Disclaimer: CCS is mine… in my fairytale land.
So here's the chapter you've all been waiting for. Sakura has just passed out unconscious next to a bench, not really because of her wounds, but because of her heartaches. We all know who to blame for that. Ü
Enjoy!
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Hidden Secrets
Chapter Twenty-Nine
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Emerald eyes opened and then shut again. It was too bright… and the sound of the river was so peaceful… water lapping at rocks… she wanted to sleep… river!
Sakura sat up as fast as she could, carelessly reopening a wound in her leg. She cringed, but pushed the pain out of her mind as she began to survey her surroundings. It seemed that she was in a garden somewhere. The edge of the garden where the gates were could be seen, yet the size of said backyard was enormous. It looked to be about a mile in radius… there was even a small river running through the ground.
Whoever owned the place was rich. The mansion standing fifteen feet or so behind her was extravagant as well. Designs ran through both the yard and the building. It was a breathtaking sight to behold.
The back of her mind registered that the place itself was beautiful. There were Sakura trees everywhere… but she focused on the most important thing – why was she here… and where in the word was "here"!
"Ah, I see you are awake."
Sakura's head flipped around and she found herself staring into a pair of beautiful azure eyes. "Izumi… kun," she breathed. "What are you doing here?"
He laughed happily at her confusion. "What am I doing here? This is my house! I found you unconscious in the park last night, but I don't know where you live… I hope you don't mind. I brought you out here earlier since it's such a nice day."
Sakura realized that she had been laying on a small, reclining bench. "Thank you…" she gave his "home" another look. "What do you parents do for a living? This place is humongous." She turned pink. "Ah, I mean. It's very nice."
"My parents died a long time ago so it's just me and my big brother," he saw her open her mouth to apologize and cut her off. "Don't worry about it though. We get a long great, and we both work so we can take care of ourselves."
"That's amazing… what do you two do for a living?" She was amazed. Two boys… one no older than her could afford a place like this. She may have been able to in ten more years but…"
"Oops. I've said too much," Eiji shook his head. "Aniki is always telling me to think about what I say before I say it. I'll tell you what I do later, when Aniki gets back. He'll do the talking and I'll just smile and nod."
Her gaze returned to her classmate and narrowed. "What do you mean?"
He merely laughed in reply, "I won't ask where you got your bullet wounds if you don't ask me that question." His tone turned serious. "You reopened a wound, didn't you? You really should stop overdoing it… a normal person would have been passed out for days."
A normal person… just who was he!
But she swallowed her questions as he came to her side with bandages and began to carefully wrap the bullet wound in her leg.
"I treated your injuries as best as I could before… maybe I should have taken you to a hospital but I doubted that you wanted any questions to be asked," he murmured.
She shut her eyes. His warm breath tickling her ears and his gentle hands caring for her wounds… they all reminded her of Syaoran.
Syaoran… the memories flooded back into her mind. His yelling… his words… the anger in his eyes… the lack of love in them.
She couldn't help it anymore. Slowly and unwillingly the hateful tears ran down her tired face. Syaoran… she wanted… she pushed Eiji away.
"Sakura-san! I'm so sorry! Did I hurt you?" the concern on his face was genuine, and Sakura was grateful that he was so kind to her…
… but she didn't want someone similar to Syaoran… she didn't want his replacement… she wanted him. Syaoran! Sakura smiled bitterly to herself. She wondered if he had even noticed that she was missing… did he even care?
"No Izumi-kun… I'm just tired I guess. Thank you so much for you kindness but I think I should probably be getting home." Her voice had a weary note to it. Not a tiredness of body, but a pain of the heart. Usually she would have stayed to find out who exactly Izumi Eiji was… but today she didn't think she could take much more.
To her surprise, the boy shook his head and blocked her way. "I'm sorry, Sakura-san, but I've been given orders to not allow you to leave. Plus," he laughed nervously. "You're injuries are healed yet… they may reopen on your way home. We'll send you back later."
"We?" Her words were cold. They knew who she was… whoever they were. Eriol's warnings of someone targeting her echoed in her mind. Was Eiji one of them? Then that would explain his high pay… and maybe even his lack of parents.
"W-Wait!" he held his hands up. "Time out!" He scratched his head for a few seconds before sighing. "Okay. 'We' is me and my brother – I would never let anyone hurt you," he promised. "Actually we just have an offer for you… a win-win situation, really! Please just trust me until my brother gets back… pretty please?"
Sakura didn't know what it was. On any other day, even Eiji's innocent, pleading face would not have fazed her and she would have continued to question him until she got what she wanted… or she would have taken it by force. Force…
Her hands flew to the hidden knives in her Chinese dress… which surprisingly was no longer there. Both her weapons and her dress were gone. Instead, she was clothed in a simple, white bath robe. She shot him an accusing look. "My belongings?"
"Inside the house," he gestured towards the building behind him. "Don't worry, I had our maid, Ayumi-chan, change you."
"And my weapons."
He gave her a large grin. "I thought it might be better if I held onto those until you heard Aniki and me out."
Sakura sighed and leaned back against the chair, resigned. "And your older brother gets back when?"
"Oh, in a couple of hours. Why don't we talk in the meantime?"
He took her lack of response as a yes.
"So… how do you like school?"
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Syaoran was panting hard. Just ten minutes after Sakura had ran out of the van, he had taken off after her. He wasn't planning on taking back what he said… he didn't know what he was planning on doing. All he knew was that he had to go find her.
But she had done it again. AGAIN! Damn it! She'd disappeared, and he'd been scared out of his wits for the past nine hours searching the entire city for her.
He felt bad… no… that was an understatement. He felt like the worst jerk on the planet. A rotten piece and meat that should have been chopped up and burned a long time ago. He should have died before meeting Sakura. He should have vanished from this world before getting to know her. He should never have made her cry.
She had been wounded pretty seriously! What had he been thinking?
… he knew what he had been thinking… of himself. Of pushing her away. Of being scared of the emotions that were starting to affect him so much. He had to push her away… but he wasn't even so sure of that anymore.
He had known he'd have trouble letting her go… he just hadn't realize how much it would hurt to do so. Not to mention that he felt a million times worse after making her cry.
Getting back on his feet, Syaoran began his run once again. He had visited her home twice, and her brother (after threatening him) had promised to call him the minute he got home. Maybe he would try her dojo in JPSN.
But he doubted that she would be there. She would have bled to death before reaching her destination. Someone would have found her and brought her to a hospital… but he had checked every single hospital in the city! She was no where! She had disappeared… from the world, from his life…
He wanted her back so much.
His amber eyes spotted something he recognized. A piece of black silk was caught onto the edge of a bench in the park. There was no doubt about it. The texture… the color… the small droplet of blood at the corner of the fabric. It was Sakura's.
But where was she!
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"Hello, Kinomoto Sakura-san. I'm Izumi Kuroshin, Eiji's older brother. He's certainly told me a lot about you," a tall man dressed in black offered Sakura his hand to shake. She, on the other hand, ignored it.
"I recognize your voice," she glared at him. "You were the one at the theatre. What do you two want with me?"
Kuroshin motioned for the maid to make some tea. "Please don't be upset, I realize that we haven't exactly been totally hospitable, but I hope you understand. Yes, to your earlier comment. I was the one at the theatre… and that little… exchange of ours is the reason that you're here today."
He smiled but Sakura didn't bat an eyelash. Eiji's older brother was handsome all right. Even more so than Eiji himself – dark hair, dark eyes… a deep, hypnotizing voice. But Sakura was too busy trying to ignore her thoughts of Syaoran in order to concentrate on the matter at hand.
"And you'll get to your point sometime soon I hope," she frowned at the cup of tea placed in front of her. "You know, this really isn't necessary. I have every intention of simply hearing you out and then returning home as soon as possible."
She continued, "You obviously know who I am, I think it's only fair that you return the favor. Names hardly mean anything these days."
Eiji and his brother both laughed. The three of them were sitting in what Eiji had called their "reception room", but it looked just like an extremely large and fancy living room. They were seated on a pair of white, fluffy sofas. The two men on one and Sakura on the other.
"I'm fond of my name, but I suppose you're right," Kuroshin put his cup down. "The two of us have been looking for a third member to our group… Our group being a group of assassins for hire. I understand that you are JPSN's top spy and so I went and fought with you… at the movie theatre for a bit to see if you would qualify."
"And the results were that you were perfect," Eiji smiled at her, but she ignored him.
"I refuse." She stated simply. "As you have previously stated, I am a member of JPSN, and while I am surprised that you are aware of my organization's existence, but does not mean that I will simply decide to join you. There is no reason for me to."
The older man held up his hand to pause her. "You didn't let me finish." Sakura was beginning to feel uncomfortable under his gaze. "I sent Eiji to your school so that he could watch over you and befriend you. There's no lie in how he's acted towards you, and I'm being perfectly honest right now. Us two are not unkind people. I'm sure the three of us will get along perfectly."
"We, the two of us alone can hardly tackle all the missions we receive from our clients, and so we are in need of a third member. While I am sure JPSN will miss its finest spy, I'm sure they'll survive." Eiji laughed.
Kuroshin took a long sip of tea. "We can pay you twice what your former organization has been paying you. Even three times as much, if that's what you want. You'll given much more freedom than what you had before, and you can refuse missions that you do not like."
"Good," Sakura smiled for the first time that day. "Then I refuse this one. I'm going home." She stood to leave, but Kuroshin's voice stopped her.
"I also hear from Eiji that you may have reasons to want to avoid the JPSN facility… and certain people or should I say… a person that goes along hand-in-hand with it."
Sakura froze where she was standing, "How long have you been stalking me exactly?"
He sauntered over to her side and casually put an arm around her shoulders. Eiji frowned at this but said nothing. The elder Izumi brother whispered into her ear, "I can teach you things that you could never learn at that silly JPSN. You've seen how I fight… I can make you that powerful. You may not see it now, but taking this opportunity is more than just an escape… it's a chance that you cannot let pass by."
Her nose curled in distaste. "Believe it or not, I'm actually loyal to my organization and to my boss," she pushed him away. "I don't want any part of you, your brother, or your little 'group'" Sakura looked at Eiji and frowned, "To be perfectly honest, I'm disappointed. I'm leaving."
"Won't you stay for a bit?" Kuroshin's tone was not suggestive, it was threatening. "I'll have a room prepared for you… so that you can think this over. I realize that it must be a lot to absorb in one day."
"Aniki! What are you-"
"Be quiet Eiji," he snapped before turning back to Sakura. "My little cherry blossom, I hope that you'll be enjoying your stay here… and I hope even more that your stay will be permanent."
Sakura's eyes widened. She was powerless at the moment. There was no way she could fight of someone she hadn't been able to defeat when she was healthy as she was now. She looked frantically over at Eiji who looked just as unhappy as she was.
"Sakura-san…" he walked to her side and took her hand, leading her away. "I'm sorry… but it seems like you'll be staying here for a little bit longer…"
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"Eriol!" Syaoran burst into the sapphire-eyed spy's office. "I need you to help me find Sakura!"
His friend's voice was grave. "I think I may already have… Syaoran…"
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To be continued…
I know this was basically a filler chapter. But I tried my best! I need to make the connection somewhere before Sakura and Syaoran can meet up once again.
Anyway… I'm going on a short vacation soon so I don't know when I'll be able to put up the next chapter exactly, but if you leave me a really nice review I'll see what I can do. :D
