A/N: Hm, I just realized that I've been forgetting to put a disclaimer. Here it is: I do not own the Naruto comics or anime show, (written by Masashi Kinimoto), but I do happen to own this plotline and the genetics of the werewolf lore. Here's some of pretty much most of the pairings…ShikaInoTema…
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Traveling Moon,
Death Phase:
Fear
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May we meet thee by angels To welcome eternity's dawn…
-Tombstone inscription
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Adrenaline, like water, seems to come in all forms.
The ball of energy, dread, and excitement in the pit of Sakura's stomach felt quite solid, thank you very much. It had wondrously prevented her from downing anything other than water for the past day. She knew it wasn't good for her. Her body was protesting.
On another thought, the pure exhilaration rushing through her veins and pumping through her blood moved so subtlety and freely that it could not be anything but liquid: it changed shape quickly, flowed smoothly, supercharging every atom in her body.
Last, the liquid seemed to evaporate and rise into her nostrils and fill up her throat, until it seemed like she was breathing a chemical that induced sugar-high. The air came in bitingly cold, and it also conveniently stopped her regular breathing so that she hiccupped. Lovely.
On the outside, Sakura's face had drained of all blood except for the high color in both of her cheekbones, her lovely green eyes full and wild. Her hair was frizzing from the all the times she had run her fingers through it.
Tomorrow was the trials.
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Every woven fiber of the reed seemed to bite mockingly, derisively, into Tenten's bottom lip. Her buckteeth bit defiantly against the black plastic mouthpiece. Could you play a tenor without your buckteeth, she wondered?
Or perhaps you would have to purchase dentures? Shudder. Ew.
She dismounted the instrument and lay back against the tree, who's every ridge on the age-old bark also seemed to torment her back, clashing against every ridge of her vertebrae. Another question: could you play tenor with a crooked backbone? Probably.
She resolutely kept thinking the small questions, because the big ones were too confusing. She was too confusing.
Or, in short, you could say that Tenten was in pieces, in a mess…over Hyuuga Neji and the trials that Fate might tip in either side's favor.
And she had no idea how to clean herself up.
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Hinata quietly lay on her stomach, sketching lightly in her notebook, and her voice, shaking, humming a few notes as she multitasked and jotted down a few words for a new song that she was writing. The five-bar rows for the notes were crooked. Or was it just the fullness of the tears in her eyes waving the stems of the half-notes?
She realized that her last measure was a beat off of the four-four timing, before the tumult of salty liquid tumbled out of her eyes and exploded down her cheeks.
The paper turned dark and sank in where the droplets hit it, so that the faceless head of the woman mannequin she was drawing was distorted and out of shape. A faceless fear, she realized, she had been drawing.
Unknown. Illusion. Fantasy, read the notes on the music pad. She threw it aside, surprised at her own uncontrollable emotions.
She brushed aside the other book and curled into a ball of agony on the bed, her entire frail frame racked with sobs, and the tears soaking into the bedspread and making the sheets stick uncomfortably to her face. She didn't care.
For once, there was something bigger than the tiny frames of her life for her to worry about. There was something bigger than herself, and it involved mischievous cerulean blue eyes.
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Pace. Pace. Pace.
Click.
Breath.
Stomp. Stomp. Stomp.
Hyperventilate.
Ino roared at herself and hit the keyboard in the practice room so hard that her hands bounced back with the painful sting and the black bulk tottered. She caught it before it fell and flicked the switch to turn it off.
Her breath came in short, angry gasps. She felt like if she kept this up any more, she would be listening to one of those "breath in, breath out" tapes just to keep her alive. Or maybe she'd get to stick tubes up her nose at the hospital.
The blonde wolf sighed and sat down cross-legged, sitting in the lotus position and attempting to calm herself. Aaah. Wasn't that just slightly better, letting go of every single one of her little troubles like a colorful balloon, watching them float over the peaceful horizon?
"INO-SANNN!!"
"LEE I'M GOING TO STRANGLE YOU WITH MY BARE HANDS!!!"
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"Shika-kun, what are you doing?"
Ino tentatively approached her friend at the table and pulled out a rickety old chair next to him. Shikamaru's usually neat hair was still pulled back into its usual messy ponytail, but his face was pale and had huge bags under the eyes.
"God, are you alright?" she chided, reaching out a hand to cup his cheek. He swatted her away. It was only then she noticed the complicated blueprints on the table in front of him. She looked at him questioningly.
"I've been trying to devise a plan so that we have a minimal probability of losing or death," he explained, grinding his teeth. "So far, it's proving rather difficult, but I think I'll have it soon. Hopefully on time."
"You're not fighting, are you?" she asked, feeling something clench in the pit of her stomach.
"I'm Neji's backup."
Without thinking, Ino threw her arms around her friend tightly. Shikamaru let out a choking sound. "Ino!" he said, sounding embarrassed. She pressed her nose into his shoulder, realizing that he smelled wonderful.
"Shika, don't go," she muttered, sounding like she was pouting.
"Aiya, troublesome women," he sighed, and pushed her off. "I'm too much of a coward to do anything stupidly noble and get myself killed, Ino. You don't have to be so worrisome like an old hen."
She glared at him playfully. "Who's the old hen?"
"Ino, if you try to tickle me-"
"Oh, I will."
The genius without a second thought bolted for his life. He sprinted around the corner of the stairs and slid to a halt. Temari was leaning against the wall, her hair in the perfect quad-pigtails and with her ankles crossed. "Yo," she said casually, raising her eyebrows at Ino.
Shikamaru automatically flushed red. "Oh, er, h-hi."
Ino gaped at him. She'd never heard Shikamaru stutter before, except when he was scared. Somehow, she didn't get the vibe that that was the case in this odd scenario.
"Hi. I don't believe we've been properly introduced," she said instead, holding out a game hand to Temari. She shook it and grasped harder than necessary. Ino would have winced, but she held back. She would show no weakness in front of this wolf, not if her thumbs were in the thumbscrews.
"Temari. Can't say it's nice to meet you," she said coldly.
Ino bared her fangs, hoping that they looked sharp. "Same."
Shikamaru looked back and forth quickly between his best friend and his love interest. "Uh, nice seeing you, Temari. Ino, c'mon, let's go. I still have to work on those plans." Temari looked slightly disgruntled, but just shrugged out of her leaning position and stood up, slinking slowly past Shikamaru. She leaned in close and breathed something into his ear, which made his face flush, and was off, smirking at Ino.
Ino fumed silently, wishing her to drop dead RIGHT NOW and do it painfully.
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"Sasuke-kun! Sasuke-kun, wait up!"
Normally, Sasuke's wide strides would have been hard for Sakura to catch up with, but today the three-form adrenaline gave her an extra boost. Her legs sped in front of each other so fast that she tripped and sprawled on her face. Her face hot with embarrassment, she pushed herself up to meet Sasuke's amused expression.
"Hurt?"
"I-Iie, I'm alright."
Silence. Sasuke made a small twitch with his lip, indicating that she should say whatever she had wanted to say. Sakura shook the vibrant pink hair out of her face and tucked a strand behind her ear, twisting her feet and fiddling with her fingers behind her back.
"What do you want?" he said, sounding slightly irritated after the pause stretched for a few more seconds. Sakura looked up at him.
"Nothing, really, I guess…I just wanted to talk with you," she said lamely, feeling incurably foolish and an utter bumbling idiot. Sasuke, however, just shrugged it off and pulled out a chair to sit in, as if telling her to just talk and he would at least grant the courtesy of pretending to listen and understand her odd ways.
She clasped her hands on the table, looking down. "I…I'm scared for you, Sasuke-kun," she said softly, fighting to keep her voice from breaking.
Sasuke didn't say anything. She looked up to see the mask in perfect placement, but his eyes betrayed a flicker.
"Did you mean what you said…earlier?" he asked softly. They both knew what he meant. She nodded earnestly, even as the color rose high into her cheekbones. She might as well have been drunk.
"You know that it means nothing to me?" he added, a note of steel in his voice. Sakura nodded a small nod of acknowledgement. She knew too well how little those words meant to Uchiha Sasuke.
"I know, but you can't make me stop caring about you, Sasuke-kun. That's something that will never go away," she said resolutely. Her pink hair fell into her face, and she added something. "I will kill myself if you die."
Well, you can't really stay silent to something like that. "Hn," said Sasuke. "That is something foolish and completely unnecessary."
"Not to me," she said angrily.
"Unlike you, suicide does seem like an unreasonably stupid thing to do," he said pleasantly. "I'd prefer if you didn't, actually. It would kill your friends, and we don't want that."
She snorted. "WE? Soon there won't be a 'we', Sasuke-kun! That's what I'm trying to say!"
Sasuke's eyes were hidden from her by the thick ebony bangs falling into his face. He seemed to be thinking. Well, she hoped he was considering what she was trying to get across. Things seemed to take a long time getting through to Sasuke recently.
"Aishiteru," she whispered weakly again, feeling embarrassed and foolish. It was her last card, but it wasn't a trump. She had no idea what his reaction would be.
He brushed it away. It hurt just that much. "Merely a child's affection," he said briefly.
"It's not," she said, her voice soft but with a hard tint in it. "I am determined to love you, Sasuke-kun. No matter how long you stay in denial that I will not stop caring about you." Sasuke looked at her, trying to forge his expression into one of amusement at her antics. He could not. Even he wasn't cruel. Girls were scary once they got their feelings hurt.
Instead, some mad part of his inner self took over for a second, and he reached out his ice-cold palm and pushed back a stray strand of pink hair from her face. Her face pulsed and glowed red under his touch. "Sakura, you're like a little sister to me," he said flatly. "I could never love you: it is frustrating for you to love me. I…I don't deserve you anyways."
Her face fell slightly, but her eyes closed as his hand came back to her face, and stroked down gently against her jawbone. His mind flashed back to this face, years ago, tinted with baby fat and an innocent smile. The smile was still there, though now it was sad. He wanted it to be happy again. He was supposed to be acting the part of big brother, anyways.
Awkwardly, he set his hand back down, the fingers trailing against the side of her neck once he set them back on the table. "Gomen." He stood up so abruptly that the chair squeaked and stalked away.
Sakura opened her eyes and touched her neck, smiling to herself.
-
Ino was in a bad, bad stint.
Normally, a good dose of some vampire romance novels, stashed away in a large stack and gathering dust under her and Sakura's bunk, would have served wonders. It nearly always solved all of her temper tantrums. Not today. This felt like it was roaring and feeling her instead of her feeling angry. The anger was about to burst and she was too small to contain it.
Was it all anger, really though, this powerful? Was there jealousy and envy and maybe even hurt in there as well? Nah.
The sun was setting, and she had bigger problems to worry about.
One of them walked through the door. Hyuuga Neji was a mess. His hair was frizzing and his ponytail was coming undone again. His face was drained of all blood and the circles under his eyes were more prominent than ever. In that condition, he would get himself killed from exhaustion just before the fighting began.
"Neji, you're worrying us all sick," she scolded him, getting up and warming up a facecloth. Neji grunted in acknowledgement. She made a face and handed him the cloth. "And you're also going to give Tenten a heart attack. You can't honestly tell me that you don't know she's concerned?"
His face convulsed for a millisecond, (probably remembering some fight with Tenten, assumed Ino), and fell back into the mask. "Hn."
She sighed and went back to her own bed.
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"Gaara-sensei…" Matsuri whispered softly, unable to sleep.
There was a quiet growl, and then a muffled scream. Something had come up behind the girl, and ice cold hands were pinned tightly against her mouth. The person who was holding her suddenly relaxed. Matsuri, wild-eyed with panic, whirled around and felt a rushing wave of relief at the face that glared at her disapprovingly out of the dark.
Subaku no Gaara's sea-green eyes were surprised and slightly angry. "Matsuri."
"G-Gomen-nasai, Gaara-sensei!" she murmured shamefully. He ground his teeth at her in irritation. She realized that he was shirtless. Red immediately tinted her cheeks.
"You could have been a member of the other Pack, trying to sabotage us."
"H-Hai. Gomen, gomen."
"What do you want?"
"I couldn't sleep. I was worried about you," she admitted, looking way up into his face. He paused, made a tiny sound deep in his chest that he had heard her, and turned to look out the window.
"Do you see the stars out there?" She nodded her head yes.
"They will watch over me tomorrow, and you tonight. Whenever you have need, pray to the stars. They…helped me with this new life," he said quietly, putting a hand on her small shoulder. She hugged him tightly around the waist, (he wasn't very huggable, being full of muscle), and buried her face into his chest.
His arms reeled back to catch his balance and he stumbled backward. "Matsuri!" he hissed, now really angry.
He expected her to let go immediately at the sound of his fury. She didn't. Instead, she clung tighter. He realized she was sobbing. He stopped scolding her, and instead awkwardly put his bare arms around her torso, and rested his head into her hair.
No words were said. It wasn't meant to be that way.
A/N: A little longer than usual. Next chapter is THE TRIALS! Dun dun dun.