Chapter Three
A baby wailed loudly as she was placed down in the alleyway, her mother glaring at the newborn in distain. She was wrapped crudely in a dirty white blanket, a small tuft of pink hair on her head and tear-filled green eyes, her pale face turning red as she cried her protests. The mother didn't care how much the baby complained, and turned away.
"You're a devil child," she hissed, about to run when she froze, her eyes widening. "...Kagura..." she whispered, spotting the pale hair, fear in her face.
"The gypsy psychic," the man opposite her sneered, stepping closer; his knife winked at her in the light of the moon, threatening – daring her to run. "What are you doing here, hmm?" he asked, his eyes quickly finding the baby. "What monster abandons a newborn baby?"
"She's a demon," the woman said desperately as he walked to the baby, picking her up and instantly soothing. "She'll grow and she'll destroy you, Kagura! You'd be best leaving her to die and –!"
"So you won't have to pay for the food that fills her stomach, or the clothes on her back," he scoffed. "I know why you want rid of this baby," he continued, putting his knife away and pulling out a gun. "I hate selfish people; you have a beautiful baby girl, Haruno..."
BANG
"...and I shall take much care in raising her to work for the Kagura clan," he continued, putting the gun away. "Also, I myself am not a Kagura. My name is Hatake Kakashi."
Sakura grew under Kakashi's tutelage, learning from him what it means to be a mercenary. This meant quick kills, done in style. During her time with the Kagura clan, she met many of the allied clans' children, forming friendships with the likes of Yamanaka Ino and Uzumaki Naruto. One boy, by the name of Uchiha Sasuke, was not her friend, but rather her love.
She trained hard, her friendships with Naruto and Ino growing with her love for Sasuke until that day; this day that those in the Kagura alliance view as their worst day of all – when they lost two of their agents to opposing clans, not to mentions several more to death.
Sasuke had been tricked by a small organisation leader known as 'Orochimaru', a drifter between the clans that did odd jobs for both, as he once had a friendship with Jiraiya of the Kagura clan and Tsunade, the current ruler of the Senju clan. The Uchiha was lured into joining the Oto clan – a group rather than a family – and to prove his worth he did something that not only forced Naruto to hate him, but Sakura as well.
He started the fire.
Ino had died and Sakura had been taken from the clan by a boy of the Senju clan – who she later learned was Hyuuga Neji – who had believed her to be an innocent at the time. When they found out just who she was, a choice was presented to her; she could be allowed to leave and live a normal life, be hunted by returning to the Kagura clan or joining them.
Killing was all she knew: the choice was clear.
That was how Sakura became the traitor of the Kagura clan and the black sheep of the Senju clan. Tsunade took an instant liking to her, going so far as to train her to be a field-medic, someone who usually worked on group missions. Sakura completed the training to an extent, but Kakashi had raised her as a killer, not a healer, and she was soon slitting throats again – much to Tsunade's dismay.
Now we get to this point; Sakura is faced with choices again.
She no longer has the choice of walking away, and must either accept the mission to kill Scorpion...or die. Neji hated this choice, of course, and even Omoi believed it was unfair of them to give her a 'lose-lose' mission. Sakura, however, was glad for the chance; she wouldn't freeze up this time, but confront him with fists flying – or bullets.
She smirked; this time, she would win.
Sasori let loose a little yawn as he sat at the table with Deidara, going through the security footage they had secured from the warehouse that night. They had discovered that Panther, the long-haired brunette who had trapped Deidara, had been on the scene that night – he was an expert in tracking and trapping, thus explaining why Deidara fell for his tricks so quickly.
The redhead, however, wasn't interested in the boy that had wounded Deidara's pride – and his head. He was more concerned with the change in Rose – on the screen there was no difference in her. From the beginning, when she was killing his target, to the end, when she fled, she was a light-haired teenager. There was no Rose, as he saw; he blamed the greyscale footage and the long-shots.
His glanced out of the cafe they were located in and his eyes widened slightly when he saw a flash of pink hair disappearing round a corner. Narrowing his features, the man stood and ignored Deidara as he walked out of the cafe and down the street, following the hair. Sure enough, there she was; Rose, or whoever the little girl was during the day, at least.
She was talking with someone, their tones too low for him to hear. It was a boy, another teenager; this one with dark skin and blonde hair, as well as what seemed like a lollipop in his mouth. The boy was of no interest to him and, when Rose walked away, Sasori stalked after her.
It seemed she was heading in the direction of the concert hall; Sasori's suspicions were confirmed when she slipped in the performer's door, a violin case in her hands. A job or work, he had to wonder; though, if it were a job, he would have been informed – her jobs were his, after all. Until she came out again, he would stand and wait.
"I heard that Haruno Sakura was performing tonight," a woman in an extravagant gown that was mismatched when compared to the rest of her commented to her date.
"Her green eyes and pink hair are a sight to behold," the man agreed. "And her musical talent only adds to the joys of watching her perform."
She had better not take too long.
Sasori's eyes slightly narrowed as he noticed someone coming from opposite direction of a long hallway in the concert hall.
A beautiful, young rose petal colour haired woman in elegant deep scarlet dress was walking in an ethereal manner. As he glanced at a dark brown violin case in her pale arm, she softly smiled at Sasori as a greeting and was about to walk past him but halted as she felt a gentle yet firm grip on her slender wrist.
"Ah, aren't you that famous Miss Haruno Sakura, a violin genius among all the nations of the world? Would you mind if I ask you to play a piece of music for me now? You see, I'm feeling rather melancholic at the moment as my business has been being interrupted by someone called...Rose..."
His cold garnet eyes pierced, into mesmerizing, slightly widened green ones of the young violinist. She was quick to cover her surprise and smiled, holding her violin case close to her heart. "I'm afraid that I can't at the moment," she replied, her eyes flashing from grassy green to emeralds. "You see, a Red Scorpion stung my hand earlier, and it still hurts."
"You know, the sting of a red scorpion is enough to kill," Sasori told her with a threatening tone.
"Not if the scorpion gets pricked by a rose's thorns before it can even see what's going on," she sneered, her hand moving to the clasp of her violin case as Sasori's fingers raced to his hidden holster on his waist.
"Oi, Sakura!" someone called, breaking the two from their glares as they both turned to see who was calling her. Sakura's eyes widened slightly and she smiled, ignoring Sasori and running to the man who had bellowed.
"I thought you went home, Omoi!" she gasped, holding the man closely. He snorted.
"Of course I did," he sighed, "but I came back. Someone needs to carry your real violin home for you, right?" he smirked, patting her violin case as she shouldered another, her containing a real instrument. Sakura's eyes darkened.
"I have a job?" she asked. Sasori slipped away, into the shadows. Her jobs were his jobs, after all. However, he had learnt something new that night.
"Haruno Sakura, hmm?" he smirked. "The Rose has been revealed."
Sakura stormed through the streets. Her once beautiful emerald dress was ruined; it had previously dusted the ground as she walked, but was now ripped above her knees. One of the straps was broken and the side of the dress had a tear in it, not to mention her shoes no longer being on her feet but somewhere in the ocean.
And she was soaking wet, though this part wasn't entirely his fault; partly, but not entirely: Mostly.
The Red Scorpion would pay; figuratively and literally.
"I see you've managed to have your own kill tonight," Sakura commented offhandedly when she arrived, her gun in her hand as she stood before the Red Scorpion himself. He smirked, stepping away from the corpse and up the pier to the cemented road.
"Indeed I have," he nodded, "and I also became privy to your real identity, Sakura-san." He loved the way her eyes widened at the use of her real name, but not the way she seemed to shrink back. "Come now, Rose; you're not afraid of me are you?"
"Hell no!" she roared, bursting from her shell in an explosion of coral pink and harlequin green. The Scorpion smiled in glee – she was here, his Rose had finally arrived.
They leapt away from each other, guns firing as fast as the bullets could reach the chamber. One ripped his sleeve, scratching his arm and drawing blood, but he was quick to hit her back with a bullet to her torso. It cut cleanly through her dress – no one could dodge a bullet, after all – and Sakura leapt for shelter, cradling her bleeding wound.
"I wonder how long it will take to defeat you," Scorpion mused as Sakura swore under her breath, ripping a piece off of the bottom of her dress and using it as a make-shift bandage. After tying it, she peaked round the corner of her hiding place – a stack of crates. Scorpion let another bullet fly, this one missing her and hitting her hiding place, before he dropped the gun.
"I thought you said to never drop a gun," Sakura taunted as she got up, seeing him reaching for a knife.
"This one was no longer loaded; it couldn't have fired," he told her, walking closer while keeping an eye on her weapon. He stopped for a moment and smirked, tilting his head. "Neither is yours, by the looks of things."
"You can't tell that from the outside," Sakura sneered. "It's quite a gamble."
"It's not gambling when you know you're going to win," he grinned, running towards her and grabbing her around the throat. "You are a very trigger-happy young woman; you only hessitate in firing now because there are no more bullets for you to fire with."
"Damn you," she hissed, trying to breathe while he was choking her. Scorpion rolled his eyes and moved his knife up towards her neck – ready to slit her throat– but Sakura moved at the last moment and it nicked her shoulder, successfully cutting the strap of her dress and giving her a wound to match his.
"If you continue to move, your death will be slower...painful," he hummed, stroking the knife across her cheek as though it were caressing her skin. She spat at him and Scorpion snarled, throwing her across the ground. Her dress caught on a nail and the bottom tore half-way.
"Crap," Sakura muttered, ripping the rest of it off – she didn't want to ruin her dress, but it was easier to move with a completely torn hem rather than one that was half-hanging off around her ankles. This time, Sakura was able to roll away from his attack as Scorpion threw a punch towards her, and ran down the pier, losing one of her shoes as it fell off her foot and into the water.
"You've trapped yourself, idiot," he sighed, rubbing his temples. "I'm not going to kill you if you make it easy."
Sakura glanced from him to the shimmering, night-time waters of the bay and winced. "This is going to be cold," she realised as she allowed herself to fall off of the edge. The freezing water hit her skin like needles and she lost her second shoe, but paid no attention to this as she swam under the pier, breathing as lightly as she could.
"Fine, I'm leaving," Scorpion sighed. "I'll be back though, so make sure next time is more entertaining, hmm?"
"Damn bastard."
He was going to pay.