...Hello. Sorry for the delay of this chapter ( I seem to say that a lot, ne? ) , but I had warned you - or at least the very few of you who still seem to be reading that - that I wouldn't be able to write before a loooooong time ( yeah, because of that ****** exam. UUUUAAAAARGH !!!!!!!! ) In fact, I still don't have the results of the fuc**** thing, so I still don't know if I passed it (which would surprise me), so while I am under a loooooooot of stress, waiting for the results, I decided that it was time I wrote again (and because when I will know that I didn't pass it, I'll be so depressed I don't think I'll write much before another long time). So here is chapter 8 (you didn't think it would come, I bet), and I tried my best to make it good and longer than the other ones.

Now, I hope that there are still people who read this. (Except YOU, Lisa, I KNOW you still read it, don't get mad.)

Anyway, for those of you who are still here, enjoy !!

Namida no densetsu

- The legend of Namida -

by : ^*Kasumi*^

Chapter 8 : Peaceful holiday in a haunted area

Sakura stared at the ceiling, laying on her bed, deep in thought. Her father had got up quite early that morning, and Kero, on the pretext that he wasn't well fed in there - refering to the previous night's event - had decided to try and have a look in the mansion's fridge, so that left only the young girl in the room. Though it was already around eleven in the morning, she hadn't bothered to get up and get dressed, for she had been thinking ever since she had woken up from a quite disturbing dream.

After she had made it back to her room the previous night, - and finally got Kero to shut up about the fact that his own mistress had forgotten to feed him - she had been experiencing a strange feeling of being watched. At first, she didn't pay much attention to it, since she knew that Misaki, her new friend Keitaro's young sister, had been caught a few times spying on her. But still, she hadn't been able to fall asleep before early in the morning because of that, and that was when she had had the dream.

It has started like the one in which she had first met the ghost - Namida. Surrounded by mist, she had heard a distant female voice, and Sakura had thought that she was going to hear Namida's curious words. If I can't love, then no one will. But then, when paying more attention to the voice, she realized that she was saying something different from the other times she had met her.

After a few minutes - or maybe more, you don't really have the track of time while dreaming - Sakura decided to go nearer the voice she was hearing, for she couldn't understand everything of the words of whoever was speaking.

So she walked, and walked, until she came by a small pond surrounded by such a great amount of trees that she couldn't be anywhere but in a forest. The young girl found that quite disturbing at first, since a few seconds before, there was nothing at all around her. But she remained here anyway, before realizing that she was not alone. There, her face reflecting on the surface of the water as if it were a mirror, was Namida. She was standing only a few feet away from Sakura, but didn't seem to mind. In fact, she didn't seem to have noticed her at all. She was staring at the water, unmoving, save for the fact that she was speaking softly, her voice barely above a whisper, and Sakura was quite amazed that she had been able to hear it from so far away in the first place. The young ghost was not crying, but her face was unreadable. You couldn't tell wether she was very happy or very sad. She was holding onto what seemed to be a necklace, squeezing it tightly in her hands, with the chain still around her neck. Taking a deep and shaky breath, Namida looked up, and found herself gazing at a tall and handsome man, and Sakura gasped, knowing for sure that he wasn't there when she first arrived near the pond. But then again, this was all a dream, so he could have just appeared from nowhere. He was tall, that was the first thing Sakura noticed - right after the one that he had just appeared from nowhere - and was, like Namida, fair haired and grey eyed. If Sakura hadn't seen what had happened next - which was the two of them kissing tenderly - she could have sworn that they were sister and brother.

Namida and the stranger parted lips, and looked at each other, smiling, completly oblivious to Sakura's presence - which didn't disturb her the slightest, since she didn't want to interrupt their intimacy. But as Namida looked in the eyes of her lover, you could tell that there was something bothering her.

-"What's wrong, love?" The man said, in a soft voice. The young girl smiled sadly.

-"I love you, Les. But...this is not right. What if we get caught? You could be-" Les quited her with another kiss, which Namida returned. The man slowly parted lips and smiled again.
-"We won't be caught."

And then...nothing. Sakura had been thinking about it ever since she had woken from slumber, and finally had accepted that she couldn't remember a thing from the end of the dream. There was just...no end. Strange. So there she was, wondering why she had been able to see a part of Namida's past.

Because now, she was sure of it : the dream had been a vision from the young girl's past. Sakura had figured this out a few hours ago. First, she didn't know what else it could have been, so that supposition made her task easier. And then, there was that feeling she had since the morning that she was going to see more. Yes, Sakura couldn't bring herself to think that this was just a tender moment Namida had wanted to share with her - and why her, by the way - and she thought that it was the first of a few memories the ghost wanted to show her. Why? That was a mystery to her.

She hadn't told Kero nor her father about the dream...yet. Even though Kero had been suspicious before leaving the room, she didn't tell him, she wanted to think of it alone first. She had figured out, the night when Syaoran had dreamed about Namida, that it was the ghost herself who had made him see Yamazaki's death in his dream. That, plus the fact that she had been feeling watched, made Sakura sure that Namida had been there the previous night, and she didn't want to tell that to Kero yet. She didn't want him to get all excited yet, for the ghost hadn't done anything treatening.

Thinking of the little yellow flying lion made Sakura realize that he should have been back to their room a long time ago, so she forgot temporarily about her night to go and seek him.

She got dressed and went downstairs, deciding to check the kitchen first.

There was no Kero. But Keitaro was there.

-"Hello, Sakura" He said cheerfully, his smile reaching his ears. "Did you sleep well?"

Sakura smiled back, a bit surprised at finding him here, and blushed slightly.

-"Yes, thank you Keitaro. What about you?"

-"I slept well, thanks, Sakura-chan. Do you mind if I call you Sakura-chan?"

Sakura blushed again, feeling quite weird with that boy. After all, she had just met him the day before, and he was already speaking to her as if he had known her for years.

-"N-No, I don't mind, Keitaro."

-"Kei."

-"What?" The young man slowly walked towards Sakura, and took her hand in his.

-"I told you to call me Kei." He said, still smiling. Sakura looked at him and awkwardly let go of his hand. Keitaro was definitely too familiar with her, and she didn't feel really at ease with that.

-"Hum...Keita-hum I mean, Kei? Do you know where my brother is?"

-"No, sorry. He left early with your father and your friend this morning. But they said they would be back for lunch." He looked at the fridge behind him, and at the table on which the plates for lunch were almost ready. Then he looked again at Sakura.

-"Do you want anything to eat? You didn't come down for breakfast, this morning." He said, and there was like disapointement in his voice, as if he had been waiting the whole night for breakfast to come in order to see Sakura. The young girl couldn't help feeling guilty at hearing him.

-"Er...no, thanks but it's almost lunchtime. I will wait until then."

-"Are you sure?" He asked, quite surprised.

-"Yeah, I am.Thank you, Kei. Hum...see you!"

And Sakura left the kitchen.

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After her meeting with Keitaro, Sakura, seeing that Kero was not around, had decided to go for a walk though the woods again. She couldn't help but feeling ...attracted by them. This was the place where she had had her last good time with her friends - with all her friends. This was the place where Yamazaki had died, the place where mister Terada had been "attacked", the place where she had met Keitaro...

Keitaro. Sakura didn't know what to think of him yet. He was so nice with her, and yet she didn't know anything about him. But, come to think of it, he didn't know much about her either.'He must have found strange that I came back here after one of my friend's death.' She thought. 'But he's been nice enough not to ask me the reason behind it. But after all, we only know each other's names. And there's his sister, Misaki, she seems so strange and serious for a girl of her age, she must-OUCH!!!'

The next thing Sakura knew was that she was lying flat on her back, and that Kero was hovering over her head. He seemed angry. Really angry. 'Uh oh. This can't be good.'

-"Kero !! Why on earth did you hit me like that?" She asked as she sat up, rubbing her head.

Kero glared at her.

-"WHY? WHY??? I'M STAAAAAAAAAAARVINNNNNG AND IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT!!!!"

Sakura stood up, confused.

-"MY fault? What did I do again?"

-"What did you do? WHAT DID YOU DO???" Kero growled LOUDLY, and took a deep breath in order to calm down a bit.

-"Do you remember when last night you almost let me starve to death? Well, I was so hungry that I ate everything you had brought to me in a few minutes."

Sakura made a face. "Yeah, I remember that."

-"Good. But when I woke up this morning, I was hungry again, of course."

-"Of course."

-"...and there was no one in the room except YOU, because your dad left this morning with the two others, I suppose."

-"So what?"

-"SO WHAT? I went downstairs to wait for you to come down for breakfast and make sure you saved something good for me, but you DIDN'T COME DOWN!!"

-"Yeah, I told you I needed to think."

-"During the whole morning?"

-"Why not? And why didn't you come back in the room?"

-"Why? Because I couldn't !! I thought there would be no one in the kitchen at this time of the day, but then that... boy came, to wait for YOU !! I couldn't leave with him risking to see me !!" Kero bowed his head. "I didn't even have time to pick something to eat..."

Sakura crossed her arms over her chest.

-"And what makes you think that he was waiting for me?"

-"...Sakura, how do you think I got out of there? He left right after you left! He waited during three hours in that damn kitchen, and when you came, he left right after he saw you?" He put a hand on his chin, faking to be thinking. "Now, what makes me think he was waiting for you? Hum...I don't know." Sakura looked at him, her eyes widening.

-"But...why would he wait for me during three hours?"

-"I don't know, Sakura, but please, let's find something to eat. And I don't like that guy."

-"Huh? Why? He's a really nice person."

-"If you say so. But I still don't like him. Now, let's go back, okay?"

-"Okay..." Sakura looked around her, trying to remember where she had come from, when she noticed, in the distance, what seemed to be the ruins of a village.

-"Kero, wait. What's that?" Sakura and the little lion were looking from a small hill, and the ruins were in a hollow, which made whatever had been there before really isolated. From where Sakura was, she couldn't distinguish clearly what the remains were, if there were only a few rocks or if there were actually houses still in a good shape.

-"Sakura, I don"t know what it is, but I am hungry."

Sakura smiled at her guardian.

-"Okay, we're going."

Sakura started to follow Kero through the woods, but not before looking a last time at the ruins. She didn't remember that there was a village near their chalet, and was pretty sure that actually, there wasn't.

And from what she knew, it could have been the ruins of Namida's deserted village.

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-"Oh, no. I'm lost once again." Sakura was standing in the middle of a corridor - which one, she had no idea - and was trying to find her way through the labyrinth (yeah, you could call it that) that was the chalet. She had left the dining-room right after lunch, and had headed for the library, in order to find more information about the village she had seen earlier. She had tried to find the library, but now she was completely lost, and had no idea of where she had come from. Trying to stay calm (which was difficult because remember that we are speaking of Sakura), she walked on, and on, and on, until she couldn't take it anymore. The corridor she was in seemed to be endless, and that didn't help Sakura at all. She stopped walking, and decided to call for help, not caring about looking like a perfect idiot. There was just nothing else she could do.

-"Er...anyone here? Please?" There was no answer at first. Just silence.

But Sakura couldn't help feeling as if she had disturbed something - or someone.

Just then, a door to her right slowly opened, revealing a young fair-haired girl.

-"Misaki?"

-"What are you doing here?" She asked, sounding a bit angry at Sakura.

-"Er...I-I was...looking for the library."

-"It's not here."

-"I-I had figured that out, but...I'm lost. I mean, it's so big in here..."

Misaki frowned at Sakura, not moving from the doorstep of what seemed to be her bedroom. In fact, Sakura couldn't tell actually, since the little girl was trying to hide the inside from Sakura's view.

Involuntarily, she had come to the corridor leading to Misaki's bedroom. Surely, Keitaro's was somewhere near.

-"Go back to the begining of this corridor, turn to your right, then left, left, right, take the stairs and the library's on your right."

-"Ho-hoeee? Can't you....can't you come with me, please?" Sakura wasn't sure she wouldn't get lost again.

Misaki didn't seem pleased, but she sighed, locked her door, and asked Sakura to follow her.

They made it to the library, but Misaki remained by Sakura's side, which surprised her since she had thought she would leave as soon as they would reach the library. The little girl was staring straight in front of her, not looking at something special, but she seemd to be avoiding Sakura's gaze.

-"Why did you want to come here for?"

Sakura looked at her, quite stunned.

-"I-I'm looking for books." This time, Misaki turned to look at Sakura, frowning.
Sakura sweatdropped.

'Why did I come to the library? To look for books. Duh. Smart girl, Sakura.'

-"I mean...I want to learn more about a village I saw not far from here."

Misaki's eyes widenned, but she quickly looked away.

-"There's not any village around here."

-"Oh, maybe it's not a village anymore, maybe it's just ruins now, but I'm sure I saw it."

At first, Sakura thought Misaki was going to tell her that she had dreamed, or something like that, but the young girl didn't say anything. She sighed loudly, and turned to leave the room.

-"Don't come near my room anymore..." She said to Sakura, frowning as if wanting to warn her. But then, almost with pleading eyes, she added : "...please."

Sakura smiled at the young girl. "Okay."

As soon as Misaki left, Sakura went to the shelves to look for something that could help her finding what she wanted. She had thought that since the chalet had been built in the area where the legend had begun, maybe the books there had more information in them that the ones she had in her own home. She searched for hours and hours, never finding anything interresting. So, after a few hours of searching, tired and bored to death, she gave up and left the library.

But when leaving, she had another thought running trough her head.

'I'm going to visit those ruins'

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The next day, Sakura was readying herself for leaving when there was a soft knock on the door. Sakura finished putting her shoes on, and opened the door to find Touya and Yukito in the doorway, both carrying big backpacks. Sakura noticed that Yukito's one looked much heavier than her brother's, and sweatdropped as she imagined how much food he had been able to put in it.

-"Are you ready, Kaijuu?" Sakura didn't even get mad over the 'kaijuu', she was too excited.

After Sakura had told her father about the ruins (she still didn't want to speak about her dream), mister Kinomoto had decided that the trip would be safer if Sakura didn't go alone. Plus, she had a talent for getting lost wherever she went, so in the end, Touya and Yukito had volunteered to go with her. Kero would stay near them, but was to hide in Sakura's backpack at the first sign of someone they didn't know.

They had asked to the old woman who owned the house if they could use the food in the fridge to prepare sandwiches, and, contrary to what Sakura had imagined, she accepted - after all, if the food was eaten in her dining room or in the woods, it didn't matter much to the owner.

They would have to go through the woods to get to the village, since they didn't know if there was any other way to go there. They didn't want to ask to the old woman ( since Sakura was still a bit afraid of her ), and after all, they thought that the trip there would also be like a loooong walk, to enjoy themselves.

So they got up early that morning, knowing for sure that, judging by its distance from the chalet, it would take almost the whole day to go to the village, examine it, eat there, and come back.

After saying goodbye to her father, Sakura and the others left the house. Just before turning to go to the path leading to the forest, Sakura noticed that Misaki was looking at them from a window on the left of the house. In fact, she was only looking at Sakura, but from where she was, the young girl couldn't tell what expression could Misaki have on her face. She only saw her shaking her head, as if disaproving what they were doing.

Whatever. Sakura would wonder about this later. For now, she had other things to do.

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They had been walking for a little more than 2 hours when Sakura asked for a halt. They weren't really tired, all of them being quite good at sports, but Sakura needed to go...relieve herself. So she asked the other three to stop for a moment, in order not to get lost when returning from what she had to do, and asked Kero not to kill Touya while she was away ( the two of them didn't seem to get along with each other very well ).

She walked deeper in the woods, trying to find a place where she wouldn't be seen, and proceeded to unzip her jeans.

-"Hello."

-"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!" Sakura screemed, while trying to put her trousers back in place. When she was finished, she turned her head to look at whoever had scared her like that, blushing furiously.

-"Keitaro?"

The young man was standing before her eyes, looking deeply sorry for what he had just done.

He, too, was blushing.

-"I-I'm sorry, Sakura. I didn't mean to frighten you. I didn't know you were...hum..."

Sakura's blush deepened, but she was relieved that she hadn't had the time to get her jeans completely down. In fact, Keitaro probably didn't see anything, but still, she was embarrassed.

-"Hum...never mind, I-I...er...what are you doing here?"

Keitaro tried to smile despite the fact that he was still blushing (but not as much as Sakura).

-"I like to walk through the woods. Just like you, it seems. May I ask you the same thing?"

Sakura tried to smile back.

-"Well, I'm just having a walk with my brother and Yukito."

-"I see. Heading for somewhere in particular?" He asked.
-"N-No...well, I mean, yes. We're trying to go to the ruins of a village I saw earlier, that's all." Sakura looked up and locked eyes with Keitaro. The boy narrowed his eyes, and his smile seemed to fade away. He seemed...suspicious.

-"Why?"

-"Why what?"

-"Why do you want to go there?"

-"SAKURA!! WHERE ARE YOU?" Touya, Kero and Yukito arrived in front of Sakura, looking terrified. When seeing his little sister, Touya jumped in front of Sakura and looked her over, checking for injuries.

-"Touya!! I'm fine!! Don't worry!" It took him a whole minute to decide to get up though, wanting to be sure that his sister was okay. Yukito spoke up, still trying to catch his breath.

-"What happened, Sakura? We heard you screaming."

-"Ah...Kei scared me, that's all. Don't worry."

-"Who?"

-"Keitaro, the boy from the hotel. You didn't mean to scare me though, did you, Kei?"

But Keitaro was nowhere to be seen. Sakura looked at her surroundings, but couldn't find him.

-"But...he was here a minute ago..."

Yukito, Touya and Kero ( who had hidden the minute he had heard Sakura speaking of Keitaro) exchanged glances, looking slightly worried about Sakura's mental state.

-"I can swear that he was here!!!!"

-"Okay. Sakura, whoever scared you is obviously not here anymore. We should keep going."

Sakura looked at her brother, and realized that he didn't seem to enjoy the situation at all. Everyone just had a bad feeling about the trip to the village, by the look of it.

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It was around lunchtime when they arrived in front of a little river, on which was a very old bridge, leading to the entrance of the village. Now that they were nearer, Sakura could see that a few houses still remained standing. Others, though, were completly demolished.

The bridge wasn't very big, but it was large enough for the three of them (with Kero flying around) to cross it at the same time. Sakura was first, then followed Touya, with Yukito by his side.

Sakura was almost in the middle of it when she felt something strange. At first, she thought she was dreaming, but when her brother and Yukito stopped walking behind her, she realized that she was not dreaming.

The bridge was trembling.

In an instant, Yukito turned into Yue. Not bothering to wonder what could be hapenning with the bridge, and not wanting anyone to be hurt, he grabbed Sakura by the waist, took Touya in his other arm, and quickly flew back to the other side of the bridge. Just when the three of them landed safely on the floor, the bridge trembled even more, before collapsing in a deafening sound.

Sakura, Touya, Yue and Kero couldn't do anything but stare. After a few minutes of silence, Touya was the first to speak.

-"Maybe it was so old that when we stepped on it, it couldn't support all of us..."

Sakura got up, trembling slightly, and walked towards the water. She knelt down, and put a finger in it.

-"It's not very cold. I think we could cross the river by foot."

Touya and Kero rolled their eyes.

-"Just GREAT."

But as soon as Sakura put her foot into the water, she slipped, and would had fallen into the water if it were not for Yue again, who grabbed her in time. The river, which had been calm when they had arrived, seemed to have awoken from a deep slumber to prevent them from crossing it. The stream was just too strong, there was no way they could have crossed the river by foot to go to the village.

Yue narrowed his eyes.

The collapse of the bridge, then that : to him, this was not just a coincidence.

Something, or someone, definitely didn't want any of them to cross that river.

...To Be Continued...

...that's it. I tried to make it longer ( tu vois Lisa, j'ai ESSAYE, c'est déjà ça ) , but I wanted to stop it here. Hehe :-p.
Anyway, I have nothing to do while waiting for the results of my exam, so expect next chapter to be up soon. (I know I said that before, but now I mean it.)

Bye!!