18 : Ino
By: Kokoro Kakera HP ^^
Disclaimer: Naruto, (Manga, anime, products, etc.), belongs to Kishimoto Masashi
Author's Notes:
Me? What did I do? Oh. Ino, right... >_> No, she's not going to become a main character... Sasuke's just too hard to write!!! Like hell I'm gonna just stay with his POV straight through! Oh, and GO SEE EITHER SINBAD OR PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN!!! =P
For those who were confused by the last chapter, sorry~ Most of it was basically a dream sequence in Sasuke's mind. If more clarification is needed, then just e-mail me ^.^~!
This chapter was written was listening to 'Inflatable' by Bush and Hellsing's OST #10.
"You came." Ino said with a touch of surprise in her voice. It was the only lively component within her weary and pained voice. Ino had arrived at the site reserved for Sakura's cremation and found Sasuke with his head bowed low, standing only a few feet away from the girl's coffin.
Sasuke barely lifted his head to acknowledge he had heard her. "You thought I wouldn't." He said darkly.
"I didn't mean it that way." Ino bit her lips as the urge to become upset welled up. "But, I heard that you were still in the hospital and..." Ino averted her eyes from the back of Sasuke's head to the yellowed grass by her feet. "Even Sakura's mother didn't come because she didn't want to see the cremation ceremony. Almost everyone is only going to the official funeral." There was no reply. "Sasuke-kun?" The boy flinched, making her wonder what had caused him to do so.
'Sasuke-kun!' Sakura called out cheerfully. It was the way she had always referred to him.
Ino looked away, shaking visibly in her effort not to break down and cry. "Sorry." She forced out as evenly as she could. Nothing was said for a while, neither willing nor knowing what to say next. The swelling silence seemed to suck away and crush even just the simple memory of the words just spoken between them. It seemed as though the sounds that Ino had been holding onto in her mind for a anchor onto some part of the life she knew - a life with Sakura in it - were peeled away and discarded, never to be retrieved again. Sasuke's voice was something Sakura loved, something she loved as well and even that was denied from her.
She could hear her lungs pull air into them and the whoosh of them emptying again. When she inhaled, the quick rush of air would hitch in certain places in her throat, but move along anyway, only more noisily. Exhaling was easier; one breath sent out through a clear path because everything was relaxed. It was much like the fact that dying was far easier than staying alive.
"You two... were close, right?" She said suddenly, desperate to fill the unsettling silence. She smiled shakily. "Sakura was always really happy to be around you-"
"Did she say something like that?" Sasuke murmured. His voice suddenly sounded tired. "That's strange for someone smart like Sakura to say..." He swayed on his feet as he reached up slowly and pressed the area near his neck, on of his left shoulder where Orochimaru's curse seal had once been. His nails grazed the area leaving white streaks on his skin. A deep longing inside of him twisted sharply from the knowledge that the only quick boost of power available to him was gone. Power that could have taken over his mind with hatred and left him in a drunken state of bliss. "She must have never guessed that I would be responsible for her death."
"What!?" Ino gasped loudly. Her heart thudded rapidly against her ribcage. It suddenly seemed very hard to breathe despite being outside during midday in cool weather. "Sasuke-kun-" He looked up then and allowed their eyes to meet. Ino's legs nearly gave out as a wave of fear passed through her, completely taken aback by the hatred contained within the boy's gaze. All of the words she had meant to say became stuck in her throat and slipped away. She stepped back, nearly stumbling on the uneven ground behind her heels. "It can't be..." She whispered. "You would never-" He turned his head away when Kakashi arrived, carrying a lit torch. The teacher offered him only a slight, saddened glance as he walked by him to where Sakura's body lay.
Sasuke's hands curled into fists. "Why do you think I was the one who carried her body back then?" He asked as he stroke away, leaving Ino staring with her mouth slightly agape in shock. She took a step forward, but stopped. There was nothing she would be able to do for him. She sadly looked back at Sakura's coffin, eyes not as bright as usual.
"Sasuke-kun won't be present for the ceremony after all."
Tsunade stared at the scroll Kakashi had given her, requesting that she look at it and try to make sense of the second half. That had been before he had excused himself to see his student before her funeral. Tsunade sighed at the pity of it. She had briefly met the girl while healing the Uchiha boy years before, after her first fight with Orochimaru. In only the few seconds they had known each other, she had been given the impression that the girl was quite caring. The fresh flowers in the vase by the boy's bed indicated that she probably visited quite frequently with new ones.
Tsunade stared at the jumble of nonsensically placed words and letters on the second half of the scroll's page. She reached up and massaged the bridge of her nose in exasperation when she found she still couldn't make sense of it. In doing so she accidentally knocked over the glass of water set nearby. Water spilled messily over the paper and darkened it. Cursing, the fifth hokage picked up the fallen glass and reached for the scroll, hoping to salvage it. To her surprise, the letters on it seemed to twist around into coherent words and sentences wherever the water touched.
"Second birth...?" She curiously murmured the text out loud. She scanned the page critically. A seed of worry sprouted and grew larger with each line she read. "In AMUKA NOMED we pledge eternal loyalty to," Was how the entire script ended. Something clicked within Tsunade's mind and she shot up, sending papers and other scrolls scattering all over the place.
"This is-!" She hurriedly tucked the scroll into her jacket and sped out of the room. She had to stop them from burning Sakura's body.
Ino stared at the body in the coffin.
'Sakura.'
The pink-haired kunoichi had been cleansed of the blood and dirt that had once stained her and changed into a cleaner set of clothes. She had been appropriately attired in white - a symbol of her passing. She looked lovely - like usual. If her face was just a bit more animated and her skin not so white, Sakura could have passed as someone in a deep slumber.
Beside Ino, Kakashi paid a few last minute respects. His eyes were calm even as he closed the lid and set fire to the coffin. It frightened Ino; scared her so much that she felt cold when she looked at the gray-haired teacher.
'Perhaps he never did care whether Sakura, or anyone besides himself were alive or dead.' That couldn't be true though. He had known her for such a long time...
"Sakura... looks pretty...doesn't she?"
Pretty like a doll.
The words had just slipped from her mouth of their own accord. Perhaps they had been spurred by the lack of emotion Kakashi showed.
No answer was given. The teacher remained stoic as he stared somewhat impassively at the growing flame. Ino gave a strangled sob as a curtain of black smoke began to rise from it. "Don't you care?" She gritted her teeth to keep from crying out loudly and her voice ended up coming out like a tiny shrill note from a violin with broken strings.
"I'm responsible for her death." Sasuke murmured.
"What's wrong with everyone?" She hissed. "Sakura..." Salty liquid burned paths down her face. "This can't be real..." She squeezed her eyes close tightly. "I want to wake up!" The slowly thickening cloud of black smoke wafted over the two ninjas standing near the fire and enveloped them. Neither made an attempt to move. Ino fell to her knees in front of the coffin. The smoke bit her eyes and throat with a savage vengeance. "Please..." She whimpered. "I want-" Her heart lurched painfully and she squeezed her arms around herself. "Wake up." She whispered. "Wake up..."
Kakashi's gaze hardly wavered from the coffin despite the hysterical girl beside him.
It had been her decision to come in the first place and he did not feel it was is responsibility to console her. He had arrived for the sake of performing the ceremony. Someone else could have been paid to do it since no one else wanted to come, but...
'Sakura.'
Disappearing like that, all alone without having someone she knew beside her seemed too harsh. Another thought plagued him. Had Sasuke been by her side when she died, or had she died by herself? The only thing visible on Sakura's face besides blood was the dried tear streaks. He stiffened.
'I promised to protect you.'
Kakashi closed his eyes as they softened when the embers of the fire began to slowly devour the wood and climb higher.
'I'm sorry.'