That was the sound of a pair of disgruntled bedsprings
crying out in protest at being disturbed in the dead of
night.
"Mmm..."
That was the voice of Sakura Haruno.
Squeak-squeak-wonk-squeal!
The irate and vocal mattress union banded together to voice
their displeasure with the current work environment. Being
newly purchased, they were unsure of what was going on, but
they knew instinctively it wasn't part of normal sleep
procedure and blamed management.
Squeak-wonk-squeak-squeal-squeal-wonk!!
The wizened bed frame knew, though; all too well, in fact,
and let out a sigh and groaned. Sakura matched it in
chorus, but also added soft whimpering with unintended
flair and effect.
"Nngh... N-no," she hiccupped, her voice thick with
emotion. Turning over onto her stomach saw her hips
hitched up into the air.
Eyes were screwed tight, as a bead of sweat inched its way
down her brow. Hands pulled, twisted, and bunched handfuls
of mussed bed sheet as she felt flushed warmth suffuse the
length from her head to her toes. A familiar and oddly
comforting sensation was building in the fiery pit of her
belly, seeking release.
It was on an inaudible cue, like a rubber band being pulled
to the breaking point, that her limit was reached. She
bucked and thrashed, limbs flailing in all directions as a
primal cry tore loose from the cage of her lips.
"W-why... AM I STILL AWAKE?!"
------------
Not So Ordinary Day
Chapter 4
By Rai-kun
Disclaimer: Naruto and its characters and settings belong
to Masashi Kishimoto, Shueisha, and Viz Communication.
------------
Flocks of birds were startled into flight at the shout, but
the sun heedlessly crept on above the horizon, past the
tops of the Hokage Monument, to stir the denizens of Konoha
from their sleep. Save those already up, like Sakura. If
she were in the right mindset, she probably would have
argued that one needed to have attained sleep to actually
be coaxed into wakefulness; as it was, this was merely
exhaustion running on 24-7 with no commercial interruptions.
The insomnia had granted her great insight, however, with
the abundance of time to think and think and think and
think and... Sleep had adequately proven itself to be
something like an elusive soap bar. The more effort she
exerted to attain it, the more forcefully it squirted out
of her grasp like a sudsy rocket.
Her head felt fuzzy and her eyes burned even while closed.
She felt lethargic and heavy, as if her entire blood supply
had been replaced with cement. The shrill buzzing of her
alarm clock coaxed a fierce growl from the girl, as she
rolled herself out of bed to turn it off.
Sakura gave her reflection an once-over in a full-length
mirror and declared a state of emergency. She tried to
comb her fingers through her hair, but hissed and winced on
catching the patchwork of matted tangles. She shuffled
awkwardly like a slug back to her nightstand where her
hairbrush lay, and happened to glance at the group photo of
Team 7.
Again, the odd feeling from last night welled up and she
vented it in a most unladylike manner -- by blowing his
portrait image a raspberry.
"Stupid Naruto," she half-heartedly berated.
Sometimes he was just so...
-----------
"Troublesome."
"WHAT?" Ino screeched. "I dare you to say that again, you
insensitive jerk!"
The target of her ire, one Shikamaru Nara, shot her a
sidelong glance that spoke volumes of the indifference he
felt.
"Trou-ble-some," he enunciated. Each syllable was
delivered with exaggerated slowness for maximum effect.
Perhaps too much, he noted, as he dodged a kick aimed at
his shin.
"And you're proving my point," Shikamaru commented drolly,
digging his hands into his pockets.
Ino reminded him of a kettle, with all of her hissing and
sputtering. He smirked when she began stomping her feet,
as if the exercise would hammer home the points in her weak
argument. The expression soon slipped, however, when
villagers around them stopped to take in the spectacle,
whispering amongst themselves. Shikamaru pinched the
bridge of his nose -- half in embarrassment and half from
the migraine that was building.
"I just wanted to sit on the hill and relax," he lamented.
He really wished his mother weren't so adamant that he got
his "lazy butt out of the house," as she put it, and that
his butter-soft father was useless in this case didn't
help. Ino stopping by to deliver flowers right when she
did was a suspicious coincidence, one that the sly Nara
matriarch quickly cashed in on. A push, a wave, and a
swift kick to the butt later, he was hoisted off on the
"nice" girl, with a locked door slammed behind him in
farewell. Shikamaru thought her pick-pocketing his house
keys on top of that was a little much.
He turned his attention back to his lovely companion who
was busy roasting him on a spit with her heated glares.
"Look, I just don't want to get involved in one of your
harebrained schemes. Period. End of story."
"You didn't even listen to my whole explanation, though!"
"Don't need to. You lost me the moment you started using
nasty four-letter words."
"What--" Ino quickly counted the letters on her fingers to
be certain. "Love isn't a nasty word, you idiot!"
The ever-skeptical Shikamaru didn't bother to stifle his
incredulous snort.
"Ino, sometimes I think you do this on purpose."
"Do WHAT on purpose?" she snapped.
"Mess things up, then offer your 'help' to fix things after
the fact," Shikamaru stated.
"Are you trying to start a fight? Because I can take you
on right here, right now, if you're asking for it!"
He rolled his eyes. "See, this is exactly why I hate
dealing with you chicks."
Ino gnashed her teeth.
"Everything has to be about drama."
"SHI...KA..."
He was far too absorbed in ticking off his list of why
women in general were a pain, so he couldn't be faulted
for not hearing what the "nice girl" was trying to tell him.
"MARU!!"
His head snapped up instantly, but then he froze like his
namesake caught in headlights.
"Oh--"
------------
"Crap," Sakura hissed, rubbing the spot on her head where
her brush had pulled painfully. She twirled away from her
seat in front of the mirror and pitched herself across her
bed. For the time being, she surrendered her hair as being
a lost cause and focused her thoughts inwards.
Naruto.
The boy had obvious pluses and minuses that she was duly
aware of -- some more obvious than others.
The attention that he'd shower her with, for instance, was
nice, she admitted. Sometimes, she appended. When given
in small doses it felt unbelievably good to be appreciated
and desired so intensely. Unfortunately, "moderation" had
no entry in Naruto's mental dictionary, where "overdose"
was scribbled onto every page in orange crayon.
Take, for example, last week. He came dressed in wicked
bee stings from head to toe. He endured all that just to
give her a single pink flower. It was insane, it was
unreasonable, and it was so--
So very Naruto, she acknowledged.
He'd go to great lengths to make her happy even at the cost
of his own. It was a fact that brought a smile to her
face, but at the same time it also made her feel...
guilty. Terribly so, because it touched on the only big
negative she could think of.
He just wasn't Sasuke.
It was mean, she knew, but she couldn't help it. His only
major flaw was that he wasn't born as someone else. She
felt kind of dirty and low for harboring such thoughts, but
it was true no matter how cruel.
Sasuke always had this palpable gloom about him that a lot
of girls thought was cool, but looking beyond that was a
loneliness so deep that before you even realized it, you
had your arms unconsciously outstretched to comfort him.
Sometimes she thought she saw that same air around Naruto,
but his cheerful bluster was hard to see through, so it was
possible she was just misreading something.
Or was she?
Sakura shook her head, trying not to dwell on the matter.
The incident with Ino last night probably pushed her more
off-balance than she'd thought. It wasn't everyday that
you had your worldview kicked in the teeth with steel toes,
and that more than anything is probably why the latest
development between Hinata and Naruto felt so weird.
It honestly bothered her. Not that she disliked Hinata,
but the thought of her being together with Naruto violated
something fundamental. Her inner voice likened it to a
favorite toy being taken away, but she found herself hating
that analogy because she knew what she was feeling wasn't
something so petty. At least she hoped not.
Sakura rolled over onto her side and clutched her pillow to
her chest as she glanced out her window. Ino had left
specific instructions that she wait here for her return
because she was supposed to be coming back with "a cure for
what ailed her," whatever that meant.
"I hope Ino can..."
------------
"Explain why I'm paying for this?" Shikamaru asked in his
"teacher finds this not amusing" tone.
"Because you embarrassed me," Ino primly affirmed, in a
manner flippant students tend to. She spooned another
mouthful of pricey parfait into her mouth and made a show
of it, her toes seemingly curling in pleasure.
"I embarrassed you?" he asked incredulously, shedding his
pretense of the calm and collected intellect.
"Yes. All those people were staring and laughing at what
you made me do." She scrunched up her face sourly as she
recalled the incident with a dollop of mortification.
"You punched me in the eye! In the middle of the village
square!"
"You make it sound as if it were somehow my fault."
"You took a victory lap around me!"
"What exactly are you trying to say?"
"That it IS your fault!"
"Now, Shikamaru," Ino said in lecturing tones, gesturing
admonishingly with her spoon, "You are never going to get
anywhere in life if you don't take responsibility for your
own actions."
Shikamaru gaped, as his reason and voice packed up and left
town arm in arm. "You-- I-- What-- Rah!"
He pinioned his head beneath his arms on the table. The
weight of the girl's backwards logic was too much for his
neck to hold up.
"Elbows off the table," Ino scolded.
Shikamaru jolted as if stung, but slowly, with stiffly
mechanical movements, he righted himself and deigned to
look his partner square in the eyes.
"I'll help," he croaked. His voice held an unhealthy
lifelessness to it, like a dying man making his peace
before a firing squad.
"I knew you'd come around." Ino looked like she was
stopping herself just short from patting him on the head.
Shikamaru repressed a shudder as she fried him extra crispy
with her beaming smile. It was far easier to just give in
than to keep up this pointless fight. All good players
know when to hold and know when to fold.
"So," Shikamaru began, "what exactly is this plan of yours?"
Ino drew back in her seat and crossed her arms, then put on
a self-satisfied smirk.
"I'm glad you asked me that question, Shikamaru, because
when you hear what I've got cooked up, you're going to know
that..."
------------
"You've made a grave mistake," Neji stated bluntly, running
Hinata through with his hardened glare.
Despite herself, the tone his voice carried made her flinch
as if slapped. Past experience told her that defending her
actions would only goad him to mercilessly tear down her
arguments. So she instead made a concerted effort to match
her cousin's stern gaze, which was far more contentious to
Neji than she could imagine.
"Did you even stop to realize what the consequences would
be if HE caught wind of this?"
'I don't care,' was what she wanted to say, but knew it
would have been a lie.
Who "he" was DID matter, as what "he" thought was
tantamount to law. "He" was her father, the head of the
Main House, Hiashi Hyuuga.
"You will go to Uzumaki and end this farce before word
spreads any further." Neji shot her a look that said he
would brook no argument and Hinata could hold his gaze no
further, dropping it to the floor.
Neji smirked, winning the short war of wills. He relished
being able to twist the cruel knife into Hinata even if the
face of his intended victim was not hers. He was quickly
losing patience with her lack of response, though.
"Do not be selfish. This affects every member of the
Hyuuga Clan, not just yourself. As the heir of the Main
House you must act. Or will you have me dirty my hands in
your stead?"
"I..." Hinata began, but stopped. She could not find her
tongue as a numbing cold attacked her from the lump that
formed in her throat. An uncomfortable sheen of nervous
perspiration soaked her brow. If Neji noticed any of this,
he didn't bring attention to it, which was a small
consolation.
'What's there to end if there's nothing there to begin
with?' she lamented. The painful cinching of her heart
told her how false that statement was.
Before she could even reach an answer, however, Neji
abruptly stood, derailing her thoughts.
"N-Neji, wait, what are you--"
"Obviously this simple task is beyond you." As he said it,
he didn't even do her the courtesy of turning around. "Do
not concern yourself further. It shall be dealt with."
The sound of her door sliding shut thundered in Hinata's
ears as loudly as her heartbeats. A palpable sense of
dread washed over her like a spray of cold water.
No good could come from whatever Neji planned, but she
couldn't do anything. She knew it was too much for her.
It was totally out of her control and--
Hinata's eyes widened and filled with horror.
The excuses came quick and easy to the tip of her tongue,
and that realization was as shocking as it was sickening.
Hinata wanted to scream at the top of her lungs in denial
and self-incrimination, but she knew she couldn't allow
herself such an outlet. As the heir, she had a role to
play, an image to uphold, and a mask to wear. Thus, she
had to swallow back the bitterness and compartmentalize
what she was feeling...
And she did, to an extent, as the cracks in her mask let
slip silent tears.
Hinata was bent over at the waist, her head resting on the
straw floorboard. Bile rose up in her throat and she
fought it back down bravely with huge gulps of air. All
that she allowed herself to surrender further were her weak
whimpers of self-loathing.
"I'm so sorry... So sorry..."
It was an apology that would go unheard by the person who
she knew most needed to hear it.
------------
Author's Note: The angst train is pulling into the station!
It's a bit heavy towards the end, I'll admit, but I think I
balanced it out with some fluff with the Ino and Shikamaru
scenes. Let me know if you think I failed.
This was supposed to be a Sakura centered chapter, much
like how the last one was mostly Kiba, and I'm pretty sure
I failed in that regard...
Eh. It is what it is. Blame me and my muse with a review
or an E-mail if you feel up to it.
