Lord. Sorry for the wait, I managed to get the flu and was sick for two weeks—and managed to be sick through the whole first week of term :( Gah. Well, as Sakura would say, nothing like smashing rocks to make you feel like yourself again...or in my case, publishing another chapter of fanfic. Special thanks to fanofthisfiction for beta'ing and for her kind words and encouragement. And thanks to all of you out there: wonderful reviewers cheering me along, insistent PM'ers poking me into action, and silent readers who I hope will drop me a line one day! Please enjoy :D
Chapter Nine: Knight & Shining & Armor
Stupid, Sakura thought at herself as she stomped through the falling snow. The snow was an inch high in the street, and Sakura had to enhance her feet with chakra to walk over the top of it so she wouldn't get frostbite hiking through the stuff. Stupid, stupid, stupid! She told herself that she meant her words for him, but she knew they were really aimed at herself.
How could she have been so damn stupid? Saying that she loved him…then blowing up at him! She glared at the snow falling in heavy wet clumps all around her and wished—not for the first time—that she hadn't run out of Sasuke's house without her shoes. She shivered, and drew the coat more tightly around her—then snarled when she remembered that it was his coat and in a fit of pique considered tossing it into the street. For a moment, anger surged through her, red hot and burning. Then, all at once, it left it her in a rush and she just felt…cold. She swiped at her eyes and hurried home, the coat feeling too heavy across her shoulders. Gods, but she was an emotional roller coaster. One minute, she was angry enough to split rocks—the next, she just wanted to curl up and die.
"Like a sister," she muttered, stomping up the steps to her house. "He loves me like a bloody sister." She knew she should be grateful—it must have taken Sasuke a lot to confess even that much. At the moment though, she didn't care. Her hands balled into fists. Like a sister! She didn't know if she wanted to kill him—or kiss him. The stray thought caught her off guard and made her blush so furiously, she swore that snow must be evaporating off her burning cheeks in a flash of steam. She vaulted herself up to the top step and shook her head, her thoughts spinning. What she needed was to go to bed and forget that this whole night had ever happened. She peeked in through the front window, but the lights were off inside. She exhaled sharply, thinking her parents were probably asleep. Still muttering under her breath, she flung open the door, slammed it behind her, and stomped forward—and grunted as she barreled into something big and solid. The lights flickered on, revealing her father dressed in pin-striped pajamas, a concerned look on his face.
"Sakura-chan, you've been crying," he said, reaching out his arms to her.
She side-stepped him. "It's just melting snow," she lied, looking away from him.
But her father knew her too well. He surged towards her and wrapped his arms around her, holding her tightly. Sakura knew she should resist the urge to sag in his embrace, but she couldn't. She broke down in tears. Kami, I really am weak…
"Sakura-chan, your mother and I are so sorry about what happened tonight," he mumbled into her hair. "You know how your mother gets when she's had a bit to drink, and I…" He kissed the top of her head. "I'm just as protective of you as a mother bear with her cubs."
She sniffled, smiling despite herself. "Thanks, Otousan."
He released her long enough to close the front door, then ushered her over to the couch. "Tell me everything."
She leaned her head against his shoulder and she did, starting from leaving the party to her blow-up at Sasuke's house. By the end, tears still trickled down her cheeks, but she did feel better, if only a little bit.
Her father handed her a handkerchief, but otherwise remained quiet as she finished her tale. The snow whispered against the walls and the windows as it fell, but other than that, the night was silent as a tomb.
"I hope I didn't ruin your evening," he said at last.
Sakura just shook her head. "It would have happened eventually," she replied, dotting her eyes with the handkerchief. She winced when the white cloth came away smudged with color from her ruined makeup. "We've been dancing around the subject for two years now. We were bound to blow up at each other…" I just wish I hadn't been such an idiot, Sakura added silently, squeezing her eyes shut against fresh tears.
"Well…" Her father cleared his throat. She took a deep breath, then forced herself to meet his gaze. "Whatever you decide to do, Sakura-chan, your mother and I are behind you one hundred percent." He gave her a blinding smile that would have rivaled one from Gai Sensei. Then his smile faded, and he shot her a rueful look. "And your mother and I promise not to go after Sasuke again—without your permission," he finished with a wicked grin.
She snorted, imagining Sasuke—the most powerful shinobi in the village, if not the world—being chased by her overweight and balding father clutching a baseball bat. "He would be terrified of you," she said dryly.
He chuckled and patted her arm. "Damn straight he'd be terrified of me. You get your temper from me, not your mother." He shook his head and grew serious. "Whatever you choose to do," he repeated, giving her a quick hug, "we're behind you all the way."
Sakura smiled softly and rose. His words were like a balm on her raw wound, but they also begged the question: What was she going to do? "Thanks, Outousan," she whispered, then hurried into her room before the tears could start falling again.
She slipped out of her dress and fell into bed without bothering to brush her teeth. As for her makeup, she was sure she had cried it all off already. She drew the covers up over her head and was asleep before her head hit the pillow, but exhaustion did not prevent her from tossing and turning from troubled dreams.
#
She found herself held high up in a tower, a cold wind sweeping in through cracks in rough stone walls. She strode to the balcony and looked out the tower window, taking in the sallow landscape: pale yellow light illuminated a world of craters and huge rock formations. There were no buildings in sight, other than the tower she was in. When she peered down, she reeled from the dizzying view. She must be at least ten stories high! This place looked so familiar…where was she? With a start, she realized she must be on the moon. Memory rushed towards her. That's right—she was a captive of this place. She had to escape!
She tried to open the windows lining the balcony, but they would not budge, no matter how she enhanced her grip with chakra. Her panic mounting, she strode to another window but stopped cold when she heard a loud clanking sound and felt something cold and heavy on her ankle. Panic turning to terror, she found a manacle encircling her leg and a long heavy chain binding her to a metal pin in the center of the room.
Fear made her breath come in short, quick pants. She enhanced her fingers with chakra and chopped at the restraints, but her hand bounced back with a painful jerk, leaving the chain unbroken. The metal was chakra resistant. This can't be happening, she thought, scanning the room for some means of escape. Impossibly, the room had no doors—only the large, floor-to ceiling windows that would not open. She rushed forward in an effort to smash those windows, but stopped short. What would be the point? If she couldn't remove the chain, then she would still be stuck here. Her eyes swept across the barren landscape again, searching for something—anything—and spotted a small dark shape zooming over the dune-like hills.
She squinted, peering into the distance. Was it someone coming to help her escape? Or was it her jailer? She held her breath as the dark shape resolved into a figure on horseback. As the rider came closer, she saw that he wore a full suit of armor, including a shining helmet capped with a red plume. She pressed her ear to the glass and faintly heard the sound of the horse's hooves ringing in the night.
She waved frantically at the rider, but if he saw her, he made no response. His metal armor seemed to gleam in the moon's white light, the red plume atop his helmet blowing back in the wind. He reined in his horse at the foot of the tower and threw back his helmet, and Sakura gasped. She had hoped that it might be Sasuke come to rescue her, but it wasn't. Underneath the helmet, the rider had no head at all. Sakura opened her mouth and a strangled cry escaped her lips.
Sakura stirred in her sleep, twisting in her sheets and clutching her pillow as the dream changed. She rode on a white horse, speeding over the pale face of the moon and leaping over dark craters, zooming towards a castle in the distance. Her hair whipped behind her in the wind. She gripped the leather reins tightly, scanning the horizon for danger. The castle loomed closer, closer. She urged her mount for more speed, and the horse neighed as he galloped over the rocky field towards the base of the tower. But just as her horse brought her to the drawbridge the ground trembled, shuddering as if from an earthquake. Her horse reared up and shrieked, eyes rolling back in fear, and Sakura lost her reigns. The animal bucked, sending Sakura crashing to the ground. She landed on her shoulder and heard a sick snapping sound, felt a sharp and terrible pain shoot down her arm. She barely had time to register what was going on as the ground shook violently and groaned before splitting open underneath her into a wide, dark cavern. She tumbled into the black vastness of space, while above her the castle crumbled, the high tower cracking off and falling into the pit over her.
Her eyes snapped open in her dark bedroom. "What an awful dream," she mumbled, rolling over and hiding her head under the covers. She groaned. She knew she had to get some decent sleep before the wedding tomorrow, and the gods knew she was exhausted; but she only tossed and turned until an uneasy sleep claimed her, and even stranger dreams came: in one dream she was a puppet controlled by Toneri Otsutsuki, dressed in a pale gray wedding dress, its hood obscuring her face. In another, she rode on the back of one of Sai's birds, orbiting the moon slowly, looking for something but not finding it.
She shifted, and the dream changed again: snow fell in thick swirls over the surface of the moon as she stumbled through the storm, her bare feet sinking into steep, freezing banks. She shivered with cold, but she forced herself to keep moving. What was she looking for? Why was she here? She couldn't remember, but still, she pressed on. At last, the snow parted like a curtain, and she found herself in a graveyard, tombstones overgrown with skeletal vines blanketed in snow.
Overcome by a sense of dread, she took a tentative step forward. One grave caught her attention at once. Unlike the others, this grave was completely free of snow and was covered with blue and white roses which, despite the cold, looked as fresh and alive as hothouse flowers. She knelt down beside the beautiful roses and inhaled their sweet fragrance. She smiled, then leaned forward to read the inscription on the tombstone—and drew back at once in horror.
It read: Here lies Uchiha Sasuke, the last of his clan. He died bravely defending Konoha single-handedly. A true hero.
"No," she breathed, tracing the letters with a shaking hand. Sasuke was dead and he had died alone? Without any surviving family? Tears blinded her. She bent her head and wept, her tears falling like dew over the roses.
When she finally opened her eyes, she was no longer in the graveyard. Instead, she knelt beside a dark pool, white lotus blossoms reflecting on its glassy surface. Blinking in confusion, she leaned over the side to peer into the water—
And saw Sasuke's reflection staring back at her, not even a ripple marring his pale face. His dark bottomless eyes seemed to bore into her. She reached out a hand to touch him but lost her balance and fell forward, landing in the dark pool without a sound. Icy water closed over her and she plummeted through the water.
I love you, Uchiha Sasuke! Her voice reverberated all around her like an echo. And I give up. If you're meant to die alone… The last glimmer of light faded in the depths of the water and her breath left her in a rush of bubbles.
She was going to die.
She woke up with a sneeze, wide eyes snapping open. Her head felt like it was full of stuffing, and it ached. With a groan, she threw back the covers and lifted a hand to her burning forehead.
"Of all the times to get a cold," she muttered. What had her dreams been about? There were a tumble of images in her head, but none of them made any sense, and they just made her headache worse as she tried to sort them out. She glanced out the window at the sky just turning gray with dawn. That was fine with her, as she had had enough bad dreams for one night. She found her uniform draped over a nearby chair and tossed it on, then tied back her hair in a messy ponytail.
"Well," she muttered, opening her window wide. "I have plenty of time before the ceremony. And there's nothing like decimating a pile of rocks to cheer you up and make you feel like yourself again." She took a deep breath, inhaling the cold morning air, then leapt out of her window onto the dark street below, making a beeline for the training grounds.
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