Disclaimer/ No, I do not own Naruto and I never will. Go ahead and be mean about it. If I owned Naruto, you would know about it.
AN/I think I should just warn you now. All of these Sakura pairings are going to be pretty high up there on the crack scale. I really love crack. Sue me. A good dosage of Sakura crack is good for you. I'm sure of it.
Dedication:...
Please review, flames are ...I do not care.
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Comedy of Errors
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A wretched soul, bruis'd with adversity,
We bid be quiet, when we hear it cry;
But, were we burden'd with like weight of pain,
As much or more we should ourselves complain.
Adriana, scene i
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Sakura smiled to herself, pulling out another shirt that was probably too small for her from her suitcase. Her aunt was standing in the doorway, thinking she was being sneaky and staying out of Sakura's eyesight so that she could spy on the younger.
After being discharged from the hospital and passed around by official to official, she was dumped off on the steps of a cute gingerbread styled house with a white picket fence and a yapping dog. At first her aunt and uncle had been opposed to having Sakura stay with them, believing her to be just like her parents, but so far she had not given them any reason to complain. In fact, her behavior was quite the opposite. She used her manners, 'please' and 'thank you,' addressed elders with respect, and offered to help with chores around the house-even cook for them sometimes.
'My sister was never like that," Yoko thought to herself as she watched Sakura carefully.
Yoko remembered growing up with a younger, spoiled rotten brat that believed she could do anything she wanted to anyone else and get away with it. She had a it's my life don't screw with me type of swagger while growing up that the parents thought to be cute. It wasn't cute when she ran away from home and started doing her drugs and... other unpleasant things. As the oldest, Yoko felt stressed and partially responsible for a sister she never could seem to get along with. She wanted to help, really she did, but it seemed ever so impossible for her.
Staightening up, Yoko smoothed out her shirt and brushed back a stand of peppered gray, forcing it back under her bun. "Sakura," she called out.
Sakura looked up, pausing in her work to give her aunt her full attention. "Yes, auntie?"
"Dinner will be ready in half an hour. It's just meatloaf and mashed potatoes. If there is something you especially like you could tell me for another night, but please sit down with your uncle and I tonight.""
Sakura smiled, her lips splitting apart to reveal pearly whites. "Yes, of course. A warm dinner sounds so nice. Thank you for preparing it."
Yoko nodded, slowly, trying to not seem too welcoming, but not too stern at the same time. She had a position as head of the household to uphold, because if she didn't keep some order in place heaven knows her husband wouldn't. Still, she didn't want to come off as the mean old stepmother of fairy-tales. She wanted to have a relationship with Sakura-something she hadn't done with anyone new in close to seven years. She was a little old lady hermit, after all.
"Sakura..." she said, her tone a little lighter.
"Yes, auntie?"
"Do you... like meatloaf?"
"I don't know. I've never had it before. I don't think I've even ever seen it to be honest." Sakura stopped speaking and quickly shot her eyes down to the floor, feeling her ears turn hot. "B-b-b-but that's not to-to say that I d-don't think it will be really g-good."
Yoko shifted the weight from one leg to the other, then grinned. "That's fine, dear. Just try it for tonight. I won't force you to eat it if you really don't like it."
Sakura looked up and smiled shyly. "Thank you."
"I'll call you when dinner is ready." Then the older woman turned and left.
Alone once again Sakura looked down at her hands, Her left hand was wrapped around her right wrist, squeezing it tight till the form of the bone became distinct underneath her flesh. She let go quickly and watched the shin turn white, than red, leaving marks behind. Her palms were sweaty, so she wiped them against the sides of her jeans and turned away from the doorway.
She was practically done with her unpacking, most of her clothes had been put away before her aunt had come in and aside from clothing and books, she didn't own much. Her parents never bought her anything, so she had to start tutoring for money and working part time jobs that didn't mind paying under the table for kids too young to really work in light of child labor laws. Sometimes a friend would get her a gift, or her parents would leave money for her when she told them she needed it for school, but for the most part, she had learned to rely on herself and make do with what she had.
The guest room she was staying in had a really nice, four level bookshelf that was mostly empt, housing a few cheep figurines and phonebooks, but nothing else. She would have to wait a bit longer for the rest of her things to arrive from the house.
The state was holding onto everything for her-and would wait a week more for her to claim it all before it was seized. Her uncle Ren said he would take off from work to help her unpack everything there. (He worked Saturdays.) They would have to have a yard sale for all the furniture they didn't want or couldn't fit in the house. A friend or two would help him with that so they could get it all done in one day. They would all do it on a Saturday, since she had a few friends from school who were more than happy to help out.
"Sakura, dinner!"
"Ah, yes, coming!" she called out, rushing from her room and descending the stairs as quickly as proper manners would allow.
"Whoa there nelly," her uncle laughed from the dinner table. "No need to rush there. There's pleanty here for you and we won't start without ya."
Sakura looked down, embarrassed. "Ah-h, s-s-sorry."
"Aint nothing to be sorry for, come an' sit er down."
He laughed again and Sakura couldn't help but feel better at the sound of his voice. There was warmth in this house and there were love in these people, stiff and awkward as it may seem at first, but there was love never the less.
"Thank you."
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A hungry lean-fac'd villain,
A mere anatomy.
Antipholus of Ephesus, scene i
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"Sakura chan!"
Sakura looked up from the lime flavored ice pop she was sucking on and waved to the two approaching figures. Her uncle was standing beside her and laughed when he heard the way they addressed her, not only the suffix, but the manner in which the spoke towards her. He was guessing this was the first either had seen of her in a long while.
Sakura slid off the fence and pulled out her pop just as they slid up to either side of her, both were breathing heavy and red in the face from the long run.
"I won," Kiba gasped.
"Bullcrap, I was...the one who won," Naruto shot back.
"Hello Sakura," Gaara calmly greeted, walking up at his own pace behind the two boys.
"Hey guys," she said, smiling without the usual glasses to frame her eyes. Naruto and Kiba were quick to pick up on this.
"Wow Sakura chan, you look so different without your glasses. You should use contacts more often." Naruto beamed at his complement, feeling oh so proud with himself that he beat the other two to the punch. He knew they were just dying to say something to impress her without sounding too obvious.
Kiba shot a glare over at Naruto from behind Sakura's back, cursing the blond with everything he had. He refused to be shown up in front of Sakura by Naruto by all people. Gaara was not nearly as insulting, since the redhead wasn't so much a total dork like Naruto was. If he lost to the blond he would never forgive himself. "Are you wearing any eye make up, Sakura?"
"Huh, n-no. Why do you ask?"
He smiled when she replied to him, that was more than what Naruto had under his belt. Victory. "Nah, it's nothing. I've just never seen you without your eyeglasses, you look good."
She blushed red and looked down, her eyes looking to her sneakers as she fidgeted under his gaze. Complements made her feel all fuzzy and uncomfortable. What was left of her ice pop was starting to drip off the stick but she didn't do anything about it. "T-t-t-thank y-y-you, Kiba san."
Now it was Naruto's turn to glare at Kiba. Gaara, all the while, had been watching the scene with only a mild interest, but he was starting to feel bad for Sakura who was obviously uncomfortable with the two males who didn't seem to care about her modest feelings.
"Sakura," he called out. She looked up and saw as he pointed to the drips of green that were falling from her ice pop. There were three already splattered on the ground. "Your treat is melting. You should hurry and eat it before it melts all over the place."
"Um, thank you," she quickly said before popping it back into her mouth.
"You boys want one two. We have a whole freezer over here of 'em, and I don't think Sakura can go through all of 'em on her own."
Naruto and Kiba didn't waste any time in taking a treat for themselves, thanking Sakura's uncle before taking the first bite. When offered one himself, Gaara declined, claiming that he was used to the late spring heat. He had grown up in Suna, after all.
"When are the others supposed to arrive, Sakura chan?" Naruto asked, gnawing off a huge chunk of lemon.
"The others?"
"Yeah, you know, the mover men."
"Oh, you mean my uncle's friends, they should be here any minute now. It's eight thirty already." Sakura pressed the wooden stick between her lips and wiped off any of the juices that might have remained after finishing the bulk of the pop. She got up and tossed the stick into the trash can close to their trailer and skipped backwards to the fence.
"How many should show up?" Gaara asked, his arms crossed over his chest as he leaned against the fence beside her.
"Two, plus my friend Juugo said he would try to make it here after one thirty. He was busy looking for another job... Speaking of which, thank you guys for giving up your Saturday mornings to help with something as boring as this. It really means a lot."
"No problem, Sakura chan. You know that lazy nut Shikamaru said he would help out as well, but not until he had enough time to sleep. Selfish little twerp he turned out to be. I bet he won't show up until we are all done," Naruto said.
"Probably better that way, Shikamaru would fall asleep on his feet and be troublesome," Kiba laughed.
"You guys should talk like that about a friend who isn't here," Gaara scolded. The others just laughed.
Just then a truck pulled up alongside the trailer Sakura's uncle had rented.
"That would be them boys..." Ren said, taking a few steeps towards the truck. "Come on you kids, don't be rude."
Sakura, of course was the first to follow, and that was more than enough to drag Naruto and Kiba along. Gaara rubbed his eyes and took up the rear, stopping at the trash can to throw away his pop stick like Sakura had done earlier.
"Glad you two could make it. Thanks for showing up on such short notice," Ren greeted, shaking hands with the driver who had just steeped out. "This here is my niece, Sakura. Sakura, this is an old friend of mine, Kakuzu and his younger cousin Hidan."
Sakura steeped forward and shook hands with the tall dark skinned man, exchanging polite greetings, never mind that she had known these two in name only a year ago when they had been seniors, but didn't see the other one named Hidan. Just when she was about to ask about it, a tall, very tall, white haired male came around the back of the truck and greeted the group. Sakura turned around and stopped.
The room trembled and her head screamed loud and louder, scrambling her already warped vision till she couldn't see.
"Hey there," he politely greeted, looking straight at Sakura. His eys were bright and the color of a purple burial shroud, the ones she's seen in churches. There were a million other things that shade of purple, but for some reason, burial shrouds came to invade her head.
He reached out and took her hand, large calloused fingers closing over her own, sending shivers all through her body. He was so big and strong looking, he could probably crush her in a moment if he wanted to. But that's not what unnerved Sakura. No, there was something else about this man that set her uneasy...something she couldn't put a name to.
"Nice to meet you Hidan. Thanks for coming here to help."
"My pleasure," he replied without smiling. His eyes were still staring straight into her own.
Sakura let go of his hand and looked away, towards the boys who didn't seem to notice anything odd about the exchange. Her uncle as well, looked on with creased eyes and a happy smile, completely and totally at ease with everything. None of them felt the uneasy shivering that bubbled within her stomach.
At least that was what she thought until she caught sight of Kakuzu and his oddly perturbed stare. He wasn't staring at her, but at his cousin, seeming to ask the towing man what was going on, because something wasn't normal with their exchange. She wanted to ask him what it was he saw, but her lips were sealed tight and her face felt hot under the late spring sun. She didn't want to ask anything, least not now while everyone else was around them.
"We all aquatinted now? Lets get started then," Ren proposed, pushing up his sleeves and heading towards the storage rooms. Hidan and Kakuzu followed right after him and Kiba and Naruto took off together, determined to do more than the other and impress Sakura. Only Gaara stayed behind with her.
"Sakura?" She looked up, her eyes shaking when her body refused to. "You okay?"
She faked a smile, closed her eyes and nodded. "Sure, it's just the heat."
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A needy, hollow-ey'd, sharp-looking wretch,
A living-dead man.
Antipholus of Ephesus, scene i
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Most of the guys were on the other side of the storage facility, moving the heavier objects such a tables, china cabinets, couches, and chairs out on a dory before strapping them down in either the trailer or the back of Kakuzu's truck. A lot had gotten done in the first few hours, but there was a whole house worth of stuff to be moved so it was expected to take up all of Saturday with only one or two short breaks for lunch and snacks.
"What do we do with the mower?"
"That can go in the truck, Naruto."
"We'll need to strap it down."
"Kakuzu has those, ask him for a few."
"He said he was looking for his cousin and left a few moments ago. I'll go get the straps myself."
Sakura was on her own, being the only female and therefor the only one who couldn't lift/carry the heavy stuff, (who ever said chivalry is dead?), she was busying herself with the smaller items and boxes. What she was really after were the boxes that had her things in them. So far she had only found one.
There was a lot of stuff that had to be unloaded, but now Sakura was just concerned with getting over the mounds of boxes and finding her books. Yes, that was what was the most important to her out of everything she could be retrieving. She actually had a pretty sizable library since more than once she had received books as payment for students who were having a hard time coming up with the tutor fee.
One of the boxes under her foot wobbled and broke, the side tearing off under her weight as she plunged downward. Everything happened so quickly, she couldn't think fast enough to act rationally, so she reached out for anything to grab onto to stop her fall and ended up dragging a pile of unopened boxes down on top of her.
'No!' she screamed in her mind right before she hit the ground. The initial impact of her back hitting cement was painful, but it would have been more painful if the boxes had piled up on top of her. Thank god they didn't.
"Damn, that could have been messy," Hidan huffed, pushing the bowes off his bruised arms. "You should be more careful next time."
On her back looking up at the ceiling dotted with lights she couldn't see his face very well because of the shadow. He was so tall he blocked out so much light and suddenly, like a vial tidalwave it all came crashing down on top of her.
The Killer stood in the doorway with a blade, triple pointed downwards. He took a steep towards Sakura as she crawled away from him in frantic, jerked movements. Sakura couldn't properly scream, the air all gone from her lungs. She tried to stand, and bolted for the stairs, but her legs gave out on her and then she was falling, tumbling over herself and across the downstairs floor, picking up pieces of jagged blood in her side. Her head hit the side of an empty china cabinet and it rocked before falling down on her.
Her heart began to feel terrible and it must have shown on her face, since Hidan saw it. He stopped moving the boxes around and looked over at her with a raised eyebrow. "Oi, are you really hurt from that fall? Can't you get up?" He walked towards her and she felt fire burn her veins.
"Why?" He stopped his advance. "Why... why did y-you do it..."
"Stupid, I wasn't going to let the boxes crush you." Sakura just shook her head, pulling her body across the floor, away from him. Her eyes were wide and close to tears.
"Why did you do it, why did you kill them?" He froze under her gaze and looked away. In her mind Sakura was screaming at him, cursing him with all she knew, begging and pleading for him to deny it, praying he wasn't who she though he was. The killer who failed to finish her off.
He never denied it.
"Why...tell me, why did you murder my parents?"
He crouched down, looked at his knees and rubbing the back of his head. He was closer to her level now and his eyes were shadowed, so she didn't know what his expression was. Was he annoyed that now he would have to shut her up? Was he going to kill her?
"I'm sorry for that, Sakura san. Really I am....I'm so very sorry. I didn't know you were their child at that time, but if I had I don't think it would have made any difference." He looked up at her and she felt small under his gaze, like a bug. "Your parents were really bad people Sakura."
Sakura choked on her tears and grabbed her arms, holding herself together, feeling each and every scar on her body light up with the memory of it's affliction. "Don't you think I know that? I know that better than you do."
"Then do you think they deserved to live?"
She buried her head in her knees, letting her tears fall. "That isn't something for us to decide. You shouldn't have killed them..."
"If I didn't they just would have continued to do those bad things to other people and to you. Don't think I don't know about that. I knew they had a daughter they abused, but I didn't know it was you. I never planned for you to get hurt that night. I regret scaring you, I regret it every day."
After he said that there was a stillborn silence that ate up the room around them. In the background she could hear Naruto curse at Kiba and she could hear her uncle and Gaara shout at the boys to either shut up or get different pieces of furniture. She could even hear Kakuzu, even though he wasn't shouting.
"Why did you do it?"
He didn't answer at first. "Your mom did something bad to my little brother...and then your dad dumped him off in a canal. When the police found his body he was stone cold. I couldn't let them get away with that, Sakura, least they do it again, because I know they would."
She knew well enough what her mother did to cute and pretty boys in the basement who just so happened to be half her age as well as legally underaged. The screams and moans were hard to ignore some nights.
Sakura wiped her eyes and nodded, looking up at Hidan who seemed so pained. "I...I don't blame you. I'm sorry about what happened to your brother."
"Most are....So....Are you going to tell on me."
She shook her head and felt her hair hit either side of her face. "No, that wouldn't do any good and like I said, I don't blame you."
Hidan smiled and looked down at the spilled contents of the ripped open box and picked up something, dusting it off so that he could see the cover. "Here, I think this is yours. You were looking for your books, weren't you?"
She nodded and accepted the weathered copy of Comedy of Errors.
"Thank you."
"No problem."
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Let's go hand in hand, not one before another.
Dromio of Ephesus, scene i
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My eyes really hurt. Next chapter is the last as well as the graduation. I hope to have this finished soon. But yeah, go ahead and guess who the final pairing will be.
PLEASE REVIEW
Vesperchan