I'm making an exception of not writing these boring texts at the start of chapters for this chapter since I almost poured my heart and soul into making this even though I had much more important things to do. I'm a procrastinator, if you couldn't already tell. But really, I spent almost 12 hours writing and checking this for you guys so I'd really appreciate your comments on my writing so far!
"Hey forehead! Let's go already!"
Sakura heard Ino's distant yell from their living room but decided to ignore it. She was in their shared closet which Ino had put a spell on. Before the spell it had been a very plain, regular closet with a two dressers and a few hangers but now it was a huge – and stylish – walk in closet about half the size of their whole suite that they also shared with Hinata and Tenten. It was filled with clothes, shoes and accessories all over and when it got full, the room would just get larger by itself.
'This girl can be a genius when she wants to be," Sakura had thought the first time she saw Ino's creation.
Now it was less of a walk in closet and more of a walk in fashion heaven. The closet had two floors - yes, two - and resembled a boutique on the streets of Paris rather than a regular closet. It looked like something that could easily be found on the pages of an interior design magazine.
The walls were lined with clothing racks, cabinets with glass doors so you could see everything inside and drawers that held things like small bags, sunglasses, wallets and stuff like that. They even had a shelf the size of a whole wall reaching from the bottom of the first floor to the ceiling of the second floor that was filled with just shoes. On the left side of the first floor was a staircase that lead to the second floor where they had things that weren't for everyday use like more luxurious bags, which had their own separate wall, hats, dresses etc. Everything was organized neatly into so many different categories that it made Sakura's head spin. Anything you could think of or want in a closet (an island just for jewelry, a separate fitting area filled with mirrors - anything), their closet had it.
Ino was very precise about keeping their closet in order so that they could always find everything they were looking for since it was always in the same spot. In theory it was a brilliant plan. The problem with that was that Sakura couldn't find where Ino had put her things in the first place. Sakura was almost certain she'd seen Ino throw out some of her clothes but because she was letting – well, sort of making – Sakura wear her clothes and that the pinkette didn't really even miss her old clothes, she couldn't really be mad at her.
"Ha!" Sakura lifted her hands up in triumph when she finally found her beige strappy heels that she'd been looking for on the shoe wall. The pair was on the lower half on the wall, just low enough that she could reach them without getting something to stand on. Apparently the few pairs of shoes she'd brought with her made the cut so instead of mysteriously disappearing, Ino had added them to the wall. Sakura quickly sat down on the fuzzy carpet of their closet and had managed to slip the first one on when Ino came looking for her.
"Forehead! We have exactly two hours before we have to have everything ready and we don't even know where the hell we're gonna direct all the students to. It's not like we can have them in our rooms!" Ino exclaimed waving her arms around, trying to rush Sakura. They had only had classes for the first half of the day but were given the rest of the day off for preparations for the ball, which is what they were rushing to do. The pinkette finished putting her shoes on and quickly walked over to the large mirror that was next to the door to see what they looked like on. For Sakura heels were sort of an every day thing, especially when she had to feel confident like today. She felt more confident a few inches taller than she would be normally.
"Yeah yeah, let's go," Sakura muttered and left with Ino, following her to the living room where Tenten and Hinata were standing with their wands out, ready for some action. It wasn't that unusual for them to be ready before Sakura and Ino.
"How do you guys get ready so fast?" Sakura whined, looking at her friends. Hinata's black skirt and lavender sweater with a boat neckline that showed off her shoulders made Sakura want to crawl back into their closet and just stay there.
"Oh you know, we're ninjas." Tenten shrugged, earning a laugh from Sakura.
"Hey seriously, we're in a hurry!" Ino screamed and with that they all hurried out of their room towards the ballroom. Of course, Sakura didn't know where that was either.
"Wow."
"It's huge!"
"Prettyy!"
Sakura heard her friends comment on the ballroom, she was in pure awe, not able to get words out of her mouth. It was very grand but also very beautiful, with big and tall windows letting natural light into the room. The walls were lined up with white pillars that looked like they'd been transported from ancient Greece - which, now that she thought of it, didn't seem like such a crazy idea after all - and the floor was made of dark marble with a golden geometric pattern on it. Everything was pristine. Even the chandeliers - yes, there were more chandeliers - looked like they'd been dusted and polished just a few minutes before they'd entered.
Turning back to her friends Sakura saw Ino spinning around in the room with arms spread, a smile plastered on her face. Sakura felt a flicker of joy inside of her and ran up to the blonde, taking her hands and spinning with her. They kept spinning faster and faster until they couldn't hold onto each other anymore and flew back, sliding on the marble floor in opposite directions. They burst out in laughter but Tenten was not having it.
"Could you two please stop playing around?" Tenten exclaimed and pulled out her wand. Sakura and Ino both knew that Tenten would never pull out her wand with the intent of hurting them - unlike someone else they knew - but they both got up anyway. Hinata mimicked Tenten's actions, also pulling out her wand, ready to make some magic happen. Ino glanced at Sakura and how entranced she was by their wands. The blonde got confused. Wasn't Sakura supposed to get her wand yesterday? They had all been so tired yesterday that they'd fallen asleep right away after everything was done. The details of Sakura's meeting with the headmistress hadn't really come up – not that it was their business anyways.
"Hey Sakura," Ino called out and Sakura's head turned to her direction. Ino wasn't sure how to tell ask her this gracefully so she just decided to be blunt with it and see how it went.
"Did you get your wand from Tsunade?" she asked and Sakura's eyes widened, but she didn't respond. Her expression turned from happy to a bundle of different emotions, which confused Ino – it was a simple yes or no question!
"Uhh yeah, about that," Sakura rubbed the back of her neck and laughed nervously, which caught Tenten and Hinata's attention, who were currently casting a spell on cleaning equipment that would clean the room for them. Sakura didn't really understand why they needed to clean something that was already in pristine condition, but didn't say anything.
"What do you mean about that?" Ino asked.
Sakura felt nervous. How was she going to explain to her friends something that she didn't completely understand herself. She'd been confused the whole time Tsunade had texplained it her so how would she repeat the same thing to them.
She took a deep breath. "Um, do you guys know the tale about the how the sorcerer's stone was created?" Sakura asked, earning confused looks from her friends who were clearly wondering why she was talking about this.
"It was a part of a star or something?" Tenten recalled with a puzzled expression. Hinata's face brightened the second she said that.
"Yeah! And it was split into three pieces and given to three magical families to take care of!" Hinata added. Great. This made Sakura's job a little easier since they knew at least half of the story.
"Um.. yeah," Sakura said, bringing her hand to her neck to grab a hold of her necklace, but quickly remembered why she didn't have it on. The crystal was now attached to her wand. "When the star was split, there were a few shards left that the great wizard of the moon took and placed into three magical items."
"Four," Ino bluntly added. Sakura got confused.
"What?"
"Four. There were four items," Ino repeated and Sakura looked at her like she was crazy.
"Uhh, yeah well, that's not what Tsunade told me." Sakura wasn't sure what to think.
Ino sighed and rubbed her hands together, looking somewhat nervous. "It's a family secret, so this is all very hush-hush, but there were four pieces placed into four objects. When the great witch realized that the fourth one could do harm instead of good, she asked my family to hide it and keep it safe, so that nobody could ever find it."
Sakura looked at her blonde friend who seemed to be a little worried, but there wasn't anything she could do about it. Ino was keeping her eyes strictly off of them.
"It was originally placed in some sort of an ancient stone slate and it's power was used to bring people back from the dead, which you can probably guess wasn't that good of an idea. Well, the great witch realized pretty quickly that opening the gates to that realm would place earth in grave danger, so she wanted to hide it. My family has been protecting it and keeping it a secret so that no harm could be done."
"Why are you telling us this?" Hinata asked carefully, Ino seemed to be in a fragile state with this and she didn't want her to close up. Ino took a deep breath in and turned to her friends, her expression changing to one of her signature confident smiles.
"Because I have a feeling Sakura is going to tell us something about the third piece that hasn't been seen in hundreds of years."
This caused both Hinata and Tenten's eyes to widen and turn to Sakura who was looking at her feet. It wasn't an exact confirmation but it sure was pretty close.
"Is it true, Sakura?" Tenten breathed.
"Kind of.." Sakura said, avoiding eye contact and rubbing the back of her neck.
"Well, what is it?" Hinata wanted to get the specifics on what Sakura was talking about, this was not a matter to joke about. This was a serious part of their history that needed to be cleared out. Sakura took a deep breath and started to explain what had happened yesterday.
"Well, yesterday when I was with Tsunade she told me that she'd seen my necklace somewhere before but apparently she didn't mean my necklace. She meant that she'd seen the crystal," Sakura explained.
Hinata raised an eyebrow. "The blue one you showed me?"
Sakura nodded. "The one and the same. She took me to this room with antiquities and other old things and grabbed this wand from a display case. The crystal from my necklace suddenly just flew across the room," Sakura demonstrated with a wide swooping motion, "and attached itself to the wand like it used to belong to it and when I held it, it felt like this part of me was opening, a part I've never felt before. Tsunade said I established a link with the wand but I think it's my heritage that allowed me to establish the link."
"Wait, hold on," Ino said after Sakura was finished. "Do you know what this means?"
Hinata was catching up to Ino's thought process. "But wouldn't that mean.."
"Yes, it would," Tenten answered her, turning to Ino.
Sakura just stared at them, as clueless as ever.
"Do you realize that this could help in the search for your relative?" Ino exclaimed, secretly happy that she didn't have to go through possibly dozens and dozens of books to look at thousands of names and faces trying to look for some similarity to Sakura. She didn't like books, they always made her feel tired and fall asleep – hence why she didn't have that good grades until she came to Luna Nova. Apparently sleeping in class wasn't appreciated by the teachers in her previous school.
"Yes, but we can't know for sure, since the owner of the shard has changed so many times," Sakura said, remembering what Tsunade had told her. Even though they wouldn't be able to trace the previous owners of the crystal, they had another way.
"Well it's a start, we should probably look into it," Hinata mumbled, thinking about all the possible families that Sakura could share blood with.
"Show us your magic!" Ino suddenly spoke out. This got Sakura all nervous and fidgety. She didn't know how to do that. She barely knew anything about magic! Of course, she could've learned about it in classes today, which they had to miss because they were supposed to organize A BALL for tonight and they soon had to be ready.
"I-I can't," Sakura was able to say. She didn't know anything. This made her friends look at each other.
"I've heard stories about these objects," Ino started her explanation. "The people with the power to merge with them, to link themselves to the shards, have always possessed a different kind of magic. I'm not really sure how that would work, or what that even means, but if that's true then it's be a major clue. This could be the key to finding your mystery relative!"
"Tsunade said something about that," Sakura told them, which caused Tenten to react.
"Woahwoahwoah, you're on a first name basis with the headmistress?!"
Sakura had said her name a bunch of times before and Tenten chose right now to notice? The girl sure picked an interesting time.
"Of course she is, the headmistress is her mentor after all!" Ino exclaimed, giving Tenten a light smack on the head. "Now back to the point, we'll help you with the magic part. Did Tsunade give you the wand?"
Sakura nodded and suddenly felt nervous. She'd never summoned the wand before. And the first time she was doing it, she was doing it in front of other people – although they were her friends, but they were other people after all.
"Lunae lumen."
Sakura said her wand's name out loud. She felt a tingle inside her and the silver wand appeared to her hand. She was almost comforted by the familiar feeling of the wand's energy flowing through her, feeling it's uneven texture against the skin of her palm. The crystal was glowing as per usual, radiating soft blue light. Holding the wand seemed so familiar, as if it's magical energy flowed through her naturally, like her soul was meant to be in contact with this wand.
She raised her hand so that her friends could see the wand. They went completely silent and just stared at it, just like she had when she'd first seen it.
"It's so beautiful.." Hinata breathed out. She could see Sakura with the wand, she was a natural at holding it. Hinata had learned about sensing energy and power a little bit but it was clear as day that Sakura's natural flow of energy was entwined with the wand's magical energy. It was truly her heritage that made it so easy for her to establish a link, how she was able to carry a shard of a star around for as long as she could walk.
"Well, at least now we know what the missing shard was originally placed in," Tenten pointed out. Now that she had a wand, they would finally be able to teach her some magic, that way they could see what it looked like.
Every witch or wizard has a distinctive look to their magic, but the basics are the same. Normal witches' magic is green, which is what most people's magic looks like at Luna Nova. It is the most basic form of magic and there are barely any people in the world who have magic different from that. If Sakura was able to establish a link with the wand, she'd most definitely have different kind of magic.
"Okay, let's just stop for a second," Ino suddenly said, pressing pause on the whole situation so that they could clear out this whole mess, which currently was called Sakura's weirdly unique magical powers that they hadn't even seen yet.
"We know Sakura's ancestors must have had magic like hers and that's great. No, that's amazing. And it will definitely help us once we see what it looks like because I haven't heard of anyone in a really long time outside a few people of noble heritage to have different kind magic – BUT GUYS. We have a situation and, like, 45 minutes to deal with it!" she announced. Had they really spent an hour of basically doing nothing?
"Okay, let's do this!" Tenten yelled out, pumping her fist into the air. Hinata grabbed Sakura's other hand and pulled her towards the cleaning supplies that seemed to be done with cleaning, since the ballroom was shining and in pristine condition. She stood next to Sakura and pointed out the cleaning supplies that were still under a spell.
"This is a spell which breathes life into objects, making them do your bidding. It's simple to cast and simple to undo, but holding it up requires a lot of practice," Hinata explained. "I've rehearsed this since I was a little kid but we can practice undoing it as a first step."
Sakura looked at her wand nervously but Hinata's face was confident that she felt a little better, something about Hinata's encouragement seemed to always help. Tightening her grip around the wand she nodded to Hinata, who started to instruct her.
"Alright, so, when you want to awaken an object, you say ansolew airo," Hinata explained. "Now point your wand at the supplies. You have to mean what you say, breathe energy into the words and you'll get the hang of it. Now repeat after me: obdormiscere."
Hinata's words caused her wand to shoot out green light and when it hit a few cleaning supplies, they immediately fell down to the floor. She could've probably could've hit them all if she wanted to, but the point was to teach Sakura.
Sakura tasted the word in her mouth. These spells sure weren't in English but if the magic was older than a couple thousand years then maybe she could understand it. She took a deep breath in, trying to focus as much as possible into what she was about to do.
"O-obdormiscere," Sakura nervously repeated after her, causing her wand to spark out hints of blue light that caused one sponge that was cleaning the walls to drop onto the floor. When Hinata had done it, she'd at least knocked down two thirds of them and all she could do was one tiny sponge!
Sakura frowned but Hinata lifted her hand up again. "Again, with more confidence!"
The pinkette nodded, pointing her wand at the objects. She felt the familiar energy ooze into her when gripping the wand tighter. She felt more confident, more determined, like she'd gotten an energy boost from her wand and breathed every bit of energy she could muster into the spell.
"Obdormiscere!"
Blue light flowed out of her wand as she cast the spell, causing blue light to fill up the room. Within a flash, all of the objects fell down, the sounds of dusters, sponges, rags, brooms and mops clattering against the hard floor filling the room. Hinata was quiet for a little while. She'd never seen so powerful magic in such a simple spell. She had seen powerful magic, normal powerful magic, but nothing like this – and Sakura just undid a spell she'd cast. Her magic was something Hinata had never seen before.
There was a clapping sound heard from the open double doors on top of the very elegant staircase that descended to the ballroom. Sakura turned her head and the sight of her mentor and professor Shizune looking at her made her feel very nervous, self-conscious even. Why couldn't she do anything for the first time in peace? Why couldn't she just practice alone before anyone saw her do anything? And that also included normal people stuff – not just magic. She really had to practice being in front of people.
But seeing her mentor's proud face caused Sakura to lose all her nervousness.
"Sakura, I see you're exploring your powers. That is good for a witch with such powers like your own, even though their origin is currently unkown." Tsunade's voice was gentle yet powerful, which seemed to be normal for her. Shizune followed her down the stairs and stood by her side as Tsunade placed her hand on Sakura's shoulder, smiling to her. "You really are a special kind of witch."
"Thank you, headmistress," Sakura politely thanked.
"Ugh headmistress is too formal, just call me Tsunade, even your friends," Tsunade spoke out, addressing the three girls who'd been standing quietly behind Sakura. Ino had a small faerie next to her that she'd been talking to before Tsunade had showed up, but neither of them had the guts to continue their conversation after that.
"Now, I've brought you something that might help you with your quest of finding your true heritage." Her mentor picked up a book Shizune had been holding. It was very thick and covered with old dark leather. It looked very old, something that should be locked away and kept safe, something that shouldn't be handed to her. Sakura eyed the book her mentor presented her. Letting go of her wand and letting it vanish into thin air, she reluctantly took the book from her mentor and immediately felt like gravity was pulling her down. Tenten was on her side in an instant and helped her with the extremely heavy book that Tsunade had held with such ease.
"Oh god, what's in this?" Tenten grunted, trying to cast a levitation spell on the book without dropping it. She didn't even say anything, just wiggled her wand and the book started to fly on it's own. Sakura shot a confused look towards Tenten, which Tsunade picked up on.
"When you are advanced enough in simple spells, like levitation spells for example, you don't have to say them out loud. Tenten here seems to be excellent at levitation spells. I'm guessing she's also a good with flying a broom?" Tsunade hinted and Tenten sheepishly nodded with a pinkish tint on her cheeks. She was probably one of the best in Luna Nova but it was surprising that the headmistress knew about her skills.
"The spell is volant." Tsunade turned to Sakura and drew out her own wand and pointed it at the book, which caused it to slam down onto the hard marble floor. "It also works backwards. When you're advanced you don't need to say anything to undo the spell."
Sakura summoned her wand and pointed the blue crystal towards the heavy book.
'Remember, breathe energy into the words,' Sakura reminded herself.
"Volant!" Sakura's wand sparked blue light onto the book, which started to levitate in front of them. This caused Tsunade to smile and Sakura to feel very proud of herself. This was her third time when casting a spell and it had worked out fine. Even though it was only the start and she'd only used two very simple spells, she still felt like maybe she'd get a hang of this magic stuff after all.
"You're a fast learner, Sakura." Tsunade was clearly proud of her mentee, softly smiling to her as she let her wand vanish once again. "I also have something else for you. Shizune has asked if she could help with assigning rooms to the students that will be arriving soon. Connecting with your teachers, very good girls, keep it up!"
Shizune stepped forward, holding a black clipboard in her hands.
"Here I have all the names and room numbers for the boys that will be arriving. They will be here in fifteen minutes so finish up and meet me outside," Shizune told them and both she and Tsunade started to walk away from the girls who - once again - were left in silence by the short haired professor.
"Boys?" Ino shrieked, almost pulling her blonde hair from her head.
"Fifteen minutes!?" the other three girls screamed. Obviously they had very different priorities in mind.
Ino finished her business with the faerie that would soon deliver all the food to a table that was set beside a big window, while Tenten and Sakura levitated all the cleaning supplies back to a cleaning closet not too far away. Hinata summoned some instruments to a small platform but let them be. They would start to play when she ordered them to and they didn't need to do that in at least a few hours. When finished, they all let out a tired sigh.
"Two minutes, whoo!" Tenten exclaimed. It had only taken them two minutes to finish everything up, which seemed funny considering that they'd spent almost two hours doing everything else but what they were supposed to do.
"Quickly, I need to change clothes!" Ino screamed and ran out of the ballroom. They were supposed to meet Shizune outside in exactly thirteen minutes, so of course she had time to pick out a whole entire outfit. Her friends followed her with the levitating book beside them.
Ino was surprisingly fast when given a time frame to do something. She'd changed her own clothes and even made Sakura and Hinata change clothes in less than five minutes AND managed to get down onto the yard with plenty of time to spare. Tenten had refused to change clothes from her olive halter top that showed her toned back and ripped denim shorts. There was nothing or anyone down there that would make Tenten want to change looks for. Ino had just ignored her tomboyish friend and let her hair down. She'd changed into a long flowy t-shirt dress and beige suede thigh high boots, of course ordering Sakura to change shoes since there couldn't be two pairs of shoes in the exact same color and finish. This, of course, frustrated Sakura but it was easier to just do what Ino said and agreed to switch into a pair of black heels instead.
Shizune was waiting for them in the courtyard with the same clipboard that they'd seen earlier. "Good, you're all here. We have to be ready when the Appl-" Shizune was interrupted by the noise of a portal opening up not too far away and people started pouring in. Well, people wasn't the accurate word. Boys started pouring in.
Ino watched in awe as of guys were entering their courtyard, all in well-fitted dark blue suits and red ties with a crest of some sort on the left breast pocket of their jackets. Her blue eyes sparkled but Tenten poked her and hissed her to be normal for a second so she wouldn't scare everyone away. Ino just stuck her tongue out to Tenten.
Hinata and Sakura stood next to Shizune. Sakura scratched the material of her black jeans with her nails, occasionally having her finger slip in from the rips in the fabric - she was feeling quite nervous and couldn't do anything about it. Her top was similar to what she'd been wearing the day before, except this time it was black. All black didn't look bad on Sakura since she already had a pop of colour in her hair and eyes. The crop top showed a little of her flat stomach and the peekaboo triangles on the sides created a nice contrast to the dark colour of the fabric.
Ino nudged her side. "They're checking you out!" she chirped into her ear, which caused Sakura to blush a little. She wasn't sure if Ino was kidding or not, it seemed like they weren't looking at them at all and if they were, they were looking at the gorgeous blonde next to her.
It took a minute or two, but the portal finally closed – all of the students were now on the courtyard. It wasn't an immense amount, one or two hundred at best. They would all probably fit comfortably in Luna Nova since it was a huge castle. Sakura could hear a loud gasp in the crowd and sound of steps coming closer.
"Oh my god, Sakura?!"
Someone called out her name, which caught her attention. Suddenly she could see a familiar figure run towards her from the huge crowd of people. Sakura's eyes widened in surprise. He pulled Sakura into a hug that she hadn't been expecting, squeezing the life out of her.
It's him.
"H-hey there," she managed to breathe out, which caused Naruto to let her go from the crushing hug.
"Hehe, oops, sorry about that," he apologized before noticing the blue-haired girl next to her.
"Hinata-chan!" he practically screamed and hugged the blue-haired girl as well, whose normally pale face had quickly turned bright red. She stuttered out a hello, which caused Sakura to raise an eyebrow. How the hell does everybody seem to know everyone and what was going on with Hinata's face?
"You know Naruto?" Sakura blurted out.
"Yeah, Naruto is a friend of Hinata's cousin so we've kind of spent a time together as children," Ino answered for Hinata as they watched the blushing girl and Naruto interact with each other. Ino leaned closer to Sakura. "Hinata doesn't stutter anymore. She used to when we were little, but grew out of it, even though every now and then when she's around Naruto it comes back."
"Wait, Neji is here?" Tenten suddenly exclaimed, looking at Hinata fiercely. "Why didn't you tell me?!"
"I didn't know Tsunade was talking about Appleton." Hinata shrugged. Her voice was more silent than normally and it seemed like she was really hard trying not to stutter, keeping her eyes strictly off Naruto.
"Is Tsunade-baachan here?!" an excited yell escaped Naruto's mouth as he glanced over to the big castle that was their school.
"Who is Neji?" Sakura asked Ino. Suddenly she heard a roaring voice from behind them that made Sakura jump.
"Get your hands off my cousin, Naruto!" a brown haired boy with translucent looking eyes just like Hinata's yelled, walking beside two other guys. One of them looked oddly familiar with his funny looking raven hair.
'It's the guy from the cafe,' Sakura thought to herself when she felt Ino nudge her side.
"You're blushing," she whispered to pinkette.
"I am not," Sakura objected, but still brought her fingers up to her cheeks. They did feel a little warm. Taking a deep breath in, she looked at Tenten who wasn't even listening. Her eyes were completely somewhere else.
"She and Neji have had this rivalry thing for years now but I think she secretly likes him," Ino whispered to Sakura, who was now feeling a little more filled in on what the hell was happening around her.
Naruto let go of Hinata, seeing her flushed face. "Are you alright Hinata?" he asked her, placing the back of his hand on her forehead, which caused Hinata to take a step back.
"O-oh n-no I'm completely f-fine," she stuttered out, trying to reassure Naruto that she was fine. Seeing that Hinata was okay, Naruto turned to face Sakura and Ino.
"How do you guys know Sakura?" he asked Ino, before turning to Sakura. "How do you know them?"
Sakura felt triumphant for a second after Naruto's question. Finally she wasn't the only one not sure of what was going on.
"She's our roomie," Ino chirped happily, looping her arm around the pinkette's neck and pulling her closer. Sakura laughed and escaped Ino's arm, turning to Shizune.
"Would you please start giving out rooms to the students? We'll be there soon," she asked the short haired woman, who nodded and started walking over to the group of adults that Sakura guessed were professors. Sakura turned back to face the group of familiar people she'd gathered around her.
"Hey Teme! Look, it's Sakura from the café!" Naruto suddenly exclaimed, which caused Sakura to look over to the three guys who had arrived.
"Hn. I see," the raven haired guy told Naruto in a very blunt tone, shifting his gaze to the girl with two buns on top of his head.
'Tenten's here, this should be interesting' he thought to himself, glancing over to his friend Hyuga, who was currently having a staring competition with the girl.
Neji suddenly spoke out, "Tenten."
"Neji."
"You look good."
"I know. So do you."
Ino interrupted their conversation which oddly resembled a ping-pong match more than an actual conversation by leaving Sakura's side and walking over to one of the guys Sakura didn't know and leaned against his side. Sakura watched her body language. She most definitely knew him, which wasn't exactly odd since they both seemed to belong to the same group of childhood friends. A group where Sakura didn't belong, not that the feeling of not belonging was that new to her.
"Hey Shikamaru, long time no see," Ino purred to him. He sighed and brushed his fingers through his dark hair that was on a ponytail on top his head. He didn't seem bothered by the blonde's presence, just tired in general.
"Hello troublesome woman.." he muttered to the blonde, earning a punch to his side which would most likely bruise later on.
"We've talked about this you pineapple-haired man! You DO not call me troublesome!" Ino screamed to him and they started bickering, the pinkette eyeing them and laughing at Ino without noticing that she was being looked at.
The raven haired man was eyeing the pinkette from head to toe. She was slender, shorter than him – she would've looked like any other girl to him except that she had pink hair. It made her stand out. He'd noticed her in the café but knowing that this girl was someone he'd see again, he was a little more curious to find out who exactly had Naruto befriended in the café.
'Who the fuck has pink hair?' he thought to himself, turning to his stupid best friend who was chatting with his childhood friend who he obviously liked.
"Dobe," he called out, resulting in the blond turning to him.
"Oh yeah. Sakura, this chickenbutt-haired ass over here is my best friend, Sasuke," Naruto introduced him to Sakura, which caused Sakura too look at him with raised eyebrows. Sasuke hadn't meant for Naruto to do that, why couldn't he just think for once in his life before speaking his mind.
"Reeally?" she asked and looked at the guy whose name had finally been revealed.
For the first time onyx and emerald clashed, resulting them in looking at each other for a good while. Her eyes were something Sasuke had never seen before, the very rare shade of bright emerald was almost mesmerizing. Sakura was interested, staring into the silent man's eyes who Naruto referred to as an ass.
"Earth to Sakura!" Ino yelled which caused Sakura to break the eye contact she'd had with Sasuke. Ino then proceeded to grab her shoulders and pull her a few steps back, showcasing her to everyone.
"Everyone, this is Sakura! She's our roomie and friend," Ino introduced Sakura like her own child. "Sakura, these are Sasuke Uchiha, Shikamaru Nara, Neji Hyuga – Hinata's cousin – and you already seem to know Naruto Uzumaki."
"Yeah, Naruto actually helped me to find my way to Luna Nova in the first place," Sakura explained to her blonde friend as she escaped her grip once more, proceeding to smile to all the guys she'd just been introduced to.
"Wait," Sakura turned to face Naruto in the middle of her sentence. "You called me magic girl then, in the café. How did you know?"
"Because you said you were going to Luna Nova. I knew it was a magic school because Hinata was also going there!" Naruto's explanation cleared up what had been bothering Sakura for the past three days. Funny how they were reunited again like this, Sakura didn't think she'd see the energetic boy ever again.
"Guys, what rooms are you staying in?" Ino interrupted Sakura and Naruto from having a longer conversation. "Because if you don't know, Shizune is right over there and I can go as- SHIKAMARU WAKE UP!" Ino was interrupted by a sudden desire to go kick the guy lying down on the green grass of the courtyard in the head.
Sakura heard her mutter more than a few curses under her breath before passing by her, dangerously nearing the sleeping boy. Shizune interrupted Sakura's train of thoughts by calling out her name and Sakura turned her attention away from Ino giving Shikamaru a piece of her mind.
"Yes, professor Shizune?" she turned to her, a slight breeze tickling her exposed skin. Her pink locks brushed against her bare shoulders.
"I'm starting to guide all the students to their rooms and since you're all acquainted," Shizune pointed knowingly to the their group, " I thought you might want to take them to their room."
Sakura nodded to Shizune and thanked her, to which the black haired woman just smiled in response. "Go and get ready for the ball," Shizune said and handed her a folded piece of paper before turning back to the now slightly more organized group of Appleton students.
"We will, thank you!" the pinkette called out as a response. Then she turned back to their group and opened the folded piece of paper to see what was printed on the piece of paper Shizune gave her.
"Hyuga, Nara, Uchiha and Uzumaki, room 672."
Sakura raised her nicely shaped pink eyebrow at the text she'd just read out, carefully eyeing it again with her emerald eyes.
Sakura's eyes widened. "Isn't that..?"
"Right next to ours?" Hinata finished her question, turning to look at the tower where their room was located in. One large window reflected the sun's light but Sakura wasn't sure if it was theirs or someone else's.
"Yup," Tenten confirmed, folding her arms over her chest.
A mass of guys Shizune was leading passed them by. Sakura could feel herself being looked at and heard a few whistles from guys looking at her and her friends.
"Looking good!"
"Hey hotties!"
Ino was flattered by the compliments and whistles, and even waved and winked at the group passing them. Sakura, on the other hand, felt uncomfortable. She'd never been complimented for her physique. She understood the compliments; Tenten was the fittest girl in the whole academy, Ino and Hinata were both drop dead gorgeous, but she'd never found herself to be physically appealing to other people. Of course she felt beautiful and knew that she looked good, she'd just never thought anyone else would feel that way.
"See Sakura, they think you're totally hot!" Ino exclaimed, attracting Sakura's attention to her. Sakura didn't say anything but her look was denying it, which she didn't think anyone would pick up on, but as she turned her head, she found herself looking at Sasuke, who in turn, had been looking at her.
At her.
"Ah, whatever, let's just go!" Tenten yelled, already walking in front of them.
And so they set off for the eastern wing, which wasn't that far away. Shizune's group had already entered the castle, but they were quickly catching up. While Tenten had taken the lead and was guiding them through the main entrance, Sakura decided that she would be more use being at the back of the group even though she was quite sure that they didn't need anyone checking that everyone stuck together. After entering the castle Ino suddenly appeared next to her, nudging her side.
"You have the hots for the Uchiha."
Her sudden words caused Sakura to snap her head to the blonde's direction. Where the hell did she get that from? Alarmed by the blonde Sakura checked that nobody's heads had turned their way. No one's had, which most likely meant that nobody had heard Ino. "I do not!"
"Oh yes you do!" Ino had a smirk plastered all over her face. "And I saw how he looked at you, don't try to deny it. You're hot pinky."
"Pinky?" Sakura looked at her blonde friend but she seemed to be serious. Focusing on irrelevant details was her specialty when it came to avoiding subjects she didn't want to talk about.
"EVERYONE LOOK IT'S SASUKE UCHIHA!"
"OMG NEJI HYUGA!"
"MARRY ME SHIKAMARU!"
"NARUTO I LOVE YOU!"
Suddenly Sakura's attention was drawn to something completely different. Their group had come to a sudden stop, everyone tensing up. Sakura's eyes widened at the sight of a massive group of Luna Nova students blocking their way in one of the larger hallways that lead to the eastern part of the castle. Had the classes finished early? Why were they all in a big group staring at them and yelling all these weird things?
"Oh hell no," Tenten said. "Apparently the word's gotten around."
Tenten turned her head towards the guys. "So what do you wanna do?"
The guys shared one glance and nodded. Neji walked next to Tenten and the two shared a quick glance, Tenten cocking her head to the direction of a smaller corridor slightly behind them.
"Now," Sasuke said.
Sakura's eyebrows rose. "What the-"
Without exchanging another word, everyone started to run.
"Here we go again," Ino sighed, grabbing the pinkette's wrist forcefully and sprinting into the side corridor and away from the group of girls. With one final glance back as she rounded the corner, she could see a few of the girls already breaking formation and running in after them.
Tenten was leading the pack, just like before, except this time Neji was at her side. They ran to the end of that side corridor and took the steps to the floor above them, but didn't stop and just kept going to the direction they'd been going before. A few students they passed gave them weird looks. Some seemed genuinely surprised. Sakura didn't quite understand what was going on, but based on the looks on her friend's faces she decided that now wasn't the time to ask questions. Suddenly a group of girls, a smaller group than they'd seen before, rounded the corner in front of them and blocked their way. From behind them Sakura could already hear the sounds of footsteps. They were trapped.
"What are you doing?" Ino yelled at Tenten.
"There's no way to go!" Tenten yelled back.
Sakura recognized now where they were. They'd ran much farther than she'd even noticed, because they were next to the auditorium. The auditorium, which had another exit on the other side. She tore her wrist away from Ino's grip, who protested something but Sakura's hearing was obstructed by the sound of blood rushing in her ears. She extended her arm and tried the door handle.
It was open.
"Guys," Sakura said and everyone quickly understood what she was talking about.
"Get in!" Ino yelled and they all ran inside. Sakura was the last one to go in and once she was on the other side of the door Ino helped her to pull it shut. The lock clicked on it's own and Sakura turned back to see Hinata holding her wand.
"Nice job, Hinata!" Ino exclaimed, her breathing heavy.
"It won't hold them for long." Hinata was panting but managed a small smile. Sakura noted that she wasn't stuttering, but didn't say anything. They quickly crossed the auditorium and exited the door on the other side.
They were running through corridors and hallways faster than before but every single time a pack of screaming girl students seemed to find their way after them. Sakura was panting, all she could hear was her blood flowing in her ears and the distant screams of girls coming after them. Was the whole school after them? This was all so messed up, but what was even weirder than being chased around by your classmates was that all the her friends were so calm. How the hell were they calm about something like this?
They made their way up a few floors but were still a long way from their tower. If things had gone normally (as in no ambush by random girls), they would've already been in their rooms, but now that they had taken evasive action they were still making their way to the eastern tower. They'd just have to round the corner at the end of this hallway and in a few short minutes they'd be safely in their rooms.
But then their way was blocked. A group of girls appeared on the other side of the corridor, yelling indicating that they'd noticed them.
"Go bac-" Ino tried to turn back to the way they'd come from, but saw girls running towards them from that direction also. It didn't take long for everyone to realize that this time they were completely trapped. There was no door, no side corridor or stairwell to slip to this time. Sakura backed away from the girls coming closer until they were all pressed tightly against one another.
"Shit," Tenten grumbled but Sakura heard something over the blood rushing in her ear. Over all of the screaming she could hear a whispering sound. It was like a faint woman's voice whispering words to her but right next to her ear, because she heard them clear as day. At first she couldn't make sense of the words, but then something weird happened. She felt energy rush through her body and suddenly she knew exactly what they were and what they did.
"Lunae lumen," Sakura summoned her wand, feeling energy pumping through her veins. The girls were only a few steps away.
"Lanuae magicae!" she yelled out an incantation, feeling a familiar tingle and surge of energy rush through her mind as she pointed her wand upwards. Blue light way brighter than she'd seen in the ball room shot from crystal and she felt all of her senses go numb. She lost herself in the feeling that she'd done this before, her consciousness slowly fading to pitch black darkness.
Sakura didn't see anything. Her body felt weak and wobbly, she couldn't control it even if she tried – and she tried. Distant noises filled up her head but she didn't know where they were coming from. Slowly she could hear them coming closer and clearer until something touched her and she awoke from the tormenting darkness.
Her eyes flew open and she took a deep panicky breath in, scaring the shit out of everyone. At first she couldn't see anything but white, but her vision soon started getting back to normal. She was lying on one of the sofas in their living room, which she didn't find that odd until she realized that there were seven people intently staring at her. Now she started to question things. How had she gotten there and why was everyone staring?
"Woah, calm down with the eyes." Sakura shielded her face with one hand from everyone's eyes and pushed herself into a half sitting position with the other. Nobody said anything, they just kept staring.
"What? Is my hair messed up or something?" Sakura tried to joke but nobody laughed. Ino, Tenten, Hinata and Naruto seemed shocked more than anything, while the three other guys she'd just met, Neji, Shikamaru and Sasuke, had unreadable expressions.
"Sakura!" Tenten exclaimed.
"Tenten?" Sakura answered with a questioning look. What was going on?
"Do you realize what you did?" Tenten asked her, lowering herself onto one of the couches. She was staring at Sakura with maybe the most serious face she'd ever seen from her.
"Umm, no, not really. What did I do?" Sakura tried to remember what happened. Slowly it all started to come back to her: the chasing, them getting trapped, the whisper in her ear and her pulling out her wa-
"You used teleportation magic," Neji answered her question before Tenten could even open her mouth, interrupting Sakura's train of thought and earning a glare from Tenten which he answered with a smirk.
"And what's so special about that?"
"Well," Ino jumped into the conversation. "Maybe that it's very advanced magic that needs years of practice and a lot of control over your powers. You didn't even use a regular teleportation spell, that was a spell none of us had even heard of. Also you got your wand yesterday and hadn't used magic UNTIL THIS MORNING!" Ino yelled. Sakura was finally starting to get the picture.
Sakura looked at Ino's face which had gotten pretty red from yelling. Shikamaru lowered his hand on her shoulder in an attempt calm the blonde down. "You teleported us here but while everyone else was fine you collapsed on the floor. We moved you to the sofa after that," Shikamaru explained. Sakura nodded in response. He seemed like a sensible person.
"You scared the shit out of us," Ino said. She wasn't
It took a few seconds for Sakura to process all of it. "All right."
And then she sat up straight, throwing her legs off of the sofa. A small wave of dizziness hit her but she ignored it.
"Sakura, I don't think you should be getting up just jet. You used a really powerful spell and you're not used to doing magic like that," Tenten tried to reason but Sakura ignored her. Her mind was a jumble from everything that just happened.
"I'm fine. I just need some air," Sakura said and stood up. She didn't know where she was going exactly, but that didn't matter. She just needed to get away from all of this. Her eyes landed on a familiar door and she started heading for her and Ino's bedroom. She managed to take a few steps towards it before another wave of dizziness hit her, causing her to lost her balance. She braced herself, expecting a rough impact with the floor – which, surprisingly, did not happen. Sakura blinked a few times before looking up to what - or in this case who - had stopped her from falling, not expecting to see onyx eyes she felt like she could drown in. Sasuke was standing beside her, one of his hands on her arm and the other firmly wrapped around her waist.
"Probably shouldn't have gotten up," Sasuke said to her in a low voice.
Sakura tore her eyes away and stood up, freeing herself from Sasuke's tight grip. She found herself looking at Sasuke again, slowly backing away before turning around. Her heart was beating a little faster than it probably normally would've.
"Thank you, but I'm feeling just fin-" Her face made contact with the floor which stopped her from talking.
Sasuke sighed. "Why does she keep walking around when she's clearly not okay?"
"I don't know, she's kinda stubborn." Ino shrugged. She was used to Sakura's behavior even though they hadn't been acquainted for that long. Hinata sat down on the floor next to Sakura, who was currently just laying there, debating whether or not to get up on her feet. She decided that lying on the floor wasn't that appealing and Hinata helped her to sit up.
Sasuke's eyes met Sakura's briefly. "But is she stupid?"
The second she heard the words coming out of the raven hair's mouth, she shot up without taking her eyes off of him. Suddenly she didn't feel so lightheaded. Sasuke's expression was a very plain one, he didn't show much emotion apart from a small hint of what Sakura guessed was annoyance. How could Ino even think she would find him attractive?
Sakura couldn't help it. She took a few steps forward and slapped him. Her palm made contact with his face so hard that he had to stumble back a little, grabbing a hold of the sofa Ino was currently sitting on for support. In disbelief he brought his own hand on the cheek the pinkette had just slapped. Had someone truly just hit Sasuke Uchiha in the face? Had a girl just hit him? A girl with pink hair?
"Yes!" Naruto exclaimed. "Finally someone put Teme in his rightful place!"
Sakura rubbed her right palm. Her hand hurt but probably not nearly as much as his face did.
"Apparently you're just annoying," Sasuke said, glaring at Sakura who responded with a content smirk.
"That I can deal with."
Triumphantly she noted that she'd literally smacked some variety into him. His expression wasn't the same old bored emotionless mask, he'd actually showed some emotion.
"Can we get back to what's important here?" Tenten interrupted their staring contest. "You literally saved our asses down there!"
Sakura heard Tenten's words and turned to look at her. She wanted to know what the hell happened down there and she wasn't talking about her magical powers. Who the fuck were all those girls and why did they chase them?
"About that, what the hell guys?! Anyone wanna fill me in?" Sakura asked. She'd find out more about the magical powers when talking to Tsunade, but this she wanted to know now.
"Oh. Yeah. You don't know do you?" Tenten's answer was useless to Sakura.
"Know exactly what?!"
"That the four guys you are currently just hanging out with are the children of the most important leaders of this country, loaded as fuck and also as you can see," Ino started to explain in a matter-of-factly way, pointing her finger towards the four guys. "Hot."
"F-fangirls have always been a problem for us, we've just gotten used to them by now," Hinata continued, blushing when Naruto wrapped his arm around her waist.
"Yeah but we don't care for them," he explained, smiling to Sakura.
When she first saw the four of them she could've sworn that at least one of the guys was a player. Ino was right, the four of them were objectively speaking very good looking, but now that she'd actually spent time with them, maybe she should just give them the benefit of the doubt.
"Good to know." Sakura genuinely meant what she said and walked over to the sofas and sitting next to Ino. Sakura let out a tired sigh and rested her head against the top of the sofa.
"When does the ball start?" Sakura asked Ino who looked at the clock. Maybe she could have a quick nap before the ball. It felt like they'd left the courtyard hours ago.
"Uhh, like, right now." Ino turned to the boys. "Which means it's time for you guys to get the hell out! Your room is the door on the other side of the hallway. Just meet us downstairs later, we have hostess jobs to do." Ino shooed the boys out of their room and pulled the door shut after they were gone. She leaned against it for a few seconds before jumping back into action. This day never seemed to end.
"Okay girls, let's get ready."
❦ Goddess of Glam