Chapter Three: Blinding

Was it fear?

Or exhilaration?

She no longer knew anymore.

Part of her knew that they were wrong

But another part wanted the strength they promised

Not just physical strength but emotional too

It scared her

Because part of her wanted to become that heartless killer

{*~*~*}

And I could hear the thunder and see the lightning crack
All around the world was waking, I never could go back
Cos all the walls of dreaming, they were torn right open
And finally it seemed that the spell was broken
No more dreaming of the dead as if death itself was undone

{*~*~*}

"So you are the little lost Haruno that has returned to us." A strawberry blonde woman glared at Sakura.

Nera spoke. "Sakura, this will be your sensei, Kashinu. She will teach you how to wield and fight with a Blodrhun*, and make sure you become strong enough to handle the Blodrhun.

Sakura stared at Kashinu, surprised to see a blonde in the Haruno family, where everyone had either red, white, or on a rare occasion, pink hair. Granted, Kashinu was strawberry blonde, meaning she did have red in her hair, but still, blonde was the farthest thing from their gene pool.

"Well, girl," Kashinu looked Sakura up and down. "I guess I could make a fighter out of you yet. You trained under the Sannin Tsunade, correct?"

Sakura reluctantly nodded.

"Then at least you know how to punch." Kashinu nodded in approval.

She felt a little insulted.

The strawberry blonde glanced at the Blodrhun sheathed on Sakura's hip and her eyes widened imperceptibly; the look of surprise wiped itself off her face before Sakura or Nera could register it.

"Does she show emotion?" Kashinu asked Nera without taking her eyes off Sakura.

Nera nodded. "Apparently Konoha encourages emotions these days. Anyway, I managed to at least force a mask on her, but she has yet to truly rid herself of emotions, or at least lock them away properly."

Kashinu's eyes slid to Nera. "So I have to teach her to lock away her emotions as well? Wasn't that your job?" her voice was devoid of emotions, but somehow Sakura knew Kashinu and Nera didn't get along.

"Blame those Konoha idiots." Nera shrugged.

Was Kashinu gritting her teeth? Sakura couldn't tell.

"And what of her loyalties?" Kashinu asked. "Is she completely devoted to the Harunos?"

Nera looked at Sakura. "Are you?"

It was at this moment that Sakura's stubborn loyal pride decided to rear its ugly head and seal her death. "I am a kunoichi of Konoha."

Nera looked as if she had been slapped in the face (but still somehow kept her face blank) and Kashinu's mouth set itself in a sadistic grin.

"Looks like we have a lively one, this girl." She cackled, her hand sliding to unsheathe her Blodrhun. "Just like a proper Haruno. But it is clear her judgment is clouded. It would seem I'm going to have to break you first, before we can put you back together properly."

In the blink of an eye, Kashinu's Blodrhun was on Sakura's skin, and she experienced firsthand how to torture with the Blodrhun. Sakura screamed and Nera took a step back to allow Kashinu to torture Sakura within an inch of her life.

{*~*~*}

Kashinu was silent as she threw the bloodied Sakura into a room. The pinkette's mind was so fuzzy that she didn't register anything other than the pain still rushing in her veins and her own screams still ringing in her ears. Her veins showed black on the surface of her skin, pain coursing through them with each pulse of blood, the after-effects of the Blodrhun.

Colliding with the floor, Sakura was too exhausted to even cry out in pain, and vaguely registered the door closing behind her. Then it was dark.

"Hey…"

"Hey you. Wake up."

Something poked Sakura, and she felt pain flare at the contact. It hurt. Like, a lot.

"Wake up Sakura."

Her name. The offending appendage poked her again, and Sakura let out a whimper as more pain bloomed at the contact. Light flared behind her eyelids and Sakura found herself blinded by the torch.

"Oh!" the voice was surprised, but not worriedly so. "I see. You must have angered Kashinu-sama."

Sakura peeled open one eyelid to find herself looking into the deepest green eyes she had ever seen in a Haruno. The girl had cropped red hair, with white highlights. Her face was slightly pudgy, her lips pursed in disapproval, and all together she looked quite young.

"Who…" Sakura rasped.

A water jug was shoved into her face.

"Drink first." The young girl commanded. As Sakura struggled to sit up, the younger Haruno sighed and helped the pinkette to a sitting position, leaning Sakura against the wall.

Sakura sighed in relief and brought the water to her lips with a shaky arm. Lacerations covered her forearm, her veins looking like angry, miniscule whip marks. Carefully ignoring them, she savored the cool liquid sliding down her throat, making her feel slightly less deathly.

"My name is Mika." The girl said, sitting down in front of Sakura. "I am one of your cousins."

Sakura studied her cousin carefully, noting that this girl had to be and the most thirteen, and only just starting puberty. Mika's body was scrawny and lanky, with few curves, but clearly exercised in muscle. Her eyes showed more emotion than most Harunos, but Sakura figured it was only a matter of time before this girl became a heartless killer as well.

"Where am I?" Sakura ventured to ask.

Mika gestured to the beds pushed against the wall. "Our room. I will be your roommate for now."

"Roommate?" Sakura asked.

Mika nodded. "You are no longer on Haruno grounds. We are at the Haruno training facility in the Yang'te mountain region."

Sakura scrunched her face and wracked her brain for any memory of a Yang'te mountain range. "I've never heard of such a mountain range."

"I don't know what other people call it." Mika shrugged. "The name has changed with each new occupation."

"Occupation?"

"Yeah, this place," Mika nodded to the snow covered mountains outside their window. "Has been fought over for centuries, and many times the occupiers would change the name. But the Haruno family still calls it by its original name."

Sakura opened her mouth to ask a new question, but Mika suddenly looked up. Then Sakura felt it too.

"Kashinu approaches." Mika whispered just as the door to their room slammed open.

Pinkish-blonde hair was pulled into a severe bun as narrow green eyes studied Sakura. Kashinu strode into the room and bent to pick up Sakura's arm. The pinkette flinched as Kashinu's touch reminded her of her previous torture at the woman's hands, but Kashinu did not let her go. The older woman seemed to study Sakura's still-fading veins before nodding to herself.

"You'll be fine." Kashinu nodded, standing up in her usual imposing manner. "Mika, you will be in charge of this one. Show her the ropes."

Mika nodded meekly.

"I'm also putting you in charge of teaching her the history of the Haruno clan." Kashinu informed Mika. "Sakura's training is very much lacking in Haruno standards, but I do not have the time nor the patience to teach such elementary information. Clean this girl up and have her ready for weapons practice this afternoon. She will be placed in your class."

"Hai, Kashinu-sama!" Mika answered quickly.

Once Kashinu had left, the redhead sighed in relief and turned to look at Sakura. "Well, we should get you cleaned up."

Mika was surprisingly gentle as she bent to help Sakura to her feet and practically carried the older girl into a bathroom. Sakura gingerly sat herself down on the toilet seat and watched as Mika turned on the bath faucet, waiting for the water to warm. Then Mika helped Sakura remove her clothes (what was left of them after her punishment) and helped Sakura into the steaming tub.

Tears streamed down Sakura's face as the warm water stung on her wounds. She tried to soothe the pain with her chakra, then realized that the Blodrhun wounds did not respond to chakra.

So that's why I wasn't able to heal myself… She thought. After receiving her injuries, Sakura hadn't been conscious enough to register much.

Sakura hissed in pain as Mika began to wash the wounds with soap, even when the girl had only used a small amount of soap so as not to aggravate the wounds.

"You must learn to take such punishment." Mika said in a softer tone than before. "Kashinu pushes us hard in training."

Sakura remained silent, and heard her cousin sigh behind her.

"Let's see…" Mika murmured. "Where to start?"

For a long moment there was silence. Then, Mika began to tell the tale of the Haruno.

"Our clan is quite old. Not ancient; but old. And proud. Very, very proud.

The old Haruno were great warriors. Every member of the clan had perfect chakra control, and produced some of the greatest puppeteers in shinobi history. Then our clan began to experiment with their chakra in other way, mainly creating new offensive techniques using raw chakra.

Thus weapons such as chakra scalpels and chakra whips were created. The Haruno kept pushing the limits of chakra offense. Their main elemental powers were over earth or water. They became involved in the First Great Shinobi war, and there, the downfall of the Haruno began.

There were many great clans during this time. The most famous, of course, were the Senju and the Uchiha. But there were also the Hyuuga, the Sarutobi, and many more. Among them was the Haruno.

The Haruno wanted no part in the war. Their clan preferred to remain neutral in the war, because the Clan Elders and Clan Head at the time realized the war was leading to the self-destruction of countless clans, and the Haruno preferred not to be lost to history.

But the Haruno Clan was pressured from both sides. Both the Senju and Uchiha were competing for an alliance with the infamous Haruno Clan in order to pair their kekkei gekkai with our perfect chakra control. And so the clan was caught between two of the most powerful shinobi clan leaders in history: Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara.

The Clan Leader at the time was Haruno Akemi, a wise young woman, well known for her tactical mind and fighting prowess. It was said that she was a beauty unlike any other, but her fiery temper was socially unacceptable for a woman at that time. It was unusual enough for a clan to allow a woman to be their leader during this time, let alone one that stood up to men and spoke her mind. This made her unattractive in political marriage, but none the less, it is said that Akemi had many suitors still.

Yet Akemi refused every man. It is said that, when even the Uchiha and Senju finally resorted to offering a marriage alliance to gain the Haruno support, Akemi actually laughed in their faces.

Akemi steadfastly refused to allow her clan to be caught up in the bloodshed of the Shinobi War. That is, until tragedy befell the Haruno Clan.

No one is sure to this day which side dared attacked the Haruno. But one thing was certain: one night, a great attack was launched on the Haruno Clan while Akemi was away on a diplomatic mission.

When Akemi returned, she found that her clan nearly cut in half. Yet none of the survivors even understood what had happened to them. None of the survivors could put what they had endured into words. Their only words were "We were attacked by a monster made man" and all were mentally damaged so badly that they would scream at night.

Akemi's younger sister and brother had been killed in the attack as well. Those murdered had been savagely ripped and torn to pieces, others dying with looks of absolute horror on their faces while their bodies were untouched. Such terrible brutality had never been witnessed before. In her rage, she collected her clan and withdrew into the Yang'te mountains. There, Akemi and what remained of the Elders hatched a plan. They would cease all contact with the other clans, regardless of whether they may have had any hand in the massacre.

But this wasn't enough for Akemi. The deaths of her brother and sister had been so heartless and cruel, so brutal, that her heart screamed for revenge.

And so she left.

For a month her clan neither saw nor heard from her. During that time, Akemi had used an unknown summoning technique using a full cycle of the moon to call upon a demon. No one is sure which demon it was, but this was the demon that gave the Haruno the Blodrhun. Legend states that Akemi asked three things of the demon: One, to give her clan weapons filled with the wrath of the Haruno. Two, for the survivors of the attack to be healed. And Three, Akemi asked for the identity of her clan's killer.

And so the Blodrhun was created- born of demonic taint and the grievances of murdered innocents. So tragic was the power that even the masters of such weapons would not be immune to the pain the Blodrhun channeled.

The demon answered each of Akemi's wishes, although not in how she may have imagined it. The Haruno were granted the Blodrhun weapons, and through these weapons the second wish was granted. But instead of healing the survivors of the attack, the Harunos ceased to feel anything at all, save for the hatred contained within the Blodrhun. As for the third wish, no one is sure.

Akemi returned to her clan for a year, granting the Blodrhun to her most powerful warriors. In that year, the clan grew, and more Blodrhun were created for every Haruno that took up arms. The First Shinobi War soon approached Haruno territory, and with their new weapons, the Haruno clan quickly drove out both sides of the war, showing no mercy to both the Senju and Uchiha sides. The Senju and Uchiha had not seen the Haruno clan for two years, and quickly attempted to make an alliance with the Haruno Clan again. But the Haruno had stopped trusting other shinobi clans, and quickly shut down any attempts at diplomacy.

At the end of the year, though, Akemi announced her cousin, Himoru, as her heir, and stepped down from her place as Clan Head. This, of course, caused much alarm, for Akemi was still young and had become a legendary leader in the Haruno history.

That night, Akemi disappeared. Most believe that she had only returned long enough to see the Haruno Clan back on its feet before she set off to find her clan's murderer. What happened after Akemi killed the clan killer, no one knows.

How do we know Akemi killed the one behind the massacre? It is said that a year or two later, the Blodrhun became covered in black veins, and every handler of the weapons felt Ariane's and her Blodrhun's joy and triumph as she avenged her brother and sister. After that, though, Akemi never appeared.

Later on, of course, the Haruno eventually lost the key to making Blodrhun, and we now only have the ones that are left, with even fewer Harunos to wield them." Mika rinsed the conditioner out of Sakura's hair. "The Haruno clan never really left the Yang'te mountain range, only moving their village southward into the valley for better agriculture and trade once peace had settled. Himoru, Akemi's successor, would later be the one to lead the Haruno to Konoha, foolishly believing in the delusions of peace that Hashirama spoke of."

Mika finished washing Sakura and dried her hands on a towel.

Sakura stayed silent for a long time, still processing the entire story. It was… mind-boggling, to say the least. An entire chapter of Konoha's history had been cut out. She had no doubt it was intentional too.

Something about the story seemed off. It was just a gut feeling of hers, but Sakura's inner self was telling her something wasn't right. First of all, why wasn't the Haruno clan mentioned in of the Konoha texts? Not even in any of the other hidden villages Sakura had been to had ever mentioned the Haruno in their libraries. Not even a hint of the Haruno in Konoha. Why had her clan been cut out from history? Because no one who had ever had contact with either Madara or Hashirama was left out of history. Hell, even Hashirama's bulter had a place in the textbooks! Surely a prominent clan leader, a female clan leader, from their era should have been at least alluded to.

"So…" Sakura finally began. "Why don't any of the other shinobi clans even aware of the Haruno?"

Mika stared curiously at Sakura as the younger girl helped her cousin out of the bathtub. Sakura's legs trembled with the effort to stand. Seeing this, Mika quickly wrapped a towel around Sakura and nearly swept Sakura into their room and placed the pinkette on a bed.

"You should get some rest." Mika stated. "I'll go order some food from the servants and wake you when it arrives. You still have three, more like four, hours to rest before we have to train with Kashinu-sama at four."

Sakura's hand shot out from under the bed covers and captured Mika's wrist. "Answer my question."

Mika stared blankly at Sakura for a long while. "Honestly," she began with a sigh, "I've never been beyond the Haruno compound except for the occasional low-rank mission. I have never had a conversation with another shinobi either, so I wouldn't know anything about the shinobi world you are from."

Sakura nodded and let go of Mika, who left to order their food from the kitchens.

'The mysteries just keep getting deeper and deeper.' Inner Sakura murmured, oddly subdued.

Yeah. Sakura thought frowning as she closed her eyes to sleep. Looks like we are going to have to do some sleuthing.

'Curiosity killed the cat.'


I DON'T OWN ANYTHING

* means pronunciation

*Blodrhun- The 'o' in "blod" are slurred, as if in an British accent, the 'd' is tongued with a hard "duh" sound, and the 'rh' make almost a "ruh" sound with the 'u' making a "ue" (blo-hD-rhu-N)

Yep, I included pronunciation. If there are any other words you would like to have help on, just ask me.

Well, this a complete re-write of the original third chapter. Yeah, in the original version I was getting a little ahead in the story and I wanted to add some depth. Anyway, I had fun with this chapter. Maybe it'll inspire me later on.

Like it? REVIEW!

Don't like it?... TOO BAD.

~Lilithia