~ Cherry Blackness - - Chapter Two - First Glance ~
~ Sakura's POV ~
A brightly smiling girl stood in front of me, with bluish eyes, long, fair blond hair and long side-bangs almost covering her right eye. "Hi, uhm, Haruno's?", she asked.
"I'm … well, yeah, I'm Sakura", I managed to put together.
She laughed. "Great. Oi, guys, guys! Found it!"
A male voice echoed down the stairs. Uhm, down? They weren't living up there, were they? "Really? Awesome. Oi, jerk, c'mon, move it."
"Yeah, yeah, keep your pants on, dude." Two boys and a girl emerged down the stairs to catch up with the blonde. They might just have been brothers; the same spiky, pretty untidy, but in a kind of cool way, hair and even similar bright grins. The first one was brown-hairy though, and the other sandy blond with intense blue eyes. The brown-hairy wore a dark hoodie with a grinning skull on it and once-blue jeans that almost were more holes and rips than fabric, while the black pants of the blonde only were ripped up over the knees, and he wore a brightly orange fabric-jacket.
The girl had a very nice, petite face, with fair blue eyes and long, black, shining hair with forehead-cut bang. She wore a very cute, black dress with plaited skirt under a blackish hoodie and around her neck hang some silvery necklaces.
Behind them there were two more boys, next to one couple and followed by another. The two boys were both pretty tall, the one brown-haired and the other with deeply red strands. The redhead's eyes were marked with coal black shadows and from the chest of his jumper, there was a big puppet-smiley grinning emptily. The girl next to them was blonde and pretty tall as well, with two thick and pretty short ponytails, and hand-in-hand with her walked a dark boy with a ponytail as well, about as spiky as Mr Nara's.
The last couple were both black haired, the boy with strands that, surprisingly reached beneath his shoulders and fair eyes that made me silently wonder if the Hyuugas had three children here tonight. The girl next to him had a very mild face and brown reindeer-alike eyes, her black hair gathered in two knots on her head.
Quickly I let my gaze fly over the gathering. Ripped pants hanging pretty low, chains, boots and slightly dying-looking sneakers. There were quite obviously eleven backstreet-skaters standing before my door. Not that I had anything against the style or the people wearing it in general, not at all. I'd even belonged to a similar group before we moved from home. Oh well, they didn't look dangerous - well, the most of them - and in spite of everything, my mother wasn't stupid, she must have known what she was up to as she asked her dear colleagues to bring their kids. I hoped, at least.
The blonde in front of me was still smiling brightly. "Hi", she answered my somewhat stuttered greeting. "I'm Ino, Ino Yamanaka." Yamanaka? The rich, fine couple had a daughter in a skater-gang?
I smiled politely. "Why don't you all get in inside, and we'll finish the introductions there." I stepped aside to let them all into the hallway, which again seemed considerably small.
"Okay, so, nice to meet you, Sakura", Ino smiled while hanging away her coat. "Anyway, this is Kiba Inuzuka" - she pointed at the first one of the brown-hairy, who grinned -, "Naruto Uzumaki" - the blonde orange one -, "Hinata Hyuuga" - the pallid black-haired girl -, "That over there is Tenten Yamanaka and Neji Hyuuga" - she nodded towards the girl with the knots and the long-haired dark boy next to her -, "and that's Shikamaru Nara and Temari Sabakuno" -, the one with the ponytail and his blond girlfriend smiled towards me -, "and the two over there are brothers, Gaara and Kankuro. She's oldest, Gaara is youngest."
They all smiled and waved in reply to my mumbled greetings. Biting my lip, I felt half of the names already slipping out of my mind. Oh brother, this was going to be fun. Tentatively, I started to direct the cheerfully chatting array into the living room.
Ino closed up next to me, smiling nicely. "So, how long have you lived here, anyway?"
"About three weeks", I replied, smiling slightly back.
"But you haven't started school yet, have you?"
"Uhm, no", I admitted. "We weren't supposed to come here until one week ago, so I'll start on Monday."
She smiled. "In Konoha West High?" I nodded. "Oh but that's great, we'll probably have a lot of classes together", she beamed. "Don't worry, we'll take care of you", she added grinning, as I probably looked more or less terrified. I just mumbled agreeing and fled to my mother in the kitchen.
"Hi, dear", she smiled. "So, they don't bite, do they?"
"I-" the doorbell efficiently cut off the sharp reply laying ready on my tongue, and I snapped my mouth shut, giving my mother an as pointed look as possible.
"Go get it, would you?", she asked, obviously busied by the salad. I just mumbled again, turned and dragged myself to the door. As I reached for the knob, I saw Ino leaning against the doorframe to the living room behind me, seeming to watch me with a huge amount of interest. Suddenly I remembered the creepy wall between the two groups of adults, and my heart heavily removed itself to somewhere deep down in my stomach. I breathed deeply again, and opened the door.
A pretty short girl with long, coal black hair and skillfully shaded, big eyes smiled at me, next to a slender but still well-built boy, with shaded eyes as well, and thick, blond hair that reached halfway down to his elbows. Next to them, there was another couple; a pretty tall guy, with a long, black ponytail, blackish eyes, and a pale but almost surprisingly good-looking face, and by his side a shorter girl with bluish eyes under a thick, black line of eyeliner and short, deeply blue strands. Beside them was a slender guy with deeply wine-red strands and a matching voodoo-doll print on the front of his black hoodie, and another black-haired boy. He was shorter than the other, but the half-long strands were just as raven-dark and eyes just as blackish.
Almost ridiculously, I felt my eyes caught by his face. On the one hand, he was almost unnaturally good-looking, with defined lines, sharp nose and chin and full lips. On the other hand, there was a thick layer of heart-deep, cold arrogance and some kind of distaste that made me almost step back away from him. There was almost some kind of hatred in his eyes, something untouchable that kind of freaked me out. Looking at his must-be older brother, there was the same wall behind his eyes, keeping the unworthy world at a safe distance; but it was much more arrogance and contempt in the elder's face. In the younger's, it seemed more like pure, sharp hate and cold annoyance.
"It's, uhm, Sakura Haruno, right?", the black-haired girl smiled carefully and called me back down to earth.
"Yeah, nice to meet you", I murmured, almost starting to hope that they might have reached the wrong place and were about to turn around and disappear.
"I'm Mitsukai", she replied smilingly. "Deidara Amaki, Itachi and Sasuke Uchiha, Konan and Sasori." She pointed first at the blonde at her side, then the oldest of the dark-hairy, the youngest, the blue-hairy girl and then the redhead.
I nodded smilingly. "Come on in", I offered. They moved past me, and the youngest Uchiha got last in line. As he walked past me, holding the door open for them, our eyes met. With something itching within me, I got the feeling that he was somehow shaping me up, like a bully determining his next prey, though it wasn't exactly as pointedly hostile. More like someone who checks out an opponent. Wow, this was just getting weirder and weirder.
As I closed the door, I saw Ino standing leaning against the door frame to the living room, where the rest of her chattering gang were filling up the sofa. She was smiling at the newcomers, but her earlier openly, cheerfully face was now slightly back drawn. I remembered the cold wall between the two adult's groups, and within seconds, I'd managed to build up a scene in my mind, of the two backstreet-gangs fighting bloodily in our living room. Behind Ino, most of her mates seemed to be watching her and the new group of teenagers, as if they were worried she was going to be torn apart on the spot by them. Well, this was just getting creepier and creepier by the minute.
The black-haired girl, Mitsukai, looked at Ino, sort of tentatively, and in the same measuring way as the youngest of the Uchiha-brothers had looked at me minutes before. "Well, there you go, told you you look better with your hair loose like that, didn't I?", she then smiled.
Ino grinned back. "Yeah, well, gotta be right sometimes you too, right?", she replied.
Basically, it was like someone had turned down the mere air pressure in the entire apartment; I could even swear I saw the vine-red-haired one, Sasori, and Mitsukai's boyfriend exchange an utterly relieved grin. Okay, so I might be pretty good with weird, but this was so beyond my reach. And to be honest, I didn't wanna know. If they were having some territory-fight or just following dumb traditions, by all means, let them; as long as they stayed put while in my mothers apartment. Mumbling, I advised Mitsukai to make themselves comfortable in the living room before I again fled to mum in the kitchen.
Somehow I kept myself from asking my mother whether or not she knew that she'd invited two rivaling skater-gangs into her home. Instead I just took the plate with sandwiches from her, smiling politely and returned to the group in the living room. They had spread themselves in the room, sort of awkwardly; part of Ino's gang ha occupied the small, worn sofa, leaving the two armchairs to Mitsukai's people, while almost half of the group were standing up, chatting away with one another.
My smile felt so tense it could just as well have ended up in a truly horrifying grimace as I placed the plate on the table and relieved saw that my mother just entered the room with a bowl of some kind of poisonous-looking liquid I'd helped her mix earlier today. Despite the fact that I was grateful of having something to do, I was realizing I must be acting like some nervous housewife or waitress or something, carrying around food like this.
At the drink bowl, Ino and Hinata caught me up and involved me in a slightly uneven conversation. So, I didn't have problems with people. Really. People were all fine. Only new people were just … crap. It's something with the way they all are so horribly curious about you and practically all eyes somehow seemed glued to that new, unknown, interesting face of yours.
But, granted, both Ino and Hinata were doing pretty well. After having informed themselves briefly about where I was from and why we'd moved here, and even more scarcely about my taste of music and films, we got stuck in a discussion about some current movies coming into theatres. It turned out we all were determined to watch Breaking Dawn part I in the fall, but Ino was a bit critical to The Three Musketeers. Well, thanks high heaven. Hinata's glass was soon empty and I smilingly offered her to refill.
I did regret my nice gesture as soon as I turned around, though. The youngest Uchiha and the redhead of Mitsukai's gang, Sasori, stood very close to the bowl. Sasuke's black eyes seemed to study me as I handled the glasses, making a warm chill run down my spine. Seriously, people don't look that good. They just don't.
"Nicely done with the decorations", Sasori calmly pointed out.
"Yeah, mum's always had a thing for stuff like that", I smiled slightly. I could have imagined the small, sort of hard "hn" that Sasuke emitted as I turned to return to the girls. Quickly I looked back at him, but he was now faced the other way. A slight warmth crept up my cheeks.
