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Chapter 37: Dreams and Worries

Sakura opened her eyes groggily, struggling to wrap her mind around the dreams she'd known she'd had, even though they were kind of fuzzy. One had been odd, almost like a memory, except for the fact that she wouldn't have been alive in that time. In her dream, she'd been looking at the 'latest' (more like last) photo of her father. It was taken on the day he become a Gennin.

The one she knew was her father stood in the middle of the four people. His short, strawberry blonde hair shone in the sunlight and his shockingly blue eyes stared confidently at the camera. On either side of him stood a green haired person. One boy, one girl, obviously sibling and probably also twins. The girl was glairing at her brother, who had a carefree grin on his face and his hand held up in a peace sign. Behind them stood a golden haired woman with jade eyes and a falcon on her shoulder.

In this dream, however, the people in the photo weren't in the photo. It was more like she was in the time when the photo took place. There came a flash, the sound of a shutter, and then the person behind the camera called out "Tsubame, now that the photo's done, you should come with me, the Hokage wanted to speak to us."

The woman, Tsubame, nodded and strode forward as she said to her students, "Haruno, Michi, Hiraku, meet me at training field number five tomorrow at seven. Hiraku, if you're even a second late…" Tsubame paused, then gave him a scary smile, "Well, just don't be late…then you won't have to find out." She then walked away with the photographer.

For a moment, Sakura could have sworn that the dream wavered, making all three look older, but…no, they were still Gennin…the dream went on as before. When the teacher and the photographer were out of sight, the girl, Michi, hit her brother on the head, "You idiot, why were you late? I thought I'd made sure you would be on time. But no! The moment I take my eye off you you're late! You know Tsubame-sensei is a stickler for being on time. Where were you?"

The boy, Hiraku, just smiled lazily at his sister, "Just taking a nap. You woke me up too early, so-"

"I did NOT wake you up too early! In fact, I didn't wake you up soon enough! You-"

Suddenly Sakura's father spoke in a commanding voice, "Quiet you two." Both instantly shut their mouths. Sakura's father turned to Hiraku, his voice more friendly, no longer quite so commanding, "Hiraku, don't be late again. Being on time may one day be a matter of life or death. Michi," He turned his gaze on her, "it's good that you are trying to keep Hiraku on time, but remember that you won't always be there for him. He must learn how to be punctual of his own will. Do you both understand?"

Both of them nodded, shamefaced, "Yes, Li."

Sakura's father slightly smiled and patted both of them on the shoulder, "Good. Now then, I'm going to go train. If you want, you may join me." He then started walking. A moment later Hiraku and Michi caught up to him.

Hiraku smiled broadly, his arms crossed casually behind his head, and spoke; However, his voice was anything but casual. "You know we'll follow your lead, Li. Whatever you say, whatever you do, wherever you go…always we'll follow."

Michi then gave a gentle smile aimed towards Sakura's father and added, "Yeah, he's right for once. If not for you, we wouldn't be alive, so our lives are yours. We'll follow your orders, no matter what. After all, you are-"

Sakura's father laughed lightly and interrupted Michi, "That's enough of that from you two. Remember where we are, and remember…we're friends. For now, that should be enough for all of us. Now come, let's train." As they headed into the distance, the dream faded away.

The other dream had been about that door again…she was still pretty sure it was the same door that she had just seen the night before. Sakura rubbed her eyes wearily, then caught sight of the clock for the first time. "Augh, why did I sleep in so late!" Sakura quickly shot out of bed, then had to sit back down as her vision tunneled, she mumbled, "Must of sat up too quickly." Once she felt better, she hurriedly got dressed. Without thinking Sakura picked up the book from the previous night as she headed towards the door.

Once she exited the room she was greeted by Tobi, who looked like he had only just woken up himself. "Good morning Tobi, I see Itachi isn't back yet, is he…"

Tobi shook his head no, not catching the sad tone in Sakura's voice, "Nope! But Tobi's here! What will we do today?"

Sakura gave a small smile, ignoring how heavy her body felt, "Well, let's go to my cousins' room for now." Tobi nodded and they started walking down the hall. Mentally Sakura sighed, Itachi had been gone for a while now…she missed him…

When Sakura entered her cousins' room she was greeted by two bodies throwing themselves on her and their voices asking nonstop questions. As Sakura answered the twins' questions she looked over their head and noticed that Noya was just standing, looking at her. Once she'd assured the twins that she'd just overslept she walked over to Noya and asked him what was wrong.

Noya looked at her a moment, then shrugged and said, "Nothing really…" he paused as he caught sight of the book that Sakura was still holding onto, "What's that? Is it a new textbook?"

It took a moment for Sakura to realize what he was talking about. Sakura sighed and sat down on the bed, looking at the book in her hand as she thought distantly about how Noya had changed the subject, but she was still too tired to bother him about it, so she decided to let it go.

As her mind returned to her book, she said in answer to Noya's question, "No, I just brought it for some reason…I don't even know what it's about, since I haven't even read it yet." Sakura shook her head lightly, as if to shake off her sleepiness, "Anyways, you should read the next chapter of the book I gave you, and you two should practice walking up the walls."

Noya just nodded in answer and went to his book as the twins rushed up the wall. Sakura looked back at her book and noticed that it appeared very old. There was no title on the leather cover of the rather thick book. Sakura opened the cover and found what was probably a title, but Sakura couldn't be sure because it was hand written in a different language.

Sakura carefully opened the book midway through and turned the age weathered pages, just looking at the beautifully written foreign language and alphabet. Sometimes there appeared to be lists of things, and then there were long paragraphs. Sakura was about to close the book, dismissing it as something she could not read, when something caught her eye. Sakura turned back to the page near the front and examined what was written there closely.

Sakura gasped, shock making her light headed. Sakura quickly turned to Noya and found that he was looking at her (probably because he'd heard her gasp). "Noya, look at this. Is this what I think it is?" Noya took the book and looked at where Sakura was pointing, his eyes widening.

Noya returned his gaze to her and said in an awestruck voice, "It says Sie Ausdehnung Geheren …it's written in the ancient language."

Ayaka walked quietly down the hall towards the Hoshi children's bedroom, her mind abuzz with thought. She had just returned from reporting to Yuri about what she'd just found out on her latest mission. She had infiltrated a secret meeting that was being held by the same group of Grass ninja that their 'informant' had come from, and had found out a great deal of disturbing information.

The Grass ninja talked about what one of their informants in Sound had found out one day while listening into a number of secret conversations between Kabuto and Orochimaru. They briefly mentioned that there had been some sort of prophecy discussed in a previous meeting about a girl (Ayaka knew they were talking about Sakura) that had sparked their interest. That was what had brought about the Grass ninja lurking around the Akatsuki's hideout.

However, as if that wasn't bad enough, this meeting ended up being about a new bit of information that their Sound spy had recently learned. Now, it appeared, Orochimaru had decided that it would be good to capture the girl to use against the Akatsuki. From what their spy had overheard, it sounded as if there was something about the girl other than her being a powerful Hoshi. The spy wasn't completely sure, but he thought that it sounded like the girl had some connection to the Akatsuki that would make 'saving' her (they knew she'd been taken there against her will) from the Akatsuki hurt the Akatsuki.

With that information out on the table, the Grass ninja decided that they wanted her too. If they could thwart Sound, weaken the Akatsuki, and bring such a powerful Hoshi under their command, than they didn't mind sacrificing lives to get their hands on her. They said many other things as well, but this was the biggest thing on Ayaka's mind. And now it was on Yuri's too. Ayaka could only hope that Yuri would take care of things so that Sakura would remain safe with them.

Thinking about Sakura made Ayaka think about what Noya had asked of her. When she had seen the three of them the night before, the twins had hinted heavily that they wanted to see the meteor shower that would be happening this night (how they had known about it she hadn't asked), but they didn't say anything 'directly'…not that it wasn't obvious what they wanted.

It was Noya, however, who had pulled her aside and had asked her to ask Yuri to allow the four of them to go see the shower. He had paused, and then added that he was worried about Sakura not getting enough of Natures Light because she was spending so much time down in the library. Of course after that Ayaka agreed to ask Yuri, and she had that night, and now she was delivering the answer to Sakura's cousins.

Ayaka patted her brother on the head when she'd reached the three Hoshi's room, "I take it Lady Haruno is in there." Tobi nodded his head under her hand, "Good, I want to see something for myself." With that Ayaka knocked, then opened the door to the room. Inside she found everyone on the floor surrounding a book, but only three of the four were actually awake.

Noya and the twins looked up from trying to translate the old book when they heard the door open. The twins smiled and waved at Ayaka before quickly returning their attention to the book. Noya, however, got up and went over to speak with Ayaka quietly. Noya opened his mouth to speak, but Ayaka beat him to it, "She really isn't looking good, is she?"

Noya glanced at Sakura sprawled out on the floor asleep as he answered in a whisper, "She's worse today than she was yesterday and the day before that." Noya paused as he noticed he had been unintentionally clenching his hand. "I'm worried about Lady Sakura. The twins haven't noticed, but she's been pale and not as perky lately, and she's been unable to concentrate on the less important things."

Noya paused as he noticed that his hand was clinched again. He slowly opened his hand and looked at it as he continued, "But today she couldn't stay awake even though we were all very interested in that book. She's been pushing herself so hard for some reason…I think she's working too hard and not getting enough sunshine. She's always in that dark library, reading something…she needs to get outside."

Ayaka nodded, "I agree…well, I came to tell you that master Konan has agreed to allow you to see the shower tonight. That's better than nothing, right? But we're lucky that master agreed, considering the circumstances…"

Noya felt his stomach twist into another knot as he asked, "What circumstances?"

Ayaka shook her head, "It's nothing for you to worry about. Master Konan has it under control." Ayaka gave him a reassuring smile and turned to leave, "I've got other things I have to do, but I'll see you later. Tell Lady Sakura hello for me." And then she left. The sound of the door closing felt like a weight thudding onto Noya's already heavy shoulders.

As Noya looked back at Sakura's pale sleeping form his worry increased. 'The fact that she didn't tell me anything proves that something bad is going on other than Sakura's problem. I hate to even think it, but I hope Itachi returns soon. If he's here, Sakura may perk up some…and I know he'd be able to protect her from anything.'

As Noya sat back down by Sakura and the book, he pulled a blanket from the bed and laid it over Sakura. 'Well, at least she came here to 'read' today. I hope that getting a good sleep in the sun will fix her up…if not, then…'

Noya didn't let himself finish the thought.

There, I know it's not too long, but It's better than nothing, right? I'll try to update, if possible, before I leave for Japan on June 6th, but I've still got finals to worry about and another cousin's wedding to go to, so I may not get a chance to write anything before I have to leave. I'll be back in the states by June 20th.

If there are any mistakes in this chapter I'm sorry. Wolf-Chan is just as busy as I am with finals, so there has been no editing of this chapter. Also, I put up my drawing of the Shimaguchi twins on my profile.

Reviews and constructive criticisms are welcome, as are people going to my forum (which people seem to be forgetting to do!). Flamers, however, are only welcome to try to find the edge of the world…and if they find it, to fall off it. Now, let's thank those on the pretty list!

Thanks to: Quiet Moon, Hao'sAnjul, Crazy Neko Girl (glad to see you're back), xo Misunderstood kunoichi ox, .assassinator, Spirit Seer, akatsuki's hikari, xokatherine229, SasukeSakuraxXXxItachiSakura, Theblackroseofkonoha, aznkitty180, Itachi Chiookami, markim, krazykoreangurl, Animeprincess514, Cster (once I get back from Japan I should, should being the key word, be able to update faster), NightWing101, SpeedDemon315, Marika-Uchiha, Shizune-san, mistressofmischeif (I still didn't get the link. send it with spaces in it, like fan fiction . net), moonbeam28, naticariza, princessXofXtheXmarionettes, so stupid its genius, EmoAniChan, Tsukiyome, & SnowWolfSpirit (...dweep) for reviewing!