The Fool
Upwards: Innocence, New Beginnings, Free Spirit
Reverse: Recklessness, Inconsideration
The fool inspires courage due to his understanding that every day is a chance to open up new areas of your life, with that comes a mixture of anticipation, wonder, awe, and curiosity.
Thump.
The container hits the counter top loudly, frozen solid. Smooth hands attempt to pry the lid from the ice cream carton, the hardness of the contents making it take quite an effort.
"Come on you son of a bitch," Sakura mutters to herself.
After more of the struggle and painstaking work of slender fingers, the lid gives way from the bottom of the container and the eighteen-year-old smiles greedily at her soon to be dessert. She grabs a spoon and begins stabbing the chocolaty treat only to be met with more frustration at the lack of the solid block giving way.
"Oh come on!" she exclaims, glaring at the ice cream and running irritated fingers through her pink hair.
Before she realizes what is happening, blue flames burst from the container, causing her to jump back and whack her head on the cabinets behind her.
"Mom!" Sakura yells, terrified by the demonic sweet. She's in shock, her brain unable to grasp the concept of a normal ice cream container undergoing spontaneous combustion. She stares at the dancing blue flames as the air turns rancid with the smell of burning sugar.
"Sakura? What's going on?" her mom calls from down the hall. "Oh my god!" Mebuki Haruno rushes into the kitchen with a look of pure horror on her face and throws the burning container into the nearby sink, dosing the flames in water.
"I'm sorry, I don't know what happened" Sakura begins muttering, still wide-eyed as she spies the scorched remains. "I'm so sorry, I don't know..."
"Sakura," her mother begins, resting calming hands on her daughter's petite shoulders, "Sak, calm down honey." She pauses for a moment, allowing her daughter to catch her breath. "Your father and I have something to tell you."
"Alright," a busty woman begins as she sets a large stack of cards on the table. "What you see before you is a deck of tarot cards that date back to the beginning of our kind-"
"Tsunade," the only other occupant of the room, a boy, interrupts, "is it really necessary to give me the entire introduction for a second time."
"It's tradition, Sasuke," she responds sympathetically, after all it is his second time facing the cards in under a year.
Sasuke's eyes narrow in annoyance, "Can we just hurry this up," he mutters impatiently, this is the last place he wants to be right now. The room is stuffy and the supply of lit candles is making him uncomfortably warm.
Tsunade rises from her chair, her honey-colored eyes burning with rage. Her sympathy only lasts to a certain extent, especially when disrespect for the traditions of their people is a factor.
"You listen here, Uchiha! Don't you dare think for one moment that you are the only one to have lost your Match." As her voice rises, so does the height of the flames behind her. "You are by far not the only one to have a tragic past in this academy and if you forget that for even a moment, I will personally make sure you're stuck cleaning up after conjuring class for the rest of the time you remain here."
Sasuke's face stays passive, his own thoughts buzzing with the events of the past couple weeks.
Before Tsunade can explode over his lack of resentment - moody teenagers will be the death of her - the door to the room cracks open and a man with long, dark hair pokes his head in.
"Lady Tsunade there is a woman on the phone," he states.
"I'll deal with it later," Tsunade snaps, her calm demeanor far gone. The past couple of weeks have been nothing but slews of phone calls questioning her about the unraveling of recent events.
"It's about her daughter being a potential candidate," he continues "As Hokage, you should go speak with her; I'll observe young Sasuke for you."
Tsunade takes a deep inhale before shooting one last glare at the stoic teenager and turning to the new occupant. "Thank you, Orochimaru."
She rises from her seat and switches places with the snake-like professor. The moment the door closes behind the departed woman, Orochimaru leans towards the boy, a wicked grin on his face.
"Now, Sasuke, I assume you know what to do," he gestures towards the deck of cards, "Concentrate."
It takes only a moment for the deck of cards to burst from the neat stack and flutter around the room as the boy vanishes without a trace.
The rumble of the train moving on its tracks jostles Sakura slightly as she flips through the packet that her mother had given her. Her mind rushes with the events of the past couple of days, her brain in information overload as the once thought impossible becomes her reality.
"It runs in the family and we always hoped that it would skip your generation like it did mine," Mebuki had told her daughter, once she had begun to calm down after the ice cream incident. "Konoha's Academy for the Magically Gifted is where many others of the Haruno family attended. They'll teach you what this all means and how to control it."
So, here she is flipping through the embellished card paper, reading the necessary information as she travels halfway across the country to her new school.
The flyer is filled with pictures of teenagers looking studious, with cheesy smiles on their faces as they do the simplest tasks. Frankly, it looks like any other expensive prep school flyer. She shudders thinking of how the kids in the pictures could probably turn her into a frog, or something like that. She is still learning the details of her new found abilities, but from what she's gathered so far, there is very little that magic cannot do.
She turns to the course listing within the pamphlet and that is where the mundanity of it ends. It lists classes that are perfectly normal: math, English, cooking, but then a few that are peculiar looking like conjuring, partner magic, basic shape shifting.
Shape-shifting? Are you serious? I feel like I'm being thrown into a loony bin.
She tries to imagine what situation would warrant her changing into an animal when the train lurches to a halt. She quickly stuffs the packet into her red backpack and retrieves the simple black duffle bag from the overhead container. Carefully maneuvering through the narrow walkways, she steps off the train, the light load making it easy to jump down the narrow steps onto the platform.
Barely two steps on the cement, a woman with cropped brown hair rushes up to her, taking the larger bag.
"You must be Sakura Haruno," she says before making a motion with her hands that sends the luggage into oblivion. The woman ignores Sakura's panicked facial expression as the girl looks around to make sure nobody else on the platform noticed the unnatural disappearance of the bag. Once Sakura realizes nobody acknowledged the strange behavior she nods her head slowly, trying to act like what just occurred was no big deal. This is her world now, time to act like she is a part of it.
"My name's Shizune and I'm the handler responsible for the girls at KA," she informs her before extending a hand to shake. Sakura hesitates and inspects the woman, she certainly doesn't look like a witch. Rather, her underwhelming assemble of a green dress and dark leggings gives off the vibe of a librarian of some sort.
Sensing that this woman is not somebody to be threatened by, Sakura reaches forward and gently grabs the woman's palm, only to be met with a feeling of the wind getting knocked out of her. Her eyes force shut and she gasps, trying to regain the oxygen she felt she lost. Once she musters the courage to open her eyes, she finds herself standing in a large entry hall. The ceiling rises high with an impressive crystal chandelier hanging down and the surrounding walls don a brilliant white.
Emerald eyes widen as her brain tries to process what just happened. One second she was on the train platform and now she's standing in the center of a circle drawn on the floor in what appears to be chalk. Her stomach begins churning as her head swims with dizziness.
"Take a couple of deep breaths, teleportation can jostle you."
Sakura's head whips around to locate the speaker. She finds a masked man with spikey silver hair, hands comfortably resting on Shizune's shoulders.
"Hello," he greets, the outline of a small smile forming beneath a mask that covers the whole bottom half of his face, "I'm Kakashi Hatake, the handler for the boys here."
"Um, uh huh" Sakura nods her head dumbly, not really digesting his words as Shizune seemed to have forgotten to teleport Sakura's commonsense. She eyes their proximity and familiar touches warily, feeling as though she's intruding upon something.
"Well," Shizune begins as she wiggles out of Kakashi's grasp, a blush appearing on her cheeks at Sakura's scrutinizing. The girl just continues to gape at the expansive foyer around her, as well as the rune-like shapes on the floor around her. Shizune clears her throat to ease some of the awkwardness of the situation and continues speaking. "Your bag is up in your room, along with your new roommate who will take you to Lady Tsunade's office. Just go up these stairs, continue down the hall a ways, and it's the first door to the right."
Hesitantly, Sakura moves away from the couple, half-expecting to be whisked away against her will again, and begins climbing the grand staircase that rests in the very center of the foyer. She forces herself to take deep breaths with each step, her façade of composure broken as she tries to convince herself that this is all a strange dream.
Taking the route she was instructed through the grand hallway, she finds herself facing a door. Now, there is nothing spectacular about the door, in fact, it is rather plain, painted white, average height, smooth and engraving free. It's what lies behind the door that intimidates the pink-haired girl.
Roommate.
That word gives her the chills.
A witch as a roommate. What if she curses me or something? But, I guess I'm a witch too.
A sense of nausea washes over her as the reality settles in.
Witch, magic, broomsticks…
Plucking up her courage, Sakura turns the knob and pushes the door open, only to find how normal it all really is.
There are two beds leaned up against opposite walls with desks sitting adjacent to them. A large open window in the center of the back wall blows a set of wispy curtains. A pretty girl with long legs reclines on one of the beds accompanied by a dark-haired boy. Both of them stare at Sakura expectantly.
"Uh," Sakura begins lamely, "I'm Sakura Haruno. I guess I'm your new roommate."
"Oh right!" the girl says before leaping off the bed, her hair flowing through the air like a platinum waterfall. "I'm Ino Yamanaka and this," she gestures to the boy, "is Sai."
"Uh, hi," Sakura extends her hand towards the girl in greeting, but baby blue eyes simply stare at it. So much for trying to be friendly.
"I recommend not offering your hand quite so readily around here," Ino tells her. "Skin-to-skin contact has a sense of vulnerability to it. So, unless you're willing to let others see all your deepest darkest secrets, I recommend investing in some gloves."
This causes the pinkette to jerk her hand back and begin subconsciously rubbing it with the other one.
"Anywho," Ino continues "Sai and I our Matches so you'll probably be seeing a lot of him around."
The boy waves awkwardly, an unsettling smile on his face. Sakura just raises her hand slightly in response, not quite understanding what that means. She shrugs off her backpack and sets it on the opposite bed that houses her previously transported duffle bag.
"Speaking of which," the girl quickly states, "I'm supposed to get you to Tsunade."
Ino begins pushing Sakura right back out the door she had just come through as a soft chuckle from Sai follows them out.
"Wait, so are you two dating?" Sakura begins as Ino continues navigating them through the large hallways.
"Oh heavens no," the blonde says with a laugh. "Sai doesn't play for our team if you catch my drift. I'm actually dating this other guy named Shikamaru, but he's Matched up with a chick named Temari," her blue eyes narrow in anger. "She rigged those cards, frizzy haired freak," Ino finishes, seeming to speak more to herself than Sakura.
Sakura doesn't exactly follow any of the other girl's words, so she just remains silent, nodding as if this is all perfectly normal. Realizing that her confusion is probably going to get worse before it gets better, she settles for taking in her surroundings. She finds herself admiring the artwork that lines the hallways: painted portraits of different regal looking couples along with pictures that almost look like scenes from a prop heavy ballet. As they continue down the hall, she finds it odd that there are no other students or teachers walking through the corridors. It's almost like she and Ino are completely alone in the expansive building.
"So, anyways, this is Tsunade's office," the blonde says offhandedly "She's the current Hokage which basically means that she's like the Witch Queen." She moves closer and whispers in Sakura's ear, "but don't get on her bad side, she's nicknamed the Bitch Queen because of her temper."
The double doors that are, once again, plain white and rather dull, swing open by themselves and Ino quickly shuts her mouth.
"Thank you for that introduction, Ino," a tense voice says from within causing the blonde-haired girl to pale slightly. A very busty woman emerges from the room and rests her honey-colored eyes on Sakura.
"Welcome to KA Miss Haruno," Tsunade states, seeming slightly distracted. "Ino, can you take her to the room? I have to finish up something but I'll be along shortly." With that the doors shut, leaving Sakura muddled by the awkwardness of that introduction.
The girls walk down more empty corridors and by now Sakura's chest is tight with anxiety of the unknown. Ino babbles away about something or another, but the new student has tuned her out.
Suddenly, the sound of footsteps echoes down the corridor as a boy with dark spikey hair turns the corner and begins walking towards them. Almost as if in slow motion, Sakura's eyes lock with his as he passes by them. Her stomach dose a flip as what she sees there, his eye are dark, endless, dead.
The second his footsteps are no longer audible, Ino leans forward. "Sasuke Uchiha," she informs Sakura in a hushed tone, "Old Magic in his family as well as more than their fair share of drama. He's kind of a big deal around here."
Remembering his appearance, Sakura can certainly see why. He is handsome with his aristocratic features and alabaster skin, more than that, he carries an aura of mystery.
"Everybody used to want him as their Match, until the accident," Ino continues.
"What accident?" Sakura asks, unease washing over her.
"A couple weeks ago he and his partner, Karin, were doing some sort of spell during the night. The next morning, Karin was dead and Sasuke was passed out, he didn't wake up for days."
Sakura's hands begin to tremble, nobody told her that dying was a possibility at this school. Just what kind of place was this?
"The teachers wouldn't tell us what spell they were trying to do, or what went wrong, and Sasuke still won't speak to anybody about it," the blonde lets out a light scoff, "like that's anything new. Whatever they were doing, it was something dark," Ino continues hesitantly, "I saw some of the mediums they had used and one was a large python, it's stomach was split all the way down the middle and blood was all over the floor." She shudders in emphasis. "Anyways, that's the reason we aren't allowed to room with our Matches anymore," she sounds a bit regretful. "Sai was such a good roommate too."
"Wait," Sakura interrupts Ino's musings. "Somebody died? What are Matches? What the hell is going on?" She can't stop the rush of questions as her fear finally causes the dam keeping her anticipation at bay to burst.
Ino lets out a little laugh at Sakura's outburst, "Oh right, you were raised by normal people," she avoids Sakura's questions with another awkward chuckle causing the pink-haired girl to become frustrated with the fact that she didn't actually answer her. "Don't worry, Tsunade will explain everything." Ino opens another door and gestures inside. With a quick wink and a puff of smoke, the blonde girl disappears, leaving Sakura by herself.
She wanders into the room which is eerily lit by a slew of black and red candles lining the walls. A simple black armchair rests directly in the center, facing a wooden table with a dark pile of something resting on top of it.
"Take a seat Miss Haruno."
Sakura leaps at the voice of the Hokage. She did not see the woman at first as she stands in the shadows next to the table. Sakura does as instructed, trying to figure out how the woman got here before them.
"What you see before you is a deck of tarot cards that dates back to the beginning of our kind." Tsunade begins as she straightens the deck of black and gold backed cards. "Magic is not as it is portrayed in the media. It is a matter of balance. While one is able to conduct simple spells on their own, a pair is needed to prevent any unsavory consequences." Tsunade begins fiddling with one of the many necklaces adorning her neck.
"Each possessor of magic has a Match, a perfect complement of the opposite sex that will balance them out. Magic conducted solo is harmful to the user and much more difficult to control, but a Match allows you to adapt each other's powers to make controlled spells of far greater power," she pauses for a moment. "These cards will show us who your destined Match is."
Sakura eyes the cards across the room. They must be a pretty big deal if they're going to show her who she's "destined" to be with. This school just keeps getting more and more confusing, there was nothing about finding your soulmate in the pamphlet. "So what do you want me to do exactly?" Sakura asks at Tsunade's expectant look.
"Pick a card."
Sakura begins to rise from the chair, but Tsunade lets out a "tut tut", and waggles her finger. "Pick a card from there."
"How am I suppose to do that?" Sakura exclaims. She has only found out about magic a little over a day ago, and didn't Tsunade just say something about performing magic alone is dangerous?
"Concentrate on the cards," the blonde woman says cryptically.
Rolling her eyes at the thought that this all seems to come out of a bad movie, Sakura stares down the deck of cards. She stares and stares and stares. Her eyes strain and she can't help feeling like an idiot for doing this. Maybe she isn't cut out for this strange world of magic.
Right when she feels as if nothing would happen, that her parents would walk in and tell her this was all an elaborate joke, the cards seemingly explode, sending them floating through the air. Startled green eyes look up at the floating illustrations only to see flashes of scenery moving before her as if she's peering out the window of a moving vehicle. She can only make out a few images.
A man sitting up in bed, crying, as nine swords sprout from his back,
Women chained to the throne of winged, horned man,
A snake twisting around the body of a youth,
Gold coins falling from the sky…
The images begin to slow and Sakura suddenly finds herself standing in darkness. This isn't normal darkness, no, it is as if she is in a field where the grass has been dyed black and the sky is drained of all starlight. A large moon hangs upon the horizon, offering little light despite its great size. It's a pale circle of nothingness, void of the craters that typically give it texture.
Her skin begins to crawl as she gets a sense that she is no longer in the world she belongs to. Unease begins gnawing at her stomach as a silhouette of a cloaked humanoid figure flickers into sight, standing in front of the poor imitation of the moon. This is definitely not Konoha.
It turns to her as wicked looking scythe appears out nothingness. Hands belonging to a skeleton reach from the cloak and grasp the weapon. The blade shines in the moon light, almost taunting her with its silver smile. The chilling figure's head turns toward her and Sakura finds herself staring at the pearl coloring of bone that has been picked clean. The skull, though it has no eyes, stares straight at her, beckoning her forwards.
All logic screams at her to run away, to hide from the very bringer of death. However, her body moves forward, following an unspoken promise of something she cannot put a name on. With each step her feet take, she feels unadulterated terror wrapping tightly around her chest. Her breaths become rapid and inconsistent, as if even the oxygen in this horrifying world is turning against her.
The palm of the reaper remains outstretched to her and Sakura gasps in horror as her own treacherous body reaches a hand out to join the ossein-like limb. Then she is gasping, crying out as a black fire seems to consume her fingertips that were only a moment ago touching the smooth coolness of bone. She screams, tears streaming down her face as her body forces her to remain still. She has never experienced a pain this excruciating, she would sell her very soul if it means it would stop.
"That's enough!"
Sakura hears Tsunade's voice echo around the cruel, dark world before her body, back in her control, falls slack and consciousness leaves her.
"This is troubling indeed," a man with long, white hair states as he fiddles with a trinket absentmindedly.
"I think the answer is obvious," Orochimaru declares calmly, the professor sits proudly in one of the wooden chairs within the Hokage's office.
"What's so obvious about this situation?" Tsunade yells as she slams her fists on the desk, causing all manner of jars and charms to shake with the force.
"The same happened with Sasuke, minus the crying of course," the snake-like man reminds her. "He seemed rather accepting at being pulled into Death."
"This type of thing has never happened before, and now twice in one week?" Tsunade blows a stray piece of hair out of her face as she begins storming around the room. She has gone through every form of literature available to her about the forsaken card, yielding no results.
"A student being pulled into the cards during their Match Test is rare, but the Death card, that's just unheard of."
"Thank you for stating the obvious Jiraiya, you've been a big help," the only woman in the room mutters sarcastically as she continues pacing. A pregnant pause follows while Tsunade's frustration continues mounting.
"Match them," Jiraiya offers causing Tsunade to stop pacing and turn her head in his direction fast enough to get whiplash.
"Are you out of your goddamn mind?" she exclaims. "To put two with such unheard of amounts of power together when he is beginning to make an appearance again. Are you already forgetting what happened a couple of weeks ago?"
"A student died, how could I forget that?" Jiraiya retorts. "But you can't deny the fact that this means they are indeed Matches of the highest caliber. "And if he really does decide to show up again, we will need them on our side," he finishes. A typical test of the cards consists of one of the ancient illustrations to fly into a students hand, choosing them. Students that receive the same card are Matched, it's as simple as that. Very few that are highly attuned to their energy have been pulled into the other realm, but only momentarily.
"And what side is that, Jiraiya." Orochimaru cuts in, "You are a 'wandering sage' as you so like to call yourself. What happens if he emerges while you're off chasing after women?"
"That brings me to my next point," Jiraiya glances at Tsunade who has begun drinking sake straight from the ceramic bottle she stashes in her desk. "I'm returning to KA for good and will resume my previous status as resident professor." The Hokage chokes a bit on her alcohol at Jiraiya's words. Ignoring her antics, he continues, "And as professor, I vote that we allow Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno to carry out their Matched bond and study as a pair."
Sakura's mind is foggy, her entire body feels heavy and weak, but the sensation of somebody touching her hand brings back the memories. The cards, the figure, black fire. She wants to go back to sleep, to pretend like nothing happened. However, reality is that somebody is in her room and they're paying particular attention to her injured hand.
Her eyes flutter open only to be met with midnight pools that remind her of the world she had been sucked into. She jumps back from her visitor only to be stopped by the headboard of the bed. Confused, she looks around to find herself in an infirmary of sorts. As per the usual theme of the academy, everything is white, the curtains dividing her from the rest of the room, the floor tiles shining from frequent polishing, and the soft sheets covering her.
However, one thing does not look like the rest. The possessor of the midnight eyes is clad in dark jeans and an even darker T-shirt, hair reminiscent of raven feathers completing the dramatic contrast.
"Sasuke Uchiha?" she questions. What on earth is he doing here?
The boy doesn't respond, instead he silently takes her hand in his once again. She blushes slightly as he begins slowly unwrapping the gauze from around her fingers. Sakura wants to question him, but she's at a loss for words at the surprising tenderness of his actions. His own hands are clad in black leather gloves reminding her of Ino's earlier warning of getting herself a pair. At least she doesn't have to worry about the skin to skin contact.
When he removes the dressings from her hands, the black charred skin of her fingertips is revealed to her for the first time. She lets out a sound of anguish as she remembers the pain of the all-consuming fire. This prompts Sasuke to look up at her for a moment, his gaze blank and terrifying. His eyes lock with hers as he slips the glove from his own hand. This time, a startled gasp escapes Sakura's lips. An identical angry shade of black disfigures his pale skin as well, however, it travels past his fingers and up his wrist, marring his beautiful pale skin.
Sasuke glances at her once more before pressing his scarred hand to her own. She has an urge to jerk away as a strange cooling sensation washes over her heated skin, but Sasuke holds her in place muttering an almost silent "Watch."
It is an obvious demand, and Sakura obeys, observing their hands as the black scar begins to fade with the relieving sensation of healing. It ebbs away until only silvery spiderweb-like lines take its place.
The moment the last of the black disappears from Sasuke's skin, he pulls away from her and slips his glove back on. Pulling a similar pair from his pocket, he tosses them onto Sakura's lap.
"Tsunade says to keep quiet about what happened." His task complete, the strange boy pulls back the curtain and begins walking away.
"Wait!" she calls out causing him to turn around and stare at her with a bored expression, "I don't understand." Why was he the one to heal her? Does this mean he's her Match? Why isn't she allowed to tell people about what happened?
An unrecognizable emotion flashes through his eyes before he turns away once again, obviously eager to leave the situation. "Join the club."