Chapter 2 – Unmei: Destiny
Chapter 2 – Unmei: Destiny
I sighed in frustration. The directions Yukino-san had given me were a bit hard to decipher. The café her brother owned was three towns away. It would be a couple of days before I reached the small establishment, and that was only if I didn't get lost, which I somehow managed to get.
I was walking down a dirt road; on each side of me were burnt fields. One strategy soldiers used to hinder the opposing army was to get rid of their source of food, so now it was very rare to find an actual field of crops growing. I tucked a piece of pink hair behind my ear, wishing I had something to tie it with. I looked up at the sky, it was getting darker. It would start to rain soon, and I would need shelter.
I looked around my surroundings, hoping to find an abandoned barn or shed to stay in for the night, but I was disappointed. My feet were sore, I had been walking all day, so I decided to sit down and rest for a minute. I must look strange, sitting on the edge of some dusty road in the middle of nowhere. I laughed inwardly, thinking of my predicament.
I had no shelter, no water, no money, and was lost. Not to mention there was only a small bit of the bread Yukino-san had given me left over. I was royally screwed. Sitting with my legs crossed, I used my right leg to support my arm, which my head rested on. If I couldn't find some kind of shelter, I'd have to walk through the rain. If I walked through the rain I would surely catch a cold, if not a fever. Getting sick was the worst case scenario. Doctors were scarce, and if you did manage to find one, they were very expensive.
If I got sick, I would die. There was no doubt about it. No one would offer me their help, not in this world. It was every man for himself, and if you couldn't do anything to survive, you didn't last very long. That's what I hated most about this place. No one helped anyone but themselves. Even doctors, who were supposed to help and heal people, didn't lift a finger to help anyone who couldn't pay a hefty price.
I glanced up the road, and groaned in annoyance. If I wanted to find shelter before it began raining, I would have to get a move on. My muscles ached in protest as I began to stand up. I'm wondering how much longer my body will be able to put up with this. I started walking again when my stomach erupted in angry growls.
I reached into the small brown paper bag that stored what was left of my bread. It was a small piece, as big as my fist. I took a bit, and then shoved the bread back into the bag. I had to make it last, because if it didn't, I wouldn't. I had contemplated finding a rabbit or something to eat, but had pushed the idea aside knowing that I couldn't kill a damn thing, even if it meant survival. I couldn't kill anything; I'd sooner help an injured wolf than kill it for my own benefit.
The only thing I wanted in life was to become a doctor. I would be a doctor that would heal people who didn't have enough money to pay for one. That had been my only goal in life, but my hopes for that had been crushed when I was sent to the orphanage. It seems life didn't care much for my happiness. I had realized that when my parents died.
I mentally slapped myself. Now was not the time to think about things like that! I was going to survive, I was! I quickened my pace, as a new surge of energy filled me. I was not the type of person to wallow in self pity.
I heard a roll of thunder from behind me, and a distant sound of rain. Damn. Still looking ahead I spied a small dot on the horizon. As long as it was shelter it was good enough for me. I broke into a run. My body hated me for it, but I pushed forward. My hair whipped around behind me as I ran. A small thought of cutting it crossed my mind before I completely focused on reaching the shelter.
As I got closer it appeared to be a small house. If anybody inhabited it, I prayed they were somebody kind. My legs felt relief when I began to slow down. Approaching the home I noticed it was in shambles. The two windows in front were broken, and the porch stairs had collapsed. The house was old and grey; it seemed to match the weather.
Wearily, I pressed open the decrepit door, and surveyed the inside. It was barren, completely empty, and completely dark. I made my way in, and saw a lone chair in the back corner of the room.
As if it was heaven sent, I collapsed on it. I looked around the house one more time. The house was quiet. Devoid of any sign that anyone had been here. I smiled inwardly.
Good job Sakura! You found a perfect shelter! But victory was short lived, as I fell asleep with my head resting against my shoulder.
I woke to the sound of rain pounding against the roof of my temporary home. I looked out the window and saw that it was still night outside. Looks like I'll be staying here a little longer. I sighed, and stood up. Rain was leaking in through the holes in the roof, and I realized that I was thirsty.
I walked over to the nearest leak where the rain was dripping in and opened my mouth to catch it. The sweet liquid felt good on my parched throat. I was so focused on getting to drink; I barely noticed the voices outside the house.
Panic took over as I looked around to find some kind of weapon to defend my self from whoever was about to come through that door. I couldn't find anything, so in a last resort I grabbed the chair and quietly hid behind the door, ready to smash it over the head of the first person that came through. The voices were getting closer, and they sounded male. There were two of them, from the sound of it.
They were just behind the door now, and the doorknob began to jiggle. The door slowly creaked open. The first male walked in, not noticing me standing behind him.
"It looks empty." He said, and began to turn around. Surprise covered his face as I broke the chair over his head. He fell to the ground in a heap. His friend yelled and turned to me. Now that the chair was broken I only held the leg of the chair and held it to the stranger in front of me.
"Get out now!" I screamed, hoping to sound frightening. The man looked at me and then at his friend lying on the ground, then back to me. He held his arms up signaling he was no harm.
"Hey, I'm not gonna hurt, you okay? Just put the stick down. Please?" his voice didn't sound menacing, but I didn't relinquish my hold on the only weapon I had.
"Take your friend and leave!" my voice was shaking, much to my displeasure. The situation was bad. If his friend woke up, I'd be outnumbered.
"Please, we're tired, we've been traveling all day, we need a place to rest to get out of the rain, we won't hurt you." He pleaded. I lowered my makeshift weapon, but kept my suspicions. It was still dark, so I couldn't make out his features. Quickly assessing the situation, I retreated to my original corner, (now chairless) and sat down gazing intently at the newcomers.
"You can stay, but you stay in that corner far away from me. You understand?" as much as I wanted them gone, I couldn't force them back out into that rain, what if it was I was in their place? And I had just knocked his friend out with a chair…
"Okay, okay!" and he retreated to the far corner, pulling his dead weight friend along with him. He leaned up against the wall and looked at me. "What's your name?" he asked, trying to be friendly. He did sound oddly cheerful for this type of situation.
"It's none of your business." I know I was being rude, but I couldn't trust them, I couldn't trust anybody.
"Oh come on, don't be like that. My name is Naruto Uzumaki, and my friend's name is Sasuke Uchiha." He didn't seem to mind at all that I knocked his friend out; in fact he seemed to think it was funny, seeing as he kept poking Sasuke's limp form.
Slightly put off by this new situation, I slackened my grip on the chair leg. Naruto must have noticed my movement, and thinking he had calmed me down somewhat, he asked me my name again.
"Haruno." I replied quietly. He didn't push for my first name so he must have been content with just my surname.
"So what brings you to this old house on a night like this, Haruno-chan?" I ignored the 'chan'. I wondered if he was usually this familiar to everyone he met. I didn't reply, hoping he would drop the conversation. Sasuke groaned on the floor, but he didn't wake up.
"Heh heh, you sure did a number on him, Haruno-chan. I've never been able to get a good hit on him as you did, Haruno-chan." He was laughing. I grimaced, this boy was weird, wasn't he mad I knocked out his friend? He mistook my grimace for concern.
"Don't worry about him though, he'll be fine. If you ask me, he needed a good hit in the head. We're headed towards Gretchen village. Sasuke-teme here has some kind of grudge against someone we heard was there." This Naruto seemed to talk too much, but before I could say anything, his friend started moving.
"Hey Sasuke-teme, glad to back in the world of the living?" Naruto didn't seem to notice the glare Sasuke gave him, but then his attention turned to me. Before I had time to react, I was lifted up by the collar of my tattered shirt. Naruto yelled at him to let me go, and I reached up to pry his arm off my shirt. The effort was futile; he was too strong for me. I was shaking with fear at this point. I had dropped my guard, thanks to naruto, and had let go of my weapon when I was lifted up.
"Why did you hit me with a chair?" he sounded so angry, much more fierce than his friend, who was, at the moment, trying to get Sasuke off me as well. He dropped his hold on me and I fell to the ground.
"What was I supposed to do? I was trying to protect myself!" I yelled, shrinking back into the corner. He eyed me strangely, and then looked back to naruto. "Let's go." He said to his friend as he walked towards the door.
"Teme! It's still raining out there, and you know we can't afford to get sick. Let's just stay here until it stops raining. And you should apologize to Haruno-chan!" Naruto yelled at Sasuke. Sasuke glared back at him but seemed to find sense in his words. Of course not the part of apologizing, because as he retreated to their corner he passed me a hateful glare.
I glared right back.
Naruto laughed sheepishly, trying to ease the tension. "Don't worry Haruno-chan, Sasuke-teme just has a bad attitude, he wouldn't actually hurt you." Sasuke scoffed behind him. I could honestly believe that he wouldn't wait a second to take revenge for the chair incident.
Naruto seemed to notice that the time for chat was over and went to sit with Sasuke, he was a little deflated that his attempt to from a new friendship and gone so awry. The next couple hours flew by in silence. My eyes were starting to droop from exhaustion. Knowing that falling asleep in a situation like this was a very stupid thing to do, darkness over took me anyway.
It was morning when I woke up. It had stopped raining, and I was alone. They must have left. Good riddance! I was angry at myself for falling asleep in their presence, and swore I would never be so thoughtless again. I stood up from my spot on the floor and stretched, feeling slightly refreshed.
Annoyance washed over me as naruto came bursting through the door and hid behind me.
"Haruno-chan help me! Sasuke-teme is going to kill me!" bewilderment set in as Sasuke walked in covered in mud and a furious expression. I tried to fight the urge to laugh, but failed. I was laughing so hard I clutched my stomach in slight pain. I barely knew these people, but I was showing myself so carelessly in front of them. When I began to stop laughing, naruto was watching me with a victorious gleam in his eye. Sasuke just glared. Was glaring all he was capable of?
"See Sasuke-teme, she is human." Naruto grinned, and began running around the room as Sasuke chased him. Slightly affronted that I had showed such an emotion to complete strangers, I gathered my bread sack, and newly forged weapon, (the chair leg) I exited the house and began to make my way down the now muddy road. I didn't get far before I heard Naruto's voice behind me.
"No, wait, Haruno-chan! Which way are you going? We could accompany you!" I turned around ready to deny their company, but Sasuke was already ahead of me.
"Girls shouldn't travel alone. It's dangerous! If your destination is on our way, we could help you get there!" it was then that I took in their appearance. Naruto had bright shaggy blonde hair, and very captivating blue eyes he was also as tall as I was. Sasuke turned to look at me too. He was taller than me and had very pretty black hair. I pushed away the thought of wanting to touch it. His eyes though, his onyx eyes were stunning, I don't know how I found it in myself to look away. Their clothes were the same as mine, dirty and ragged.
I knew I shouldn't trust anyone, but something told me I could trust them. And it would be a lot safer to travel with two men instead of being by myself. It was only for two days. After that, I'd never have to see them again.
I nodded my head. Naruto beamed. Sasuke sighed. And we all walked down the road together.
I tried to ignore the feeling of Sasuke's eyes on me as we walked on.
"Hey, teme, I'm thirsty." Naruto seemed to enjoy making fun of his friend.
"What do you want me to do about it, dobe?" Sasuke and Naruto were walking in front of me, and I was beginning to lag behind. The sun was out, and the heat was beating down on us. What I would give for a day like yesterday, no sun, all cloud cover.
"Find us some water or something. Haruno-chan's probably thirsty too, aren't you Haruno-chan?" he turned his head slightly to look at me. Wiping the sweat from my brow I nodded, and looked at the ground.
"I'm not magic. There should be a town a couple miles ahead. You can hold out till then." I sighed, a couple of miles? It was going to take forever to get there, if I didn't die of dehydration first.
"Fine then. Haruno-chan, tell us about yourself to pass the time. I still wanna know your first name." he was walking backwards now, to face me. I gawked at him.
"I don't want to tell you my name. So, other than that, what do you want to know?" my speech was hard to understand from the heavy breaths I was taking.
"Hmm…where'd you come from?" I thought a little before answering.
"An orphanage in Argus village." My voice was low, signaling I didn't want to go any further on that issue. I glanced up at Sasuke, he had turned to look at me too, but when our eyes met, he turned to stare ahead again.
"Oh. Well, what's your favorite color?" I looked back at Naruto. He seemed unusually eager to hear anything about me.
"Red." Naruto looked confused at that. He saw my questioning expression.
"I would have thought your favorite color would be pink, since you dyed your hair pink." I stiffened at his remark. I hated when people talked about my hair. It's natural you idiot!
"I've never dyed my hair; this is its natural color." I glared at him. He laughed a bit, and apologized. My pink hair had caused me enough trouble in the past, and that had led me to cut off. It was now down to just below my shoulders, and was needing another good chop.
"There's the town. Can you see the tops of the buildings?" Sasuke told us, and sure enough, over the tops of some hills, I could see what seemed to be city buildings glowing orange from the sunlight.
I closed my eyes, relishing in dreams of water and food, soon to become reality. I heard naruto gasp, and I quickly opened my eyes again. I regretted it immediately. What I saw made me cup my hands to my mouth to keep me from screaming.
It wasn't the sun that made the buildings glow orange, but fire. Looking closer, I noticed army vehicles moving around the city.
"They're rounding up people to join the army. They burn the city to the ground and take anyone who's alive! Even children…." Naruto explained. A strange fierceness mixed with sorrow. I looked to Sasuke, who looked just as angry as Naruto.
"I'm going to help them." Naruto said, and took off towards the burning city. I didn't know what else to do, and I felt I should do something to, so I followed him. I felt something grab my arm before I could get far. It was Sasuke.
"Let go, he can't go in there by himself, he'll be killed!" I wrenched my arm from his grasp and took off. Sasuke kept up with me.
"He'll be fine, he can handle himself. You won't though, you can't do anything! Just stay here!" I looked at him, ran faster.
"What do you know? You don't know anything about me! I can at least try to help, and that's better than doing nothing!" I yelled. Sasuke looked angry, but didn't say anything else. We followed Naruto into the blazing city.
A/N: I really hope I did okay. I'm not completely satisfied with this chapter, but I hope it's good enough to want you to read the next one. The chapters will get much longer, so please continue reading. And please tell me what you think, reviews will keep me writing! Thanks for reading!!