Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
Puppet in Pink
6. Eternal Cliche
And then, in the morning, crowds surrounded...
...that hall...
From faraway lands...
...hurrying to behold the monster...
They gaped with no sense
Of sorrow, felt no regret for its suffering,
Went tracing its bloody footprints...
...to the edge of the lake...
-Beowulf
"Sakura-chan! You're back!" Naruto was practically jumping up and down with happiness. Sakura, leaning up against a tree, said nothing. She made no sign that she'd even heard him. Her hair hid her face, and her eyes, so that all the outside world could see was her blank expression, her slightly slouching posture. All it could hear was her silence. Let them go on thinking she was "in mourning" or whatever it was called. Let them lose themselves in their weakness, thinking they were pointing out hers. She was cracking up on the inside just thinking about it.
Noticing that the pink-haired girl wasn't responding to his cheery greeting, Naruto quieted down, feeling drowned in the inevitable noiselessness. Sasuke was silent, Sakura was silent. If he hadn't known any better, he'd have thought that he had statues for teammates. Or rather, shadows. A vengeful shadow and a mournful shadow.
How right he was...and at the same time, how wrong...
Sasuke glanced at Sakura out of the corner of his eye. He was grateful for the unusual quiet. Perhaps it was better that his teammate's parents had died...it'd teach her how to live without her bubble of protection. It'd teach her that the world was made up of more than smiles and sweethearts. It'd teach her the meaning of true pain. And, at the same time, there would be one less idiotic fan-girl to worry about. Now if only something like this would happen to that Yamanaka brat...
Sakura knew all too well that showing even part of her strength during training would be a fatal move on her part. People would ask...questions. Questions that she didn't want to answer. Questions that, if she did answer them, would only lead to confusion. And possibly something worse. Today's "work" will be painfully like play, she thought, disgusted. How glad Sakura was that she'd taken the month off. She would never have been able to make any progress, with the way her teacher treated her.
Kakashi always seemed to look upon her as the team's weakest link, though he hid it well. It showed in the way he would always look over his shoulder at her during missions, when he thought she wasn't watching, the way he cautioned her against overexertion while urging the others to work until exhaustion. He always regarded her as the delicate one, the exquisite gem that looked pretty but was useless in the end. And until now, he'd been correct in his judgments. Until now...Sakura giggled silently.
Well, let him be surprised. She didn't plan to let on just how much she'd improved...the plan was to ace the day's exercises, but not to over-excel. Just to gauge her teammates' reactions. While doing that, she would suppress her chakra and maintain a smooth aura of general gloominess. That would be enough.
There was only one part of Sakura's lifetime of role-play that she could no longer uphold, and that was her "crush" on Uchiha. The boy's aura reeked of selfishness...and self-pity. It was a wonder that he was able to net such a huge fan club. How could the other girls like someone like him? Perhaps they were all pretenders just like her.
Yeah right.
It wouldn't be hard to explain why she was no longer among those fan-girls. A mumbled excuse about life over love and family values would be enough. Or maybe she wouldn't even need an excuse. Whenever the pink-haired girl's mask slipped (if that ever happened), it would be attributed to the trauma from her parents' death. People these days were really too easy to read. She would play the forlorn, slightly vengeful teenager, and the rest of the world would play right into her hands.
Sakura looked up slowly. She sensed a shift in the air around her, but gave off no indication of noticing it. Kakashi would arrive in a few seconds, late as always...
"Hi, guys. Sorry that I'm late...you see, I accidentally dropped my towel in the toilet and then I had to get it out..." That was as far as Kakashi got before he was interrupted.
"I'M NOT LISTENING!" Naruto stuck his fingers in his ears and began humming loudly, to the annoyance of Sasuke. Kakashi didn't miss the fact that Sakura made no remarks about his outrageous excuse the way she normally would have. And he didn't really blame her. You couldn't expect anyone, much less a girl with such a fragile psych as she, to get over the loss of both parents in four weeks. It might take months. It might take years. It might take a lifetime.
"Today we're working on target practice."
Sasuke and Naruto groaned in unison.
"That's old stuff!" Naruto yelled defiantly. "We learned that ages ago-" Suddenly a knowing look crossed his features. "Wait. There's a catch, right? There's always a catch when you say that kind of stuff... you act like it's gonna be something easy and then you..." The rest of Naruto's words were lost in his mumbling. Sasuke continued to look disgusted.
Meanwhile, Sakura appeared unaffected. She knew what the "catch" to this activity was. She also knew that it wasn't much of a catch at all. Not for her at least.
"Good thinking, Naruto...the catch is, you'll have to do it blindfolded."