The walls start breathing
My mind's unweaving
Maybe it's best you leave me alone.
A weight is lifted
On this evening
I give the final blow.
The all-american-rejects - it ends tonight.
In my dictionary, tragedy is your life.
Kakashi acted as if nothing was wrong when they met up with Sasuke and Naruto, and Sakura tried her best to hide the fact of what had happened last night.
Naruto and Sasuke eyed them suspiciously when both Kakashi and sakura was being two hours late, it was unlike Sakura. And Sakura had had a makeover it seemed, with a plain new outfit. It was kind of unlike Sakura as well, it didn't seem like something she would walk around in spontaneously.
Naruto walked up to her and circled her with the look of a carnivore, his eyes bore into her and sent chills up her spine.
"You smell strange, Sakura-chan, not very unlike Kakashi-sensei actually." He noted, Sakura blushed and turned away from his penetrating stare, she met Kakashis deep black eye and her blush deepened even more.
"That's probably because Sakura slept at my place tonight." Kakashi said plainly and Sakuras eyes widened in shock, he didn't actually plan on telling them did he?
Narutos jaw hit the wooden base of the bridge and Sasuke tilted his head a little to the right like a dog would to be hearing better.
A crow flew over their heads, almost laughing down at them, and Kakashi smiled.
"And you call me a pervert, what did you think? That I did something to her?" Kakashi chuckled lightly and turned to Sakura with a secretive glint in his visible eye.
"Sakuras boyfriend didn't come home last night and she didn't want to be alone, so she came over to my place and we watched a movie. She fell asleep on my couch." He explained simply and Sakura breathed out not noticing before that she had been holding her breath.
Naruto nodded and Sasuke snorted disappointed obviously.
"I think you really should dump that guy." Naruto said and paced his hands on his hips, with a stern look on his face. Sakura felt a lump in the back of her throat, it was her own fault though, for choosing a guy like him, and she wanted to forgive him, she wanted to forgive him so much it hurt her insides.
"Rayuu, he, he takes care of me. My own apartment, it's destroyed by a water leek, so he lets me stay at his place. He is kind, he is." She muttered, and meant every word of it. Rayuu wasn't perfect, but who the hell was, and if it hadn't been for his support, she would have been sleeping out on the streets.
She threw a quick glance at Kakashi, but he was reading in his small orange perverted book, he had obviously not heard her, or he didn't care. It was probably the latter; she thought bitterly and turned away.
"Okay, so I guess you'll have the rest of this day off, after Naruto messed up again." Kakashi sighed and stared after the medic nins that ran off in the direction of the hospital, with a moaning Naruto on a stretcher between them.
"He just had to take you seriously, didn't he?" And Kakashi shoot Sasuke an accusing glance. Sasuke "humphed" and just stared at the coursing river beneath the Konoha bridge.
Sakura let a smile slip and memorized the memory of Naruto willingly sticking the kunai up his ass, to prove to Sasuke that he was more of a man than Sasuke was.
"Well? See ya." Kakashi said and disappeared in a poof of smoke.
Sakura sighed and walked aimlessly trough the village, helped out here and there, wherever her help was needed. She even helped an old lady carry her bags all the way across town.
After a few hours doing volunteer work, she felt that her self ignorance lifted somewhat, and she could see herself as an individual. The fact that many of these people thanked her with hugs and kisses for her help; it warmed her heart and brought tears to her eyes.
When at last she got tired of running around, she placed herself under a sakura tree in the Konoha Park, and just enjoyed the wonderful spring for what it was. And just this one day, she could forget about all her bad relationships and the lies she had to live with.
Male birds were singing the sweet tune of love, seducing their female counterparts, embracing their minds, tempting their every nerve. And the females fell for the males' sweet song and another generation of birds was ensured sanctuary.
The air was filled with sweet smells and sounds, the lovely atmosphere was there to touch and it tingled Sakuras senses, she felt dizzy felt her mind drifting further and further away from her body. And soon she was sound asleep, with a peaceful expression on her face.
Dreaming of a world so much better than the present one, where everyone was nice towards everyone, and where she had a beautiful daughter together with her handsome husband, with the most perfect smile, and the most wondrous hair, wild silver hair framed his face. And…
Sakura jerked out of her dream, just before she was going to kiss her husband.
"Why would I be dreaming of…" She smelt a familiar scent linger in the air and she jolted around staring into one deep black eye, "…KAKASHI?!!"
She screamed and without thinking she slapped him across the face. His smiling eye lost its happiness and he tilted his head to one side.
"I guess I deserved that for making you walk around in a g-string all day." It was more of a question, than a statement, demanding her for an explanation. One just doesn't slap every person you accidentally wake up and find staring at you.
"I'm sorry, Kakashi-sensei, you scared me." She murmured and tried to flash a guilty smile, but failed and it turned into a devious smile instead.
Kakashi didn't realise what was coming before she had pushed him out of balance where he had been crouching beside her, and she started running, laughing like there was no tomorrow.
Kakashi didn't catch her sense of playing at first, but he jumped up in the tree tops after a while and chased after her.
She glanced over her shoulder, but noticed to her dismay that he wasn't chasing her. She turned around entirely and was about to yell something to her former sensei, but got jolted up by two strong arms and was swung around.
She laughed, she laughed so hard that her stomach hurt and she pressed her eyelids shut to not get sick.
He stopped spinning her around and placed her on the ground again, a smile tugging at the corner of his eye. She stared up at him, slightly dizzy and couldn't stand straight.
"Well well Sakura-chan, can't hold your drink?" He said and chuckled; se laughed a thrilling laugh, but had to sit down before her feet gave away underneath her.
He placed himself beside her and ruffled her hair playfully, like he used to when she still was genin, and twelve years old, which made her wonder how old Kakashi really was.
She threw side way glances at him, but couldn't really figure it out.
"Kakashi-sensei? How old are you really?" She asked, he turned to look at her and smiled secretive.
"What do you think?" He asked and tilted his head to the side, making him look like a bird; Sakura suppressed a laugh at the image of a Kakashi bird.
"Well, I'm guessing, 25." She said and nodded to herself. Kakashi chuckled.
"I'm flattered, I take that as I'm aging slowly then, no, I'm about fifteen years older than you." He murmured and chuckled again at her stunned expression.
"You mean you're 34 years old?" She gaped, and just couldn't make that fit into her expression of her teacher.
"Wow, I mean, then you're really old…" She stopped herself and thought about what she had just said and gasped, meeting his darkened eye.
"I don't mean you're old, you're just, so much older than me…that's all." She muttered shamefully and flashed him a small nervous smile.
"And is that bad?" He asked curiously.
"What? Yeah, of course it's bad because then……." She was wide eyed at what her mind had played her, and thank god she had stopped her mouth.
Kakashi measured her up and down, carefully, curious and worried.
"Sakura, you really should dump that guy, to get on the right track again. You're only chuunin; I believe you can become jounin, even ANBU. But as your life and spirit looks right now, none of those things are inside your reach. Get rid of your distractions to reach the goal." He said and patted her back and stood up, ready to leave.
"Kakashi?" Sakura whispered soundlessly, he turned and stared down at her with his one eye.
"Do you think Tsunade is willing to take me as her apprentice again?" Sakura asked and stared up at him with her emerald orbs. He sighed and remembered that day Sakura had turned up in Tsunades office, drunk. Tsunade had been so mad that she had called off her mentorship over sakura and had made Shizune show her out of the building, telling her that she didn't want to see her there again unless it was for a mission.
"She doesn't want you, ending up like she did. It's worth a try." Kakashi murmured and smiled before taking off.
Sakura twined her tumbles, sitting on the bench outside the castle like building where Tsunade had her office at the top floor. Oh how many times Sakura had ran up and down those stairs, with books, scrolls and paperwork, oh so much paperwork.
She let a heavy sigh escape her slightly pouting lips and buried her face in her hands, trying to massage away her nervousness and frustration.
She had been one of Konohas best medic nins, she had rivalled Shizune, and could have become better, she could have come up to Tsunades level.
All those dreams she had had, thrown out the window, like paperwork in a fresh wind.
A choke caught in her throat and she felt like throwing up.
Her mind brought forth a memory about a woman that had come to the hospital with stomach and heart pains, but there was nothing wrong with her health.
She kept coming back though, and she kept getting worse, she had said.
One day they had found her dead outside town, choked to death in her own vomit, and they still didn't know what had been wrong.
Sakura thought she knew, but didn't want to say for sure. She was a medic; she trusted facts, not possibilities and fantasies, dreams or supernatural events. Everything had a reason; everything had to be caused by something material, or something close to it.
The more Sakura thought about it, a persons mind was material, but one person's thoughts were not.
Still she was fairly sure that that woman had died by her own mind, diseased by her own thoughts, and fooled by her own decisions.
How it was possible didn't matter, the fact that it was possibly the truth, scared Sakura.
The woman had had a weak mind, but still, to die by her own mind, it was perverse.
She shuddered and wondered if the same thing would happen to her if she didn't do something right soon, take some right decisions.
"Sakura?" A male voice asked, she heard the bench complain under another persons weight, and the strong smell of blood, sweat and dirt vibrated in her nostrils.
She lifted her head to look into Konohas biggest pervert, the one every young girl et warned against when they walk outside their homes alone.
"What are you doing here?" He asked and leant back on the bench. He had a large bloody rift in his shoulder, dirt in his hair and face, and he seemed pretty much beaten.
"I'm…waiting for a sign." She murmured and sighed heavily.
Jiraya smiled and nodded.
"We all do." He muttered and scratched the inside of his thigh.
"What happened to you?" She asked and glanced at the deep wound.
"Naruto happened." Jiraya muttered grudgingly and snorted.
"The kid's almost at my level now, even with a kunai sticking out of his ass, he can still injure me." He laughed, probably memorizing the sight of Naruto with a kunai in his ass, Sakura smiled and nodded.
"He is, Sasuke too, they are strong." She murmured and slipped long graceful fingers trough her silky pink hair. Jiraya watched her and put on his serious face and slid closer to her, draping an arm around her shoulders.
"It's not talent that matters, but hard labour. Reach the top on talent alone? It's impossible, but hard labour alone can take you anywhere." He squished her in his arm, before removing it and standing up, looking up at where Tsunades office lay.
"Naruto could do it, why can't you?" He asked and placed his steady gaze on her again.
Sakura looked away, closing her eyes.
"Hey, you may feel worthless, but never hopeless, never hopeless. Remember Sakura, she was just like you, like I was like Naruto, and Orochimaru like Sasuke. Maybe the three of you are the next legendary sannins?" He paused and looked up at the top floor again and met Tsunades stare in the window.
"There is always hope Sakura, that is your sign." He said and smiled at Sakura. She stared wide eyed back at him; he had known exactly what to say, what would cheer her up and what would make her feel better.
She nodded and grinned, starting off towards the entrance.
"Sakura, don't tell Naruto what I said okay? He has some way to go still, and I don't need him to get cocky with me." Jiraya yelled after her, she lifted an arm in a gesture, showing him she understood.
She ran up the stairs, taking two steps at a time. Running into a bunch of ANBU at the third floor, she apologized and started on the next set of stairs, but suddenly felt someone grab her shoulder, slamming her into the wall.
One of the ANBU had followed her, leaving the others behind. She stared at him, not sure what to think of the incident.
"Where did you go?" The husky voice wasn't mistakable, the voice haunted her dreams, and she would wake up all wet and shivering.
"Rayuu?" She whispered shakily and tried to wriggle out of his grasp, but he held her so tightly.
"You went to that Copy bastards place, didn't you? Are you cheating on me Saki Saki?" He murmured and leant closer against her.
"Does he awaken feelings in you, which I can't?" he asked threateningly. Sakura didn't dare answer, because if she did, the adrenaline rushing trough her body would make her tongue slippery. This was not the moment you needed a slippery tongue.
"Answer me bitch." He sneered and pushed her harder against the wall. She couldn't breathe; his grip around her throat was tightening by each second passing by.
Sakura glued her lips together and stared at him, eyes wide with fear.
He brought her away from the wall again, only to slam her, the hardest his muscles would allow, against the wall again.
She felt the back of her head connect with the stone wall, she heard the cranium crack, and she felt the dark close around her, and the last thing she saw was the white rabbit mask in front of her, and it was as if it was grinning viciously down at her.
Complete darkness surrounded her, but far away she could see something red, and large glow.
She walked closer; trying to see what it was that was glowing so brightly.
But she didn't move from the spot, and she felt nothing under her feet, as if she was hanging in free air.
She tried to yell hello, to the thing in the distance, but sound didn't escape her. Nothing came from her mouth when she yelled at the top of her lungs.
"ANBU leader Rayuu Hiroshi, you're officially damned from this village, owing to attempted murder on my, the Hokage, apprentice. Meaning, your ass has nothing to do in this building. You have no right to poison our air, you have no right to use these streets, and worst of all, you have no right to show your ugly face in front of Haruno Sakura, ever again."
Thanks to all of you who reviewed on my first chapter, it inspires me ya know.
But still, will Sasuke have anyone in this story? You are to decide
I'm actually giving you a sub author status here, I'm trying to like, involve you.
Aaaanyway, this chapter was slightly shorter than the first one, but it seemed like a good
Place to stop
Tell me what ya think, kay??? ;)