Full summary:

"If you are predisposed to hate me, might as well just kill me now and save me from this misery...If I can't earn your love, you don't need me at all, at all, at all! Bah." -Journal entry in Sakura's diary.

Sakura is appears as a normal 18 year old girl to everybody but she has many secrets as everyone sets out to rescue Cisna who was kidnapped by the Magi. Secrets that could put everyone with her at risk...

~x~X~x~

*Disclaimer: I do not own White Knight Chronicles.*


"The trouble starts now. But...how much faith can you have on your most important person? If you even have one."

-Journal entry in Sakura's diary

~x~X~x~

Sakura woke up the next morning in her bed, somehow she managed to crawl into it. She moved her injured arm testing the joints; it was stiff and it ached but movable enough nonetheless. Sakura stood up, causing pain to shoot up her body, but chose ignored it. She slowly made her way out of the bedroom.

'Maybe one of these days one of them will finally try to kill me. I wouldn't be too shocked. Heck, I'm surprised that they haven't yet.' she mused as she packed a backpack.

Picking up a good-sized backpack, she placed basic essential things such as food, water, clothing in. Then she added other stuff like: a lot of money (her mother always seemed to have a lot of money, Sakura still wondered as to why she had it to this day), tooth brush, hair brush, a family portrait, a special capsule box, a few books, her special journal, and her ocarina.

The ocarina was the only thing other than the necklace that her mother gave her. It was small with blue and white coloration, yet played the most beautiful sound you'd ever hear.

'One of these days something will happen, I can sense it. Most likely tomorrow or even tonight...' Sakura thought as she walked out the door. She stealthily made her way to the forest avoiding being seen by any villagers that might have been up and began running.

It was 2:00 AM when she left the house being gone fore fifteen hours for uh, special training before she snuck back to her house. She walked into the library that took up more than half the house filled with books.

Over the years, other than training and trying to survive, she had read every book and memorized them. Sakura made her way to the 'W' section and reached up on a tall shelf, she pulled down a book called 'Wind in the Willows'. The reason she took that book was because it was her mother's favorite book, somehow she managed to fit it into her already full backpack.

Call it an intuition or a sixth sense but Sakura knew something was going to happen. She slung the heavy bag over her shoulder and sat on the couch, waiting.

She was right, it was around 7:35 when the mob of angry villagers gathered outside her house. A moment later Sakura smelled smoke as if something was burning. She whipped her head around in the direction of the smell, the door was on fire and the flames were spreading like a wildfire.

'So! They're burning down my house, trying to kill me by burning me alive.' The fire had already engulfed the wall in front of her. 'The cruel jerks. Hn. Well I for obvious reasons can't use the front door or windows. I guess the only way left is out through the back door.' Sakura was by now surrounded by flames, she made a mad dash for the door and jumped.

The fires seemed to rise up as if they wanted to suck her into the pits of hell. She shouldered her way to the burning door and ran to the woods. From the safety of the trees Sakura sadly watched as the house she grew up in burn down to the ground, knowing that this was going to happen eventually.

As she walked away from the charred remains of what used to be her home she glared at the cheering villagers. They even had the nerve to jump up and down in joy on the ashes. 'I will be back, mark my words.'

Seven years had passed since she was forced to leave her village, Sakura was currently walking across some plains. She had been travelling and had taken countless jobs over this span of time. Although there was one kind of job she hated and had to do once.

Assassination.

~FLASHBACK~

Sakura, fifteen years old, had just been given a job to get a man dead or alive. The people who gave the request didn't say that it was assassination but it was pretty clear that they did. A blind man could tell.

One big give away was the instructions of how they wanted him brought in and even gave her deadly poison. All she had to do was put it in his drink, lead him to a secluded place, wait for him to get the poisoned beverage in his body and let it circulate, then bring the body back.

So now here Sakura, was in a pretty fancy dress provided by the people who hired her, walking to the entrance of a huge elegant house. She presented her invitation, which was also provided, and walked through the door.

Everyone who came to this big party was required to take a picture. Why? Sakura probably wouldn't ever know but didn't care in the least, so in order not to look suspicious she took one too. When she looked it over after she got it she sighed, it seemed good actually.

Sakura had stood up straight in her simple but beautiful white gown, her dark hair, almost contrasting the dress, flowed down to her waist. She had looked with a straight face at the camera, her eyes showing no emotion.

Sighing again, she gently placed the photograph in her small dress pocket.

A fairly good looking man in a dark suit came up to her and proposed to get her a drink, she shook her head then instead offered to get him one.

The man agreed and Sakura walked with the grace of royalty to the drinks, she almost smirked.

'So that's the man I have to kill. Huh... I can't believe he thought I looked old enough to drink.' she arrived at the table and looked at the bowl of dark liquid. 'Should get out the poison.'

She carefully poured a glass of wine, while she made sure no one saw her put the poison she idly wondered whether it was weird that the lady got the man the drink instead of the other way around.

Giving the glass to the man and leading him to a secluded place outside, she watched with a mask of indifference as he drank the poisoned blood red substance and nearly instantly started choking on it.

A minute later the man collapsed into a heap on the grass, dead. She felt very close to scoffing but remained silent as she hauled his body onto a wagon.

Within the hour she reached the cabin she was told to go to and dragged the body inside. She waited until they handed her the pay then left without sparing a second glance back.

~End Of Flashback~

It had reminded her to much of a past she wanted with all her might to forget.

Sakura felt like she could laugh when she remembered that she hadn't returned the dress and still had it and the picture. Shaking her head to get the images out of her mind, Sakura looked up at the sky.

'Damn. I was so caught up in my thoughts that I didn't notice.'

Shrugging off her backpack and pulling out the special capsule box, she took a numbered capsule, pushed the button then threw it and stood back.

It had a numerous amount of rooms inside it's beautiful mahogany walls; Sakura never really remembered why she built so many though but she had felt like she would need them later.

She had taking her time building this over the the nine years after her mother died. Spending countless hours inventing 20 different capsules, she only used 15, saving five to be used for something else.

The brunette spent the night in the house, she slept for only three hours before her internal clock woke her up at the crack of dawn. Sakura put the house back in it's capsule form and walked to the top of a nearby green hill.

Surveying her surroundings, she took in the beauty of the plains. Breathing in and seating on the soft green grass, Sakura growled, scowling as she gripped her skirt. 'Why does this place feel so happy? It's almost sickening.'

Pulling out her ocarina, she played a few notes before executing a song filled with sadness and sorrow as she did every morning, in remembrance of her dear mother. The woman had been all she had, before she went and died.

Finishing that she opened up a map and looked it over once more. 'Let's see... I'm in Balastor Plains so I have to continue north to the Kingdom of Balandor.' After a long, somewhat tiring, trek across the sea of green, the teenager finally reached Balandor.

She gazed up at the gates, then at the people filing through them so freely. She walked right past the guards who didn't even spare her a glance. She glared at them in disdain. It was certainly comforting to know that they had such a great security force always on guard. She scoffed. Amateurs. Anyone remotely close to her skill could sneak in with minimal effort and no suspicion, without breaking a sweat.

She glance around the bustling town. For now, first things first, she needed a job. Didn't care what it was, as long as it wasn't degrading to her. She wandered around, the streets looking at any shop with a help wanted sign in it. The only that she deemed somewhat bearable was this store called 'Rappaci's Wines' or whatever. She pushed open the door and looked in.

The man-thing behind the counter was shining something, that was until she opened the door. "Welcome to Rappaci Wines. What can I do for ya?"

The dude didn't seem to pleased at the moment, it was more of irritation, sounds like. She stood at the counter, and cleared her throat. She hadn't used her voice in a long time, and generally preferred not to but found a way to quietly speak for a limited time.

"Um, I'm looking for a job here." she squeaked, faking the meekness.

Rappacci looked her over form doubtfully. "What can you do?"

Sakura silently bristled, feeling insulted. He honestly didn't think she could handle this little job! Her chocolate eyes narrowed. "I assure you, I can handle anything. Even fighting."

Oh ho, she could do a lot more than just fighting, but he didn't need to know that. She still caught that look she hated, but calmed down a little when he gave her the job. "You're hired. Now the first thing you can do is..."

Soon enough Sakura was neatly stacking boxes full of wine (efficiently to say the least) while waiting for a person who she was supposed to work with. He was late. In fact, he was twenty minutes late, and Rapacci wasn't looking happy.

The shop door opened and Rappacci quickly looked over to see who it was, he seemed quite angry when he saw the boy that walked in. He looked like he was eighteen, he had orange hair that looked like it was orange-light brown and light blue eyes. His hair was sort of spiky and the rest of it was in a out of place ponytail.

"Dammit, Leonard!" Rapacci yelled.

"Whoa!" the boy exclaimed, taking a step back.

"Where the hell have you been? You better not have forgotten what today is!"

"Yeah I know." Leonard answered. 'Today is the Princess's ball. She's introduced to society, we step into the big time, got it."

"This is a momentous day for Rapacci Wines. The court picked us to supply wine for a party at the castle!' Rapacci said, seeming to gaze at nothing as if he was remembering something. "We gotta do it right and earn a bona fide royal commendation! Ah, I've worked my fingers to the bone to guess this far..."

"Look, I'll leave for the Parma winery now, and I'll still be back with time to spare." Leonard stated thinking it would calm him down only for it to backfire on him as Rapacci glared at him again.

"You better." he said before moving round from behind his desk and towards Leonard. "I rented a Beastwain at the village for you. Use it ta cart the wine back here like your life depends on it." He waved a clenched fist threateningly at Leonard. 'Cause it does'

"All...all right!" Leonard replied, gulping, taking a step back, hands up.

"And while you're at it, that's the new gal. Take her with you." He added, jerking his chin Sakura who had watched the whole spectacle with next to nothing interest.

Sakura bowed in polite courtesy when the attention was on her. Leonard walked over to her and extended his hand. "Hi there, I'm Leonard." he greeted.

Sakura hesitated for a moment, this was the first time in years since anyone spoke to her without looking like they were ready to kill her. His smile was actually very warm and gentle. She cautiously extended her hand and was about to shake his when a goblet zoomed through the air, it clonked Leonard right on the back of the head with a dull thunk sound. "Ow!" he cried.

Rapacci glared at them. "Just get your butts moving!" he growled. "You can talk on the road!"

Leonard was rubbing the spot where the cup landed, "All right, gods…" Leonard muttered something else before he led Sakura outside, he looked over a paper that Rapacci had given him.

"Let's see…we have to fetch barrels from the Parma warehouse using the Beastwaine." he sighed. "Boy, that is a lot of work! Well let's get going."

As they walked to the south gate, Leonard was talking to Sakura, who just listened and nodded but couldn't answer of course, when a man in a tattered travelling cloak walked past them, going in the other direction. The man was carrying what looked like a giant wrapped sword, he glanced at Leonard as he passed by.

Leonard turned his gaze towards the man and was slightly surprised to see him looking back as if studying him for a moment before looking down again. Leonard watched the man as he continued to walk away. "Weird…" Leonard shook his head and turned around and started walking again to catch up with Sakura.

People ran past them to see something, murmurs of excitement was ripping through the huge crowd gathering, festive music could be heard. Leonard and Sakura joined them, Leonard was craning his neck to see. "Hey, look."

Two huge lizard-like beasts pulled what looked like a huge circus tent or a theatre on wheels, a short announcer in a red, white and gold uniform, with a blue top hat, a thin, wiry mustache and a red clown nose spoke through a what looked like a bullhorn. "Ladies and gentleman!" the short man started, "Young and old of Balandor! In honor of Her Highness's coming-of-age day, I give you wonders aplenty and sights unlike any! Step right up, the Marcus Revelers have arrived!"

The clowns and acrobats performed tricks and waved, like flipping and cartwheeling, making the crowd cheer. "I've never seen a circus!" Leonard stated as he and Sakura watched with the crowd, "This is going to be some party!"

'The aura from the circus feels...evil. Scratch that, I mean really evil, I don't like it.' Sakura thought as she watched through narrowed eyes.

After another moment they turned and continued walking to the south gate, Leonard started talking to Sakura again, who in turn listened and nodded.

~Right outside the kingdom of Balandor and in Balastor Plains...~

Leonard stopped walking and pointed in a direction. "The village of Parma is due south of here, pretty simple. There's not much to it, but it's a nice enough place."

He turned to look at Sakura, "Say, uh, you're new to Balandor, aren't you?" Sakura just nodded. "Then why don't I show you the sights along the way? Sound good? Just keep a look out for monsters. We're in the wild now."

Sakura resisted hard against the urge to snort. No shit, Sherlock.

She instead turned her attention to the rolling waves of green that occasionally sparkled in the sunlight.

On the way to Parma they fought some monsters like Vespids, Polkans and Kibbles. But when they weren't fighting Leonard was her beautiful things. At one point at a river bridge, he showed her a small waterfall. 'Hmm…' mused Sakura, 'That waterfall… I feel like…I've been here before.'

~Flashback~

"And here's the waterfall!" a seven year old boy led a seven year old Sakura to the small waterfall. "Wow!" exclaimed the young Sakura, reaching out to touch the water's surface. "Balastor Plains are so beautiful." The boy laughed, he had light blue eyes and orange hair that was so familiar it was scary. Young Sakura sighed, almost sadly as she withdrew her hand and looked at her friend.

"I wish that I could stay here longer…"

"What do you mean? Of course you can stay here longer."

"I have until the end of the day."

"But you're so much…fun to be with."

The boy's head drooped, but the warm hug that Sakura gave him surprised him to no end. Now he was upset and confused.

"It's okay, you're fun to be with too, but I have no choice but to go." Sakura looked at the sun, which was setting. "In fact, I only have a few more minutes…"

"What? But…but…"

"It's okay, I promise that one day I'll come back."

"Promise?"

"Promise."

The boy seemed a bit happier now and smiled a bit. "Well…before you go, you can have this to remember me by."

He handed her a beautiful locket that was the color of his eyes, she opened it and saw a picture for herself and him. "Oh thank you so much, it's beautiful!" Sakura tied the locket around her neck. White orbs of light started to rise from her body, it was almost nighttime, only thirty seconds left. The orbs were small but steadily grew bigger and bigger.

"Good-bye." The boy gave her one last hug before she disappeared, Sakura hugged the boy back.

"Good-bye, I'll never forget you… Leonard…"

~End Of Flashback~

Sakura snapped open her eyes and made a sound like a gasp, hearing this Leonard turned around. "What's wrong?" Sakura shook her head and gestured that nothing was wrong. Leonard shrugged, he turned around again and continued his job as a tour guide.

Right after he turned around, Sakura quickly pulled out her notebook. She flipped through the pages until she found what she was looking for. A very detailed hand drawn picture of seven-year-old Leonard. Sakura quickly put the notebook back and grabbed her locket, she opened it and looked at the pictures of her and Leonard.

'I was right... The boy I met years ago, the boy that gave me this locket, the boy who I fell in love with... It was Leonard!'

~x~X~x~

The rest of the trip to Parma took only about an hour to make. Sakura had most of her mind on the memory from earlier but continued to listen to Leonard talk about the sights, nodding every now and then to make it seem as if she cared. After running into a swarm of vespids that were swiftly cut down they made it to their destination.

"Here we are. Welcome to Parma."

"Hey!" a voice called from behind "You're on time for once."

It was a girl about their age with purple hair and grey blue eyes.

"Yulie!"

Yulie walked towards them "How've you been there, Leonard?" Yulie looked over Sakura, taking a moment to study her. "Oh! You must be the new girl. Rapacci told me you were coming. Glad you can make it. The wine's all set to go. Follow me."

They approached a big cow like beast. Sakura and Leonard's jaws dropped open a bit. "You must be kidding." Leonard managed to say when he could speak again.

Yulie walked up from behind them "Don't let his looks fool you. He's a big old pussycat." Yulie assured them and patted the huge creatures neck.

She then placed her hands on her hips and looked around as if searching for something. "Now… Where…?" She looked down in disappointment "Raus said he'd be here."

"Who?" Leonard asked.

"Your driver. Raus is the only one who can get this fella to pull the wain; It won't move a step, not without Raus's say-so." Yulie sighed, "Sit tight, I'll see if I can find him."

Yulie started to walk away into the village, Leonard took a step after her. "But…Yulie!" he called out but she already disappeared from view.

Sakura and Leonard followed Yulie around, watching her ask people if they've seen Raus. Eventually their search led them to the horse stables. Raus was snoozing at a tree stump with bottles of what looked like wine. Yulie spotted Raus sleeping

"Ah ha! Raus, you oaf!" Yulie yelled, Raus woke up startled. "Ohh, dear me! Did I doze off again?"

Yulie grabbed the back off his shirt collar, lifted him up and shook him angrily. "This is were you were hiding? I told you not to be late!" She released Raus, allowing him to drop to the ground. Raus quickly got up and hid behind Leonard.

"Please don't be mad, Miss Yulie! I am so sorry." Raus whimpered, scared. As they walked through the village Raus hid behind Leonard the whole way there as if he could protect him from Yulie's wrath.

They hooked up the wain to the cow looking beast, and Raus crawled into the driver's seat, Yulie patted the wagon when they finished. "There! Now you're all set." Leonard glanced up at the slowly darkening sky. By that time, the sun had already begun to sink behind the mountains covering the village and clouds in an orange-gold light.

"Boy, it's starting to get dark. We'd better haul cask."

"Okay, Leonard, like I mentioned before, Raus here will be driving the beastwain." Yulie explained.

Raus giggled nervously at the glare he received from Yulie. "Hello, Happy to assist, Chief." Raus said to them before adding in alower voice. "By the way, if I happen to doze off…again…kindly wake me up before this beastie remembers I forgot to feed it breakfast and turns me into a late lunch!"

Leonard and Sakura just stared at Raus in disbelief. "Uh…huh."

Yulie glanced at Leonard. "He's kind of weird, but he gets the job done." She said seeing the look then saying cheerfully. "Off we go!"

Yulie started to walked towards the entrance. It took Leonard a moment to process what she just said. "We? You're coming too?"

"Well, yeah! I wouldn't miss this party for the world! What? You don't want the extra help? Come on, we're late as it is!" Yulie continued to walk to the entrance.

Sakura and Leonard looked at each other before Leonard sighed.

Leonard stopped walking and signaled for Yulie and Sakura to stop. "Wait, something's wrong."

Yulie and Sakura stopped and looked around. "What is it?"

Raus stopped the beastwaine "What's wrong, Chief?"

Leonard closed his eyes, "You don't hear that?" He opened them and allowed them to roam their surroundings. Suddenly they all stopped and listened, birds flew off away from the way they were going. Sure enough there was a stomping that sounding like it was coming closer. A huge troll came into view round from behind a cliff face towards them, a heavy looking stone club held in one hand. It growled then charged for the beastwaine.

"Dammit! It must have smelled the wine!" Leonard reasoned.

"Oh, no! What do we do, Chief?"

"We fight!"

"Yeah!"

They all braced themselves for the oncoming troll. Sakura pulled out a sword and held it in front of her. She got into a fighting stance. It's time for a release.

...

The troll fell down with a mighty crash, the dust in the air began to settle around it.

"Well we survived." Yulie walked up next to Leonard then inspected their cargo load. "And it looks like the wine is okay, too."

"Nice going, Chief! I thought I'd napped my last nap for sure!"

"Nah. The three of us can handle one little troll. It's Rapacci I'm scared of. Let's move!"

"Right!" Yulie cheered happily as they all continued on their way.


Done. Actually this has been for a while now, I just couldn't get around to posting it. And the capsules in my story, don't question them. They serve a purpose. *Sigh* Well ciao.

R&R