up and took him away…
Shikamaru arrived home, and placed Sakura in bed and then he was about to leave.
"Don't go," whimpered Sakura, as she tugged on his hand.
He stood there looking unsure, but then gave in and laid next to her in bed. He saw that she was fast asleep but her deadly grip of hers did not loosen. Soon enough he too fell asleep.
Shikamaru was the first to wake up. He found that during the time of their rest they had somehow shifted positions. Sakura's head was rested on his arm and her face very close to his, one arm was found to be on his chest. She looked so peaceful, so innocent.
Sakura slowly opened her eyes to find a pair of brown eyes looking at her. She smiled at him.
"Good morning, Shika-kun," said Sakura.
Shikamaru smiled back for some reason, "Good morning, Sakura."
Days pasted and most of the days were spent cloud watching. Sakura would occasionally say what she thought the clouds looked like and Shikamaru would just smile and continue watching the clouds.
Even though Sakura acted so childish, Shikamaru didn't blame her. Her whole life she was teased and picked on, she grew up and began to act mature at an early age. Shikamaru saw her childish behaviour as an act to live a juvenile life that she was missing in her life.
Shikamaru found that he liked her company; she didn't annoy him like some others did, nor did she get on his nerves by nagging him about how lazy it is or how boring cloud watching was.
Sakura once again, laid on his arm and decided to take an afternoon nap on his arm.
"I don't know what this feeling is but I think I'm falling for you," said Shikamaru, thinking that Sakura was asleep.
"Love you too Shika-kun," said Sakura with a smile.
Shikamaru smiled, as planted a kiss on the top of her head. Maybe not all women are troublesome. Just the troublesome one's are.
well that's one story done! yay! plz review... and comment... and thanks for reading!