Unspeakable
NG: Chapter 3 le gosh. I've decided that this story will only be about 10 chapters long. If it falls short of that goal I apologize in advance and I shall feel very disappointed in myself… however if it exceeds that… :OOO I will be shocked and happy.
Sasuke: Neko Graphic does not own me and Never. Will.
NG: TT I feel so unloved…
Naruto cast: get used to it.
Chapter 3: Blood Ties
Sakura clicked the last clasp on her suitcase closed with a sigh; it hadn't taken long for her to pack away all the things she had gathered on her rather long stay at Konoha hospital. She looked around the spacious room one last time making sure she got everything. She didn't expect anything, she only had the clothes she was found in and some outfits Ino had given her, ignoring her protests that she didn't need anything. She waved it off saying that this was Konoha and she had to make a presentation, plus she didn't wear them anymore so why let good clothes go to waste? It made sense, in an Ino sort of way. So here she stood dressed in a red kimono style shirt decorated with white waves and white trim and long black slacks that ended above the ankle taking one last look at the only home she knew, or at least remembered.
'I wonder if my parents, if I had any, are looking for me?' she pondered, her green eyes distant, 'what about friends? Do I have any siblings? So many questions I might never get an answer to.' Another sigh left her unconsciously as she sat on the edge of her bed thinking about the life she might have had once which led to a new thought,
'What now?' she cocked her head to the side leaning back as she braced herself on her hands.
"100 yen for your thoughts," came a voice she knew well. She turned to greet the new arrival with a dazzling smile.
"Ohayo Sasuke-san," she said in her quiet voice, said ninja smirked at her as he leaned against the doorjamb. In all black he looked every part on a ninja with black sleeveless shirt black slightly baggy pants with his kunai, shuriken holsters and Katana strapped to him it was hard to picture him so relaxed. His red lined black ANBU tattoo, signifying he was a captain, stood out on his pale unblemished skin.
"Ohayo," he replied with a nod of his head, "finished packing?" he asked, Sakura nodded, "I have to take you to the Hokage, She'll tell you were you'll be staying for the time being and what the elders have to say about you staying here. Not that she'll listen to the old bats anyways, she likes you."
"Wow Sasuke-san I don't think I've ever heard you say so much at once," Sakura commented in a slightly teasing tone. Sasuke raised an eyebrow.
"That's because I'm not on duty," He told her, "And I know you. If you were anyone else other then the dobe or Kakashi-sensei, you wouldn't hear so much from me."
"I believe it," Sakura told him getting off her bed, and yanking her suit case off the bed sitting it on its end so she could pull out the handle, (it was wheeled thank goodness).
"And what do you mean she won't listen to the elders? Doesn't she have to?" she asked confused.
Sasuke shrugged, "Technically, yes. But lets face it she hates them! And they aren't too happy with her either considering she refuses to be their lap dog. Now if Danzou were in charge, we would have a problem." Sakura didn't bother asking who Danzou was; she assumed it was someone who had immense power in the village. Sasuke let out a withheld breath at the end of his long rant, obviously not used to speaking so much.
"Anyways," he muttered going back to his usual self, "you ready?" Sakura nodded enthusiastically, eager to see the outside world after two months incarceration in the hospital. Sasuke chuckled and pushed himself off the doorframe leading her out of her room and down the hallway. They passed many nurses and patients on their way out, all of them calling their farewells. Sakura had gotten quite popular with the staff because of her history and she had taken to walking around the hall when she had gotten bored and talked to other patients. Her dazzling smile when she listened to their stories, about missions, family, friends, fathers proudly taking of their children becoming genin and so on, she had learned a lot about this village that way. She knew that it was a safe and happy one, she also knew that not all villages were like this one, some were down right horrible while others in constant wars with their neighbours.
They passed Hinata in the main lobby; she smiled and waved at them with her newly healed hand. Sakura waved back and Sasuke nodded to her. Sakura felt uneasy as she stepped up to the sliding doors of Konoha hospital.
"You okay?" Sasuke asked looking down at her from the corner of his eye. Sakura nodded hastily and took a deep breath. Sasuke chuckled and led her into the busy village of Konoha.
It was nosier then she thought, she shrunk back instinctively away from the organized chaos that was downtown Konoha. People were every were, ninja in uniform waked around talking about missions, elder children ran hurriedly to the academy, younger children not old enough to learn the ninja arts opted to play pretend ninja in a version of hide on seek. The full fledged shinobi watched their antics with amusement. Civilians walked around shopping and bartering, exclaiming at prices and comparing to items in other stores. Then there were those who just gathered to joke around and gossip, sharing the latest rumours about important officials and high ranking shinobi. Sasuke placed his hand at the small of Sakuras back and guided her past one of these such cliques gathered around a water fountain with a statue of an angle with her wings outstretch.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes I got it from my husband who was delivering mail to the gate guards this morning. They were just putting the sheet over her,"
"Oh that poor girl,"
The crowd seemed to be gathered around a rather smug looking woman with short blond hair, pleased to have first hand confirmation of such juicy news.
"But did he really say, she had no blood in her?"
"That's what my husband heard one of the ANBU say when they covered her," the blond woman said looking around superiorly.
"What would do such a thing?!"
Someone's answer was lost to the pair as they moved out of hearing range. Sakura felt Sasuke tense behind her. She looked up at him curiously but his face was hidden in the shadows of his bangs. She bit her lip as she caught a glimpse of his sharingan.
"Sasuke-san," she started slowly. Guessing her question Sasuke forced his eyes to return to their normal onyx-grey colour, he gave her a rather weak smirk.
"It's nothing Sakura," he told her, "I'm an ANBU captain and I have no idea what their talking about most likely it was made up by that woman to impress her friends." Sakura nodded slowly still unconvinced but let the matter drop. They walked in silence for a few minutes, the entrance to the Hokage mansion coming into view. Something blond and dressed in orange was jumping up and down waving like a maniac at them.
"OI! SASUKE-TEME, SAKURA-CHAN!"
"Dobe," Sasuke muttered under his breath as Sakura giggled pleased to see her whiskered friend, the matter before seemed to slip from her mind. Someone standing next to him smacked his head making him stop.
"Thank you, Kakashi-sensei." Sasuke said with relief.
"No problem," the silver haired jonin replied his eyes closed to sow his smile.
"Hello Kakashi-san," Sakura greeted, having met him a couple weeks ago.
"Hello to you Sakura, my, my you look rather fetching today." Sakura blushed under Kakashi's complement.
"Kaka-sensei!" Naruto wined from his place sitting on the ground, "Don't hog Sakura-chan." Kakashi chuckled and turned back to his precious little orange book. Sakura giggled again.
"Hello Naruto-san." She greeted. Naruto grinned wide showing off his slightly pointed canines. Sasuke sighed in irritation, rubbing his temples at his team's immaturity.
"Alright people," he said finally slightly exasperated, "let's go Tsunade-sama is waiting for us."
"Yeah, yeah," Naruto complained getting off the ground and striding towards the Hokages mansion his arms folded behind his head, "Tsunade-baa-chan will get grumpy and most likely punch one of us through a wall if we're too late."
"Most likely you Naruto," Kakashi commented, "You're the one who calls her 'granny'."
"But she is," Naruto cried.
"That doesn't mean you have to point it out every time you see her," Kakashi pointed out wisely.
"Yeah dobe, maybe then you'll have enough brain cells still alive to call a brain," Sasuke chided grinning.
"Bastard," Naruto growled advancing on the Uchiha.
"Not now you two," Kakashi ordered stopping Naruto in his tracks, "we're here." Before then stood proud wooden doors that hid the Hokage's office from view. Sakura began to feel nervous and something else stirring in the pit of her stomach, unease. Naruto barged in without knocking.
"Baa-chan teme brought Sakura-chan!" he announced as the other three followed him into a spacious room, windows opened at the back giving a view of the bustling village below, two comfortable looking chairs facing a handsome desk covered with scrolls and paperwork were occupied. Tsunade sat behind the desk in a high backed chair looking irritated at the blond. Naruto's eyes narrowed at the two other people in the room. Kakashi put his book away and Sasuke tensed again. Sakura didn't recognize the elderly couple in the chairs in front of them. She hadn't seen them before but the way they held themselves in the chairs suggested they were of stature and of high importance.
"Ah good," the woman of the pair said looking sharply at the group, "Now we only have to wait for Danzou then we may begin."
"Danzou?" Sasuke hissed his eyes flashing to sharingan again glaring at the elders in front of him.
"What? Why do we need him?" Naruto cried, "Heck I don't even know why you need to be here!" the elders looked unfazed.
"It's simple Kyuubi," Naruto growled lowly at the insult, "This is a matter security. We do not know what happened to the girl and we don't know what did. Nor do we know if it will come after her again, we must protect the people of this village so we must evaluate if she stays or goes." Sakura frowned, it sounded like they already made up their minds! And she didn't like how they spoke of her as if she wasn't there.
"That's the duty of the Hokage and doesn't require the elders assistance," Kakashi's voice was ice as he spoke his single visible eye hard. Tsunade smiled at him from behind the elder's backs. The male elder frowned.
"If it concerns the well being of Konoha we must be present." He stated.
"Danzou isn't an elder," Sasuke pointed out, "he doesn't have any right to be here or any influence in this 'decision'."
"But we think highly of Danzou's views," The old woman said, "we asked him for his point of view on this." Sasuke swore under his breath and did a set of complicated seals. Slamming his hand on the ground a snake appeared in a puff of smoke; it nodded once to Sasuke and slithered out of the room.
"What was that for Uchiha?" the old man asked.
"It'll be three against three," he said finally, "that'll bring a deadlock in deliberations and you will get the victory be default," he said coldly. Sakura noticed he was referring to the situation like it was a battle. She looked around at the serious faces and tense postures and decided that it was.
"So I will bring in an outside party, one that is neutral by having connections to both sides." He finished. The elders frowned and Kakashi beamed at his, Naruto looked a little confused doing his best to keep up.
"And who would that be?" Tsunade asked almost failing in hiding her glee at the Uchihas quick thinking.
Poof!
The smoke dissipated to reveal a very pale young man who look a lot like Sasuke, but his black hair had no shine and seemed plastered to his head, a small fake smile flitted on his face.
"Sai," Sasuke stated. The man named Sai bowed to the hokage and gave a smaller bow to the elders whom looked furious.
"Your summoning filled me in on the proceedings Sasuke-san," the ninja told them. Sasuke nodded. Dull clunking sounded from down the hall coming closer. The door was opened yet again this time by an elderly man with many scars, half of his head was covered in bandages and he walked with a stick clutched tightly in one hand.
"It's been a while Tsunade-hime," he greeted the Godaime with a proper bow.
"Not long enough, "Tsunade snapped her eyes blazing. Danzou ignored her and turned his attention to the others, his gaze lingers on Sai briefly in anger and then stopped on Sakura, and she had an instant disliking for the man. He observed her like she was an object.
"So this is the girl," it wasn't a question more like a comment he walked over towards her, Sakura resisted the urge to back away. Suddenly Sasuke stepped in front of her shielding her from view much to her surprise. Danzou hesitated before stepping back, away from the fury if the famed sharingan.
"Shall we begin then?" he asked. Naruto snorted interrupting the elders before they could speak.
"There is nothing to discus!" the blond snapped, "This is Konoha! We do not throw people that need are help away."
"She is a security risk!" the female elder pointed out.
"It's not like she's going to let whatever the hell traumatized her into Konoha." Kakashi said his arms folded across his chest.
"It has already proven it will come for her!" Danzou said, "First the roses that injured an outside party, and it has already given us another message!"
"We received no message," Sasuke snarled. Danzou smirked.
"Of course not," he said, "my men got it before you did. This outside your jurisdiction captain." Sasuke laughed, he gave an outright laugh that sent shivers down everyone's spine.
"You seem delusional, Danzou." He said, "You have no jurisdiction. ROOT was an illegal organization and was disbanded three years ago. You're not in jail only because you're the elder's dog!"
"Uchiha!" the old man cried out, "You are out of line,"
"In this room I am the ANBU captain," Sasuke said so quietly but everyone heard him, "I will not have my investigation hindered by you or anyone else. You will return everything you took Danzou and you might not be charged for obstruction of justice. The matter of Sakura and this case is not you field in order to exact what ever revenge you think you have claim to." Everyone was silent after that speech, Naruto, Tsunade and Kakashi were grinning and the elders and Danzou looked mutinous. Sakura looked up at her defender in aw. Never had she heard such authority leave his mouth, and as for as she remembered no one had defended her with such determination.
Sai spoke up.
"Clearly I see why my presence is needed. The two parties are split, but before I give my opinion I must tell you that before I came Hyuuga Neji and Hyuuga Hinata approached me and told me to tell you that the Hyuuga clan has already said they would support the girl staying in the village and having this, thing, hunted down rather then giving it what it wants. They wish to uphold Konohas' honour."
The elders and Danzou froze. The Uchiha still had the power of his clans' influence by right even though they were gone. But they were willing to go against one man, however if the Hyuuga clan supported the girl…they couldn't risk offending both of the two most important and powerful clans in Konoha. It could open the door to their loss of power and lead to their dismissal from the daimyo lord. Or worse, civil war.
"Fine," the old woman snapped, "she stays. Danzou will return what he took and inform you of what it was. The girl will stay at the Uchiha estate since he's so eager to have her stay and he has the room." The pair stood to leave, "If anything goes wrong however," they told him, "We will hold you responsible." Sasuke only stared back into their eyes until they looked away. Without looking at anyone else in the room they strode out. Danzou spoke, is voice shaky with suppressed malevolence.
"We found a body of a girl outside the village gate sometime this morning around daybreak. Her clothes were torn and dirty. The bottoms of her feet were slashed to ribbons much like the girls were when she was first found."
"She has a name!" Naruto snapped. Danzou ignored him and continued on.
"Her body was drained of blood and she looked as if she had been tortured before she was killed." Danzou bowed and left the room.
XXX
Sakura sat on her new bed in her room in the Uchiha compound. After the argument between Sasuke and the elders she had been taken to the compound and shown around. St first she was shocked to see that the entire compound was absolutely empty and didn't understand why, until she saw the cemetery. Sasuke was very quiet as he showed her this part of the compound. She could guess what happened. Everyone had died one way or another. She didn't say anything, just suggested that they move on. A suggestion Sasuke accepted gladly. He then led her to his home. The mansion at the very back of the compound with its large yards and gardens stretching towards a forest enclosed in the compound. It was a beautiful traditional styled mansion with sliding doors and the Uchiha fan emblem decorated everywhere. Sasuke gave her a brief tour o f the inside showing his room, the master bedroom that had once been his parents before leading her to another room furnished with elegant but comfortable looking chairs and a king sized bed, the walls painted a light cream, it had an amazing view of the lake behind the mansion.
"This was my brothers room," Sasuke had told her, "He was the heir before me, he had amazing taste I thought you might appreciate it." From the sound of his voice the loss of his bother was very hard on him. Harder then the deaths of his parents. Sakura concluded they were very close and felt honoured to be in the room that belonged to someone so special to Sasuke.
Sakura sighed and stood up from the bed and began to unpack her belongings. On the bedside table she placed a picture; in the frame was the only memory she had of her past life. It was a blown up picture of one she had in a necklace she wore. In it was a smaller version of herself, around twelve maybe and an older girl around fifteen with red hair and dark almost black green eyes. Sakuras assumed it was some sort of relative.
Fleetingly she wondered if her family, if she had one, was looking for her and if the girl in the picture was worried. She liked to gaze at the picture and try to remember how she had known her, but nothing was familiar about her, only the bracelet on the writs she had strung around her twelve year old self seemed to spark some sort of recognition in her. It was a simple thing, sterling silver with swirl vines engraved into it, an emerald coloured stone rested in a pommel on the clasp. Sakuras eyes once again fixed onto the bracelet.
'Keep going Sakura, come on we're almost there!'
Sakura jolted, the voice of a young woman echoed in her head. It sounded desperate and scared. It was out of breath as if it had been running.
'What was that?' Sakura held her hand to her chest feeling the erratic beat of her racing heart. Her eyes glanced at the girls face.
'No matter what, you have to keep going, do you hear me!'
Sakuras breath began to quicken as she stared into the eyes of the smiling mystery woman.
'Konoha is a village, they say it is the safest place in the world.'
The voice seemed calm. Almost lazy as it talked dreamily of Konoha. This must have happened days maybe weeks before.
'You have to get to Konoha! You'll be safe there!'
'I'm not leaving you!'
'GO!'
This time her own voice sounded in her memory, it too sounded desperate and tired as she protested leaving the girl behind. Tears formed to replace the ones that already fell without Sakura noticing. Dimly she heard the front door slam and Sasuke call out her name. She didn't answer only continue to gaze at the face of someone whom knew her.
"Sakura?" Sasukes voice came from the doorway. Hastily Sakura wipped the tears from her eyes and turned around.
"Yes?" Sasuke looked at her questioningly but didn't remark on why she was crying. His eyes flickered to the picture and back at her making the connection.
"We got the items on the girl who was found outside the gates," he told her, "there wasn't much." He led her out of the room and down the stairs into the dinning room. There was a bag on the table with a seal on his. Sasuke walked over and picked it up.
"I'm not sure what it means but I just want to make sure…" he trailed off. The feeling of unease made its presence know to Sakura from the pit of her stomach. He took the item out of the bag and showed it to her. Sakura felt her heart stop.
In his hands was a bracelet, of sterling silver, engraved with the patterns of vines and a green stone set in pommel on the clasp.
'Sakura-chan?'
'Hai, nee-chan,'
'Have you ever felt like you were being watched?"
End of chapter