A/N: Okay, this will take a darker turn for a little bit. Trigger warnings: contains talking about, allusions to, contemplating, and nearly-attempted suicide.
Chapter 4: Unnerving Anger Journaling
Later that night, Sakura was going through her phone when she came across a conversation.
Curiosity filled her as she pressed it. Her face quickly pulled into a frown when she read the name her other self had given this person.
"HEART BREAKER FROM HELL" with a broken heart emoji.
"Sasuke." She sighed. "Why did she even bother?"
The last message was dated on June first, from her, and only read "I'LL SEE YOU IN HELL WHERE YOU BELONG". Quite chilling, especially with what she'd found in Other Sakura's journal. Supposedly, she'd blocked the number, unable to deal with whatever he was doing at that time.
She decided to leave the number blocked for now, but typed a short message on the phone's notepad app for her other self.
Once she finished, she fished out the journal again and flipped through it, trying to find just what was going on.
When she found the entry for June first of three years ago, she began reading.
June 1
Mood: Angry beyond ALL BELIEF :((((
Journal, you would not BELIEVE the day I had! I woke up only to find like, thirty messages from that bastard trying to talk to me. Obviously, I told him to FUCK OFF because what he did to me can NEVER be forgiven! But then he keeps telling me bullshit like 'oh, well that was for the greater good' and like WHAT GREATER GOOD IS THAT? I nearly wanted to jump off the old Leaf bridge, and it took Hinata three hours to talk me down! What greater good calls for dumping BLOOD on the BRAND NEW DRESS that I worked my ass off ALL YEAR to buy?
Whatever. I'm blocking him because I'm just so angry, and heartbroken, and I can't do this anymore! This may be my last entry in this thing. Goodbye.
A chill went up the rosette's spine. "The old Leaf bridge... yeah, I've seen that one. It's pretty high up above the river..."
She didn't even want to consider what Other Sakura had meant when she said 'last entry', but she could make a good educated guess if she wanted to.
More disturbed than before, she put the journal away and scrolled through the messages. Sure enough, a lot of the ones from Sasuke amounted to things like 'you're just not my type' and 'this was one of the only ways to do it' like he hadn't nearly humiliated a girl right off a bridge.
She felt even more disgust - and sadness - over this version of Sasuke. "What if he ended up like that? What if- what if everything I'm reading off him is fake?"
Her thoughts were interrupted by Hinata knocking on her open door. She looked up and saw her smiling.
"Hey, um, Tenten went and got takeout." She gestured towards the hallway. "Do you want some?"
Sakura swallowed around the lump that had begun to form in her throat. She glanced back at the phone screen, stuck on a message from her that read "how could u do this 2 me?"
She nodded, getting off the bed. "Sure, I'd love some right now."
"My other self visited the orphanage every Wednesday," Tenten said as soon as they sat down to dinner. "Do you guys wanna come with me when I go?"
"Sure, I'd love to." Hinata replied. "I'd love to see some of the children."
Ino noticed that Sakura was staying silent and frowned, pausing in spooning some chicken onto her plate. "You okay?"
The pinkette looked up. "Huh? Oh. I guess I could be better."
"What's going on?" Tenten asked next.
She hesitated. She turned to Hinata, who was gazing at her with concerned lavender eyes. "Hinata... have you found... any disturbing entries in your other self's journals or anything?"
She thought for a moment. "Now that you mention it, my other self had a note on her phone that read "Tonight, 3 AM, by the cemetary". When I read through some of the papers in a box atop her closet, I guess she was planning to... um, y'know..."
"Mine too." Sakura nodded. "Not at the cemetary, but... she was more ambiguous, but her intentions were clear."
Ino's expression darkened. "What are you talking about?"
"Suicide, Ino, suicide." Tenten exclaimed. "My other self had a story saved in the notes section of the back of a book about how she was going to kill herself the first night she ended up at the orphanage."
"Oh!" The blond suddenly nodded in understanding. "Yeah, Other Ino talked about 'drowning like Ophelia from Shakespeare', whatever that is."
"Possibly a tragic heroine from a story." Sakura shrugged, picking at her noodles. "Amaya was right. This universe is fucked."
"Where are our parents?" Ino demanded. "Sakura, I know your parents must be alive, and mine are, because I have a letter in my room from Other Ino's parents asking about how she's been and when she'll come home."
"My mother is still dead," Hinata chimed in. "But my father is very much alive, and so is Hanabi. Apparently, though, I've only been treated like a black sheep after I left Konoha High."
"I'm still an orphan, myself." Tenten shrugged her shoulders and stuffed some more food into her mouth.
"This really is tragic." Sakura sighed. "To answer your question, I guess my parents died in a car wreck right before the freshman dance, and so I had enough money saved up to rent a little apartment with Hinata for a few months."
"Then why am I not home...?" Ino wondered aloud. "Am I spending the year here, or something?"
"Maybe you're the token Friend Who Visits From a Long Ways Away." Sakura offered. "There's one in almost every one of these worlds."
A/N: Pretty dark in contrast to much else. Thankfully, next chapter will be lighter. This isn't going to be a Big Lipped Aligator Moment, but it won't be a pervasive theme.
Also wanted to get a mass post out of the way so that I wouldn't leave you hanging on chapter 1. The next chapter might be out by next weekend, but I don't know. I'm still working pretty hard on TCSD.
Please tell me what you thought.