Disclaimer: Nope…No Kanji either…
Chapter 21: It is Time
Gaara trudged behind Temari and his uncle, wishing he wasn't still grounded. He wanted to go to the park and play, but instead he was being force to visit Temari's dance class, now that both of their formal schooling was over for the day. He would be forced to sit through hours of Temari and a bunch of other girls dancing around pointlessly. Kankuro had been lucky. He had puppet lessons with some relative of Akai's, so he got to skip out on the torture session.
Gaara's thoughts went to Sakura. She was still at school…which was strange, considering school should have already gotten out…but his sand couldn't be wrong. He shrugged the thought away; she probably just needed help with homework or something.
"Gaara, keep up or I'll have to hold your hand." The boy sped up enough to placate his uncle, but his thoughts turned back to Sakura when his sand—the very same sand he had left with her the night before—informed him that Sakura was moving. It soon became apparent that she wasn't heading towards their usual meeting place, but rather in his direction…or at least, something very close to his direction.
Temari's voice broke into his thoughts, "What are you grinning about?"
Gaara looked at her, then at Yashamaru who wasn't answering. Yashamaru kept walking steadily, his eyes distant. It didn't look like he had heard Temari at all. It was only when Gaara looked back and noticed where Temari was looking that he realized that he must be the one she was speaking to. "Nothing," he mumbled.
Temari rolled her eyes, but refrained from making a retort. From the way she crossed her arms and bit her lip, though, Gaara could tell that she wanted to. He also knew that had he been anyone else, she would have. But he wasn't anyone else, and his own sister was afraid to anger him because of it. The grin he hadn't known he'd had diminished while his desire to see his best friend increased. Sakura probably cared more for him than any of his family did, even more than his uncle. His pink-haired burr wouldn't shy away from him for any reason.
Gaara's mood returned to its previous sour disposition over his being bound to Temari and her dance lessons when all he wanted was to run to Sakura's side. By the time his friend was just a block away and gaining speed, he couldn't do as his uncle had told him to anymore. Knowing that he would get in trouble and not caring, Gaara turned away from his family and started running towards the only one who made him feel whole. It was because of this that he nearly ran into Kirsche, who turned the corner before Sakura did. For a moment Gaara's attention was drawn to her eyes, which almost appeared to be vibrating.
"Gaara! Temari!" Sakura cried, letting go of Kirsche's hand and hugging the boy in front of her, nearly knocking him over with her enthusiasm. Suddenly she let go, squeaking out an apology. It took the boy a moment to realize she was apologizing to Kirsche, and by then the older pink haired woman sighed, running a hand through her hair. Her eyes no logger appeared to be vibrating, if they ever had been. "Sorry," Sakura said again, this time to him, as she trotted back to Kirsche's side, "Kirsche said we have to go or else we'll—"
"It's fine," breathed out Kirsche as she pushed the girl back towards Gaara, "we won't make it in time anymore. Go have fun."
Gaara jumped as his uncle's hand landed on his shoulder. Yashamaru tightened his hold on his squirming nephew as he asked, "In time for what?" To Gaara's surprise, Sakura turned to Kirsche, as if she too wanted to know.
A strange smile, Gaara would almost call it sly, spread over the woman's face. "A learning opportunity," she said simply, as if that answered everything. Patting Sakura's head, Kirsche added, "but such is life. Things don't always go the way you plan. But just because we've missed one opportunity doesn't mean all is lost. Isn't that right, Sakura?" The child nodded slowly, but her eyes lacked the gleam of understanding. Gaara couldn't blame her; Kirsche spoke in riddles.
Yashamaru nodded, then said, "Very well," Gaara started when his uncle took his hand, "We were on our way to Temari's dance lessons. If you would like, you may join us, though I don't know how fun it would be."
In the end, sitting through Temari's dance lessons wasn't nearly as bad as Gaara had feared it would be. This wasn't to say that it was fun to watch his sister and other girls he didn't know repeat the same movements over and over again—that would have been quite boring. But as it was, he hardly even spared a glance towards them. All his attention was taken up by Sakura, even when all her attention was on Temari and the dance instructor. Later she would inform him and his sister that out of all of the girls there, Temari and her teacher seemed to be the only good ones. Gaara found the information funny, Temari, terrifying.
"How could you say that?" demanded the blond girl as the children followed behind Yashamaru. "That's just…" Temari's arms flailed as she sought the word she was looking for, "cruel! For once in my life I don't want to be good at something! I hate dancing!"
"But," Sakura ventured, twisting a lock of hair around her finger, "you're so good at it," If she had been looking at Temari just then, Sakura would have been silenced by her glare, but right then she was studying her feet and not her friend, and so she continued unafraid, "and you looked beautiful when you did that twirl-thing…" pausing, Sakura's head popped up, but she still missed the glare by turning to look at her other friend instead, "…didn't she, Gaara?"
The boy shrugged, his eyes moving from his sister to land on Sakura's beaming smile. Gaara hadn't been too impressed with his sister's dancing, and with the ugly glare currently on her face, he couldn't think of her as beautiful either. Despite this, when Sakura repeated her question, an even larger smile on her face, he couldn't help but smile too and give her the desired answer, "Yeah, sure." His pink haired burr hugged him in response. Gaara hugged back, but the glare he sent over Sakura's head at Temari, who was still glaring at the red-head's best friend, belied his earlier answer, saying instead without words that she had better quit glaring or else.
Temar's face went stark white, the glare disappearing the instant she read the intent in his eyes. A moment later she was running to Yashamaru's side, grasping his hand like a lifeline, periodically shooting fearful glances behind her at her brother.
If Sakura had noticed the cause of Temari's strange behavior, she would have set things straight. She would have stopped Gaara's glare with gentle chiding and soothed Temari's fears with a joke or a hug. If she had noticed, the three of them would have soon been laughing together like a close-knit family. But she didn't notice. There was a pretty spotted lizard to chase after instead. She almost had it when she was caught instead by Yashamru who was really angry for some reason that had to do with 'new row toxins'. Sakura didn't really understand why she was being yelled at, or why the doctor refused to put her down until they were in front of her house, but once Youko found out, she was sat down for a long talk about not chasing poisonous reptiles while Yashamaru took his niece and nephew back home.
Between the two medical professionals' lectures and being called by Kirsche for lessons before bed, Sakura never noticed the rift forming between her two closest friends.
For the next few weeks Sakura saw little of Gaara and Kankuro, though Temari usually showed up at the park after school to play for a few hours before dance. When the older girl left, Sakura would head back alone, wishing all the way home that the boys weren't grounded. The first day that she came back early, Sakura was surprised to find Kirsche sitting on the roof looking straight at the sun. But before she could pass on her mommy's warning about going blind, Kirsche had stood up, saying that the sun held no danger for her Hoshi Eyes. Before Sakura knew what happened, Kirsche was standing beside her, ushering her inside. That week Sakura got more practice witch Chakra than she thought possible—she had learned a few of the single handed hand signs (which were really more motions than signs) that Kirsche said would help her focus her Kekkei Genkai once she had awoken it and, after a lot of begging, Temari had even taught her the 12 ninja hand seals.
Every night Sakura went to bed exhausted but pleased with her progress. She was so pleased, in fact, that when she went to school she couldn't stop smiling, even when Rei bullied her more than normal, calling her more names, taking her erasers (some she never did get back), pushing her around and once he even pulled her hair hard enough to make her cry; Sakura suspected that his actions had something to do with having somehow found out that Yashamaru was keeping Gaara by his side at all times; other people had become more openly hostile towards her since then too, but what she couldn't figure out was why Rei found it so much fun to pick on her. The others, at least, just shot her nasty looks or ignored her; Rei just wouldn't leave her alone. She had tried everything to make him stop. She had yelled at him, ignored him, told Nakagawa-sensei, but nothing worked. The only time he had stopped torturing her midway had been the hair incident, and she didn't have a clue why. That was also the day Sakura had been allowed to take her bandaged arm out of the sling, which made her so happy she almost completely forgot about Rei's antics.
After her final day of school for the week, Sakura hurried to the park, hoping to find Temari waiting for her. She wasn't. Sakura sighed, her shoulders dropping as she shuffled to the swing and sat down to wait. Only once before that week had Temari not arrived first, and that time it turned out that the older girl had run into the fan-lady who would be teaching her starting the next month and had lost track of time. Sakura's legs swung uselessly back and forth, the tips of her toes digging into the sand. She was beginning to wonder if Temari was coming at all when a twig cracking made her jump off the swing and turn quickly, a large smile on her face. Temari's name died in her throat when she caught sight of who was behind her.
It was Rei Higa, his sister, Hisako, and another, older girl that seemed familiar, though Sakura couldn't remember from where. She didn't look much older than ten. Perhaps she had seen the older girl at school, though she didn't think so.
Sakura's smile stayed frozen on her face. All three of them were looking at her with different expressions. The older girl looked shocked, maybe even annoyed, Hisako looked happy for a moment, then her smiled dropped as if she had just remembered that she wasn't supposed to like Sakura, and Rei…he looked as if he'd just been handed a new toy. Sakura was afraid she knew exactly who that toy was, and wanted nothing to do with it. In fact, what Sakura wanted most just then was to disappear. Maybe if she had been Gaara she could have made the earth swallow her whole. But then again, Gaara never seemed to be scared of anything. He wouldn't have run away just because three people were giving him strange looks. But Sakura wasn't Gaara and she did want to run away. She wanted to, but even as her instincts yelled at her to flee, her feet stayed frozen in place, her eyes glued on the three whose eyes were likewise glued on her.
"Hey," Like usual, it was Rei who spoke when no one else would, "it's Pinky!" Sakura's face turned the color of the name as she broke eye contact, her hands clenching even as her eyes sought her shoes. The stuck-on smile vanished entirely from her face. A grunt made her look back up. Rei was rubbing his side and glaring at Hisako. "What was that for?" he exclaimed. Sakura didn't catch what his twin whispered, but she didn't miss the momentary blush that crossed his face—or maybe it was a flush of anger, because he started shouting incoherent things back at Hisako immediately after.
The yelling might have gone on for much longer if the older girl hadn't grabbed him by the neck of his shirt and yanked. Rei sputtered and bent over once the girl let go, gasping for breath. When Hisako chided the older girl for being mean, Sakura learned the girl's name was Sora. The name didn't sound familiar, but the face was still setting off bells in her head, and the spike in her heartbeat when Sora looked her way made Sakura fear that they were warning bells.
Sora growled, "Would you brats quit making such a racket, I've got a headache." It wasn't a request. The older girl swung on Rei when he started to argue, "Shut it," she ordered, rubbing her temple as she did so. She then muttered just loud enough for Sakura to hear, "Why am I related to such loudmouths?" Then her eyes landed on Sakura, and she made a weird face, something like a half smirk half grimace. "What are you looking at outsider?"
Suddenly Sakura knew who Sora was, and before she had time to think about it, she blurted out, "You're the bandaged girl—the one with Hayato who broke my…" Sakura trailed off when Sora glared at her. This was the girl who had ganged up on her months ago and had broken her arm for the first time—the one who had apologized later after Sakura had stopped Sand Gaara from killing her. Sakura couldn't help but flinch when the bully took a step forward.
"Phh," snorted Sora, crossing her arms, "still a coward I see." If Sakura could have run just then, she would have. But her legs remained in place, quaking but unmovable. "How a little fraidy-cat like you can stand up to Shukaku I'll never understand." By the time Sakura remembered that Shukaku was Sand Gaara, Sora was speaking again, "Bah, quit shaking. I'm not stupid enough to try hurting you a second time. Our family's had enough run-ins with that thing as is, no need to ask for him to come back a third time to finish one of us off."
"Third time?" Sakura squeaked out. She might even have gotten an answer if just then her ribbon hadn't been torn off her head from behind. Sakura twirled around, her feet finally moving, to find Rei jumping back, a large grin on his face. In his hand was not only the ribbon Temari had given her but a few strands of hair as well. Unlike the last time he had pulled her hair, Sakura didn't cry—she lunged forward, trying to take back the red ribbon.
Rei dodged, shouting triumphantly, "Too slow Pinky!" Sakura tried again, "Wow, Sora was right," with the same results, "without this you really are a mop head!" Sakura tried unsuccessfully to push her bangs out of her eyes, gritting her teeth as she sprung forward again, determined to get Temari's present back. She missed and fell, rolling along the ground a few feet, skinning her knees.
As Sakura sat up, the world spinning, she could hear Sora yelling, "Quit flirting, you numbskull!" Rather than anger, Sakura thought she heard fear in the girl's voice.
Rei shouted back, "I'm not fli—flir—w-whatever that is! I'm playing keep-away! Now butt out you old hag!"
Sakura would have winced when a shoe was thrown by Sora at Rei, if not for the fact that Rei's inattention gave her an opening to get back her ribbon. She had just about grasped it when Rei swung his hand up as high in the air as he could, the ribbon crumpled under his fingers. She had his attention again. He was only a few inches taller than her, but it was enough. Sakura jumped, but failed again as Rei jerked away, laughing. Sakura's momentum kept her going and she almost fell again. But she didn't. At the last moment she regained her balance and shouted as she shot forward again, "Give it back! It was a present!" The race was on.
Rei ran around the slide twice, then passed the swings and ran towards the sandbox with Sakura following close behind. There was a large smile on the boy's face, as if being chased by an irate mop head was the most enjoyable thing in the world to him. Then the ribbon-wielding boy stumbled over the wooden corner of the sandbox and Sakura caught up to him—or more like ran into him —and both tumbled over the side into the sandbox; a heap of flailing arms, legs, and sand.
Sakura could hear Sora and Hisako shouting, but her heart was beating so loudly from running—and Rei's scream from when she tried to get herself off of him was adding to the jangle in her ears, making it impossible to understand what anyone was saying, not to mention her left leg was throbbing where it had hit the corner of the sandbox—she'd probably have a big bruise now, which was just great. She stopped caring about the shouting and her leg the moment Rei, in an attempt to free himself, elbowed her in the stomach while somehow simultaneously kicking up a cloud of sand that sent them both on a coughing spree that didn't end until there were tears in their eyes.
By the time Rei had gotten himself free of Sakura and the sandbox with the ribbon still in his possession, only the sound of Sakura still coughing and sand hung in the air. It was the sudden silence Sakura noticed first, as her eyes had been closed while she huddled in the sandbox, recovering from her annoying coughs. It wasn't until she opened her eyes that she noticed that Rei had fallen down again, that Sora looked like she was about to be sick even though she was running towards Rei, that Hisako had disappeared, and, most importantly, that the sand had quit moving all together, preferring to stay right where it hung. It only took Sakura a moment to guess why.
"Gaara!" exclaimed the pink, mop-haired child as she twisted around to find the glowering red head behind her. Pushing hair out of her eyes, Sakura scuttled up and out of the sandbox, stumbling to a halt before she got near enough to hug him. "Why are you angry?"
For a moment Gaara didn't say anything as he shifted from glaring past her to searching her face, his sand swaying back and forth in the air as he did so. Just when he began an answer, a whisper of 'monster' floated on a gust of wind to their ears. Gaara jerked around, his finger jabbing at Rei as he said through a tight voice and gritted teeth, "You're the monster." As he jabbed his finger again at Rei, then at Sora, his sand following his movements, he said louder, "You, not me." And for once, Gaara really believed it. He wasn't the monster they called him. They were. Then he was shouting, his sand rushing forward and back like waves as he stabbed his finger towards them again and again, "I've never tried to hurt anyone who hasn't hurt me!"
Rei, never one to know when to keep his mouth shut, exclaimed in his defense, "Hey, I didn't hurt you, and neither has my cousin—" then he faltered, "…well, she hasn't as far as I know, anyhow." The sand-haired boy cringed as Gaara took a step forward, then he hissed under his breath, "Don't hurt me."
This time Gaara's pointing finger fell on Sakura, whose eyes had gone large.
"Her," he stated bluntly, "You hurt her." Before either Rei or Sakura could argue, he added heatedly, "You steal her things!" His finger pointed to Sakura's unbound hair. "You make her bleed!" his hand shifted down to her knees and then back up to her face, "You make her cry!" Sakura tried to protest at this point: she was not crying, but no one heard over Gaara's raised voice. "She did nothing to you, but you hurt her anyway! So why shouldn't I hurt you?" His finger once again shot in Rei's direction
As before Sakura's protest was overridden by another voice, this time Sora's. "Because we didn't hurt you," The older girl's voice was quivering as she moved herself between Rei and Gaara, but her stance stayed steady as she looked into angry sea-foam eyes and tried to explain logically, "By what you've said, it would be silly of you to hurt us since we didn't hurt you, only her, and—"
Suddenly the sand was rising to surround Sakura's two bullies who shouted incoherently at him as Gaara reached out his hand and began to close it, saying coldly, "There is no difference." And in his mind, there really wasn't. "When you hurt her, you hurt me." He didn't know when it had happened, but at some point he had quit distinguishing his pink haired burr as something completely separate from himself. "Unlike her, I won't—"
Sakura, tired of being ignored, hobbled over and grabbed Gaara's wrist, forcing it back to his side. "Stop, just stop; all of you!" A collective breath was held and even the sand froze as tears fell from Sakura's angry eyes. "I hate this," Sakura whispered through more tears as her bruised leg gave out and she fell to the ground, only her hands on Gaara's wrists staying where they were. And then Sakura started sobbing as her pained and heated gaze swept back and forth between all three of the children, "Why can't everyone just stop fighting; just stop hurting others? If they did, maybe we all wouldn't hurt so much? It hurts to hurt others! Can't you see, Gaara?" Sakura tugged on Gaara's hand, "If you hurt them, that will hurt me too!" The sand fell back to the ground when the little girl looked up at Shukaku's host with eyes filled with more pain than when he'd found her huddled in the sandbox. He never meant to hurt her any more than he had meant to anger her. He just wanted to protect her…and himself.
Perhaps sensing that she had made progress, Sakura choked back more sobs to add through a forced smile, "Besides, there's no reason to be angry. Sora already said she was sorry for hurting me, and Rei didn't try to hurt me," 'this time', Sakura mentally added before she finished with, "we fell." Sakura's heart pounded in her ears louder and louder the longer she waited for Gaara to relax. His hand under hers fisted instead.
For a moment, the look Gaara gave her made her heart stop. "He took your ribbon." His voice was as hard as his eyes. What was worse, she couldn't deny it. Rei had stolen her ribbon, and Gaara knew how much Temari's presents had come to mean to her. She would never have given away her symbol of her new friends and her new life without a very good reason. Before she even knew what she was saying, an answer popped out of her mouth.
"Keep-away…he said we were playing keep-away." It was true. Sakura knew it was and so she didn't falter and it was that that convinced Gaara to lower his guard. Only later, after Gaara had calmed down, after Rei and Sora had shakily stood up and walked away to supposedly go look for Hisako, after Gaara had fussed over her and the large bruise and even larger splinter stuck in her leg from the sandbox, after Yashamaru came to pick Gaara up without being told about the splinter or the fight, after Kirsche's lessons on how to activate scrolls with Chakra…only after she was safely tucked in bed did Sakura realize something. What she had told Gaara was true; every word of it…but it wasn't the truth.
That night Sakura tossed and turned restlessly in bed as she mulled over the question of whether or not she had lied to Gaara. If she had, she would feel like the worst best friend in the world, and if she hadn't…she couldn't figure out what to feel. She still didn't have an answer when she fell asleep…nor did she when a hand gently woke her up. For many minutes, Sakura could only blink tiredly as Kirsche got her out of bed and in a dress. It wasn't until Kirsche left a note on the dinner table and they were walking out the back door that Sakura was awake enough to realize it was still night time.
Before she could even begin to ask question or protest, Sakura found herself hefted into Kirsche's arms. Her stomach was soon left behind as Kirsche jumped as high as a ninja could to land on the neighbor's shadowed roof. By the time her stomach had caught up with them, Kirsche was speaking only loud enough for Sakura to hear her. "It is time—for real, this time. Even in the worst case scenario you will gain your Hoshi Eyes tonight. Nothing will be able to stop that."
Sakura almost asked what would try to stop them, then she remembered the last time Kirsche had swept her away weeks ago—a chance run in with Gaara, Temari, and Yashamaru had made Kirsche decide they had 'missed their opening' to do… well, whatever it was they were going to do. Sakura still wasn't quite clear on what had to be done to awaken her Kekkei Genkai other than opening a scroll—her tired mind tried to remember what else Kirsche had said about it as the pink haired woman continued moving from rooftop to rooftop, taking Sakura with her. Sakura had only just remembered that she was supposed to have been thinking about where to draw blood from for the scroll —something she had completely forgotten about—when Kirsche came to a stop on top of a round building somewhere in the middle of town.
Sakura winced when Kirsche's arm brushed her left leg as she set her down. The woman, for once, didn't seem to notice as her eyes scanned the starry sky as if it were a map. As Kirsche continued looking skyward, Sakura looked down at her left leg, lifting her dress to get a better look at her injury from the sandbox. With the help of the full moon, she could just make out the spreading bruise on the outside of her upper thigh with a darker splotch that, when her fingers brushed over it, turned out to be the splinter at its center. Sakura shuddered. She didn't want to think about removing a splinter bigger than her thumb from her leg—that's why, after all, she hadn't told anyone about it, not even Yashamaru or her aunt Youko who could have healed it—it was too scary of a thought.
When the light of the moon disappeared it made Sakura look up to find that Kirsche was no longer looking at the sky but at her… a scroll in one hand that hadn't been there before. The older woman got down on one knee, unrolling the scroll as she did so. The little girl reached out her free hand and took the offered scroll, her mind racing to think on the subject that Kirsche had warned her to be thinking about a long time ago. Blood…where would it come from? Sakura didn't realize her one hand was still holding up the hem of her dress or that Kirsche was making a move until she yelped in pain, her hand with the scroll flying to her leg. Without asking, or even giving a warning, Kirsche had removed the splinter.
Sakura might have yelled at her, or she might have started wailing in belated pain and fear, but Kirsche was biting her own thumb and pressing it to the side of the scroll that wasn't being pressed to Sakura's leg, and that froze the child's tongue in place. Sakura was just realizing that the vacated splinter-hole in her leg meant she didn't have to think any more about hurting herself to get blood to activate the scroll when Kirsche apologized, then asked, "Do you remember when I told you how to push your Chakra into the scroll to activate it? Good. On the count of three, we will do so together. One…" Sakura's mind scrambled, "two…" she dropped her hem and grasped the scroll with both hands, one hand overlapping Kirsche's, "…three!"
Sakura pushed her Chakra out as quickly as she could, and for a moment she was surprised how easy and perhaps even fun it was to use Chakra—she never dared to before now—and the next moment she felt her Chakra leaving her rapidly, almost without her say-so, as if it were being sucked out greedily by the scroll. The world started to go grey around the corners as Sakura felt her legs wobble. As her vision tunneled more, she felt a hand that must have been Kirsche's steady her at the same moment she heard a voice scream her name—strangely, it didn't sound like Kirsche, it was too high pitched and far away. The next thing Sakura knew the tunnel vision had been replaced by a flash of white and then…
Kirsche caught the unconscious child as a space of all white passed around them and settle down to wait for the experience to end, not that she had much choice. What might have been five seconds, or perhaps five minutes, went by in all white—and then in a flash a dash of black in the distance came and went—Kirsche scowled, then said more to herself and the white space she was stuck in than to the child on her lap, "This is why I hate using The Scroll of the Circle—there's no controlling the journey—stuck in one place for who knows how long until you decide to spit us out." When another flash of black went by, Kirsche rolled her eyes, then said sarcastically as if there had been someone there who had said something rather than a white void, "Very funny…I wonder what would happen if I broke from the Scroll and finished the rest of our journey myself—" A black line went by again. Kirsche's voice raised an octave "Well, I certainly wouldn't take us near the Void where a little child could easily die!" This last part held more than a little venom in it, but after that the black mark in the distance ceased appearing, as if it had listened to the pink haired woman's scolding and all it left was white, all white. Another few minutes—or were they hours—went by in silence.
By the time the white void faded back into the moon-lit sands of Suna, Kirsche's eye was twitching as she moved Sakura off her lap so she could stand up and look around herself. She found things not exactly as she expected them—for one thing, everything appeared closer to the ground than before. They were no longer on top of a building but rather about a half hour's travel from the city proper—though, she noted, they were technically still within the boundaries of Suna, so she hadn't broken her promise to Sakura's aunt—and from the look of the full moon, night had only just begun. But neither of those were the reason why her eye was still twitching; she had foreseen where they would land, and she knew approximately when they had landed—what was annoying her had more to do with how fate had decided to go dashing the plans she had made before this—though why she hadn't expected something like this, she couldn't say…it's not like she didn't know fate had it out for her.
Kirsche shook her head, sighed, and then smiled ruefully as she looked at the young girl lying on the ground. She didn't need a mirror to tell that the two of them were closer in age now than they had been before—the fact that Kirsche was a few inches closer to the ground was one tell-tale sign—the fact that Sakura had gained those few inches and then some was another. At least their clothes had changed sizes with them. After a few minutes of silent contemplation, the now-shorter-than-before Kirsche wondered briefly if Sakura would remember her warning about the side effects of The Scroll of the Circle, and figured a moment later that she wouldn't.
"Well," Kirsche whispered exasperatedly to the desert wind, "guess I'll have to get used to being about sixteen or seventeen again…and she'll have to learn to be a few years older than she ever has been. Somehow, I think, between the two of us, she'll have things harder; at least I've gone through time enough to know what to expect when I'm spat out into a new environment." The now-teenager chuckled. "She'll be in for a shock when she wakes up…even if suddenly being two or so years older doesn't get to her…time will." After a brief pause and a glance at the moon, she added, "Somehow I doubt Sakura has realized just why the Laws of Time are so important for Hoshi's, especially Time Walker, to know…but she will soon…"
Picking up the younger girl, Kirsche thought with a smile '…after all, Time Walkers are called just that for a reason… We don't just sit around and do nothing but watch time fly by passively. We play a much more active role than that.'
Well, that's the long awaited end to 'Part One: Childhood' of Kindred Spirits. I apologize for making everyone wait so long for this chapter, but I'm afraid that free time is not something I have much of at the moment (perhaps the longer than normal chapter can somewhat make up for my long absence). Anyhow, I hope everyone liked the chapter—those who have read the two sister stories to this probably recognize some of what's going on and have an idea of how The Scroll of the Circle will affect Sakura's life in the next part of her story. I don't know how long Part Two will be, it will depend on my reader's opinions, but there are certain things I have planned for Part Two that have to happen before we can move on to Part Three.
Reviews and constructive criticism are welcome to an extra Scroll of the Circle, Flamers, however, will be left in the Void…now, onto the pretty list!
Thanks to: MaroonAngel of Darkness, Reibuki Shihaisha (yes, I can, and if you haven't guessed already, you'll find out in the next chapter where they were headed), Higanbana.4 (I hope you got my PM in answer to your question, and thank you for noticing), Wild Blossom (yes, they're just slow in coming), TranquilSapphire (I don't either), Yautja's Blooded Pet (just keep reading and you will find out), ShinoCoolGaaraAwesome (I'm so glad to hear that, I hope the long wait hasn't put you off), shadow miko, ArtemisMoon (Thank you. It is hard to write from a small child's point of view, since I am no longer a child, but I think that children often know and understand more than adults give them credit for, especially really smart children like Sakura. As to your statement on Kankuro getting a girlfriend...I'll keep it in mind for Part Three. I'm sure I can find someone for him, even if it does have to be an OC...there aren't that many female's their age in Naruto after all. Thanks for the long review, and being willing to wait for life to give me a break), moonlitwater, Uncertain Shifter, & leafstone for reviewing!