Title; Retracing
The morning was bright, the sun was shining and there wasn't a single cloud in the sky, which would of course upset Shikamaru, but everyone else was quite content with the weather.
Sakura was up early, but not too early. Yesterday was nice because she had the day off. She just wished that they could have had this weather yesterday. Then again, she probably would have done the same thing no matter what the weather was.
That's right! She just remembered that she had bought that strange Butterfly Crystal from that weird old man.
And, as she finished tying the forehead protector in her hair and grabbed her pack to leave, she put the crystal safely inside as well so she could contemplate her wish on the way to the bridge where she would meet up with her two teammates and teacher.
She didn't know who she was fooling though, since she already knew what her wish was going to be.
"Sakura!" came a familiar voice running up behind her. She always had mixed feelings whenever Ino approached her. She didn't know whether to be happy or sad about it, because every time they talked they seemed to be on different terms with each other.
She turned around, figuring she'd make this a happy time. "Hey Ino!" she called.
"Sakura, where are you off to?" Ino asked as she stopped running and walked beside Sakura.
"Training." Sakura answered.
"Oh." Said Ino. "Have you been downtown recently?"
"I went yesterday with Hinata." Sakura replied.
"Did you see that weird old cart with that equally weird old guy in it?"
"Yeah, I bought a few things from him." Sakura said absentmindedly.
"Did you buy a Butterfly Crystal?" Ino asked eagerly.
"I did." Sakura said.
"Have you made your wish yet?"
"Not yet." Sakura answered as she pulled the crystal out of her pack and presented it to Ino.
"Well, I just have to warn you that these things are a little defective." Ino began. "I wished that Sasuke would be my boyfriend and you know what it did? It made Kiba my boyfriend instead! I think the crystal's extremely stupid or something."
Sakura let that sink in.
"How DARE you wish for Sasuke to be your boyfriend!" Sakura exclaimed.
"What?" said Ino, not receiving the response she had expected.
Sakura hadn't realized that she had said that out loud. She was going to reprimand Ino for wishing for Sasuke to be her boyfriend because Ino should know that Sasuke was as good as Sakura's, but then Sakura quickly came to the conclusion that that comment probably wouldn't go over well with Ino.
"I mean…" she started. "Don't you think that's shallow of you? This is Sasuke's free will we're talking about!"
"Don't act as though you weren't going to make the exact same wish!" said Ino.
"I wasn't!" Sakura lied.
"Sure you weren't." Ino said skeptically. "Sakura, I know you better than anyone else knows you and you can't lie to me. Any girl would be CRAZY not to make that wish."
"Ino, stop bothering me!" said Sakura angrily. "You're going to make me late for training!"
"Whatever, Sakura." Said Ino. "I just came by to offer you some friendly advice but you had to turn it into something mean. That is so typical of you."
"Typical of ME!" Sakura demanded at Ino's turned back. "You're the one who always starts the fights! Give me a break, Ino!"
Sakura crossed her arms and pouted as she walked in the opposite direction as Ino. How dare she treat her like a little child! Sakura had made it quite clear to Ino that she was no longer her shadow!
"She makes me so mad." Grumbled Sakura. "Sometimes I wish that I had never become friends with her!"
She immediately stopped walking and looked at her hand to see that she was holding the Butterfly Crystal. She paused in her walking, only to realize that she was running late and continue walking again.
"That wasn't an official wish." Sakura clarified to the crystal. "As long as we're clear on that."
She put the crystal back in her pouch and, as she saw the bridge off in the distance, she tried not to think that she had accidentally made a wish that she was going to regret later.
"Good morning—" she began, ready to great her two male teammates. But as she got up and over the bridge, she found that, sure enough, Sasuke and Naruto were there, but there was a certain presence that she hadn't expected. "Oh, good morning Hinata!"
Hinata was sitting in the railing of the bridge while Sasuke leaned coolly up against it. Naruto looked as though he had just gotten finished screaming.
"Good morning Sakura." Hinata replied, looking around to make sure she was the one who was being spoken to.
"Um…hello Sasuke!" Sakura said, jumping up and seating herself down on the railing across from Hinata and Sasuke.
Sasuke raised an eyebrow, but didn't respond otherwise.
Sakura cleared her throat and waited for Naruto to throw in a comment.
"So uh…" Sakura began, wondering what Hinata was doing there. She got a sinking feeling that she had done something horribly wrong. "Hey, what are you three doing here?"
"Waiting for our teacher." Hinata answered.
"Oh!" said Sakura nervously, hopping off the railing. "For your teacher! As in the three of you have one teacher!"
Slowly, the three of them nodded.
"And I have a different one!" Sakura finished up. "Of course! I'll be off now! See you later!"
She covered her face and walked away as fast as she could.
Sakura knew that this was the work of the Butterfly Crystal. Why had it taken her literally when she had accidentally used the word "wish" in a sentence? She didn't MEAN to wish for that…
I guess Ino was on to something when she said that the Butterfly Crystal was extremely stupid… or something.
"Stupid, stupid crystal." Sakura sighed, pulling it out of her pack and looking at it. No matter how beautiful it was, it was still stupid. "I wish that everything was back to normal." She declared.
With a nod of her head, she smiled and put the crystal back in her pack. She hadn't expected it to work this well!
She spun around and frolicked back up to the bridge.
"Good morning!" she called.
Then her face fell. Why was Hinata still there?
"Um…I mean, never mind!" she laughed as they stared at her.
So she sprinted away and pulled the crystal back out.
"Hey, did you hear me?" she said angrily. "I wish everything was back to normal!"
She waited.
Slowly, she crept back towards the bridge and hid in a spot that she figured she was out of sight. But it was quite clear that everyone could see her.
"Hey Sakura!" yelled Naruto. "Leave us alone! You're annoying us!"
Sakura stood up straight. How dare Naruto speak to her that way! He should know better and wasn't about to get away with that. "Naruto, you better reevaluate what you just said!" she commanded, stomping over to him. "If anyone's annoying, it's YOU!"
Naruto looked her up and down uneasily as Sasuke turned his head away with a shake of his head. Hinata turned red and avoided eye contact while twiddling her fingers. Why wasn't anyone backing her up? Everyone knew that Naruto was the annoying one and Sakura was far from annoying!
"Fine!" Sakura said, trying not to sound upset. "I'm leaving then!"
"Good riddance." Sasuke muttered.
Ow, Sakura winced.
But she didn't let it bother her too much, since that was just all apart of Sasuke's cool disposition.
She left the bridge area, figuring she'd severely punish Naruto later for his insolence and rude behavior. But now what was she supposed to do? If she wasn't on Sasuke and Naruto's team and Kakashi wasn't her teacher, then where was she supposed to be?
With a sigh, she sat down on a bench. She recognized this as the bench where she had told Ino that she wouldn't be able to be friends with her anymore after they both decided they'd be rivals for Sasuke's love. When she looked back at her plan of action to enforce the rivalry, she sometimes regretted it. But, all's fair in love and war.
She leaned back on the bench and scratched the top of her head. She was shocked to discover that her forehead protector was missing.
"Could it have fallen off?" Sakura exclaimed, standing up and looking around the bench and under it. She couldn't remember it falling off.
When she couldn't find it in the immediate area, she decided that a search expedition was in order. She retraced her steps and, before she realized it, she was back at the bridge once again.
"Um…did I drop anything?" she asked nervously, feeling uncomfortable around her two teammates and her friend.
"Sakura, it's OBVIOUS that you're just trying to think up excuses for being around Sasuke!" Naruto accused.
"No!" said Sakura, angry that Naruto was once again treating her with disrespect. "I lost my forehead protector and I'm retracing my steps! Did I have it on the first time I came here?"
Sasuke gave an annoyed sigh under his breath.
Hinata continued to look away.
Naruto decided that he didn't want to concern himself with Sakura's presence anymore.
Why is everyone being so mean? Sakura wondered to herself as she glanced around the ground for the forehead protector. She didn't find it, so she figured she'd just continue retracing her steps. She distinctly remembered putting it on this morning…
But, much to her dismay, as she got all the way back to her room, her forehead protector was still nowhere to be found. She was getting a little nervous that people would think she was irresponsible for being probably the first person to ever lose their forehead protector.
Maybe, before Ino stormed away in such an irrational fashion, she had seen what had happened to it.
"We may have never been friends," Sakura sighed as she made her way to Ino's house. "But that doesn't mean her eyes won't still work."
She had to go practically across the village to get to Ino's house. She figured that Ino would be home by now since she had so much time, so she started to hurry.
On the way, she caught sight of a familiar team. She knew Lee because he was practically obsessed with her, and she vaguely knew Tenten just because she was another girl in the village that she may have ended up being associated with at one point or another. And she didn't really know Neji at all, but from what she knew about him, she knew she didn't WANT to know him.
They were walking towards her.
She was yearning for conversation so she put her hand up to wave.
"Hi…" she began, but they sort of awkwardly nodded at her and continued to walk, going right by her.
She stared at their turned backs as they got further away.
They must not have noticed it was her.
"Lee?" she called out.
Lee turned around and looked around. Then he caught sight of Sakura.
"Yeah?" he said.
"Lee, what are you doing?" Neji said, sounding irritated.
"Um…hi." Sakura said with a wave to Lee.
"Hi!" said Lee excitedly.
"Let's go already." Said Neji as if he had just been forced to stand there like a fool for hours while waiting for Lee.
"Hey!" said Lee to Neji. "It's not every day that a beautiful maiden calls me by name and says hi to me!"
"Give him a minute." Tenten said.
"Fine." Neji said, crossing his arms as if nothing could possibly pain him more.
Lee looked at Sakura and waited for her to continue.
"Um…so hey Lee!" Sakura said. She hadn't really wanted to make a huge thing out of this and do something as unforgivable as annoy Neji. "What's up? How's the training been going?"
"It's going great!" Lee answered with the thumbs up.
"So uh…working hard?" Sakura tried.
"As hard as ever!" Lee said proudly.
Sakura waited for him to say something intelligent.
"May I ask your name?" Lee said as he reached out to take Sakura's hand.
"Lee, doesn't it strike you as weird that a random girl stops you on the street and starts interrogating you?" Neji said, obviously growing impatient.
"Random girl!" demanded Sakura angrily, but she quickly withdrew once Neji glared at her.
"In a way, Neji's right…it is a little weird, especially since it's YOU." Tenten agreed as she grabbed Lee's arm and started dragging him away. "Besides, we have to go train anyway."
"We shall meet again, Beautiful Maiden!" Lee called as he blew kisses to Sakura.
Sakura stood there in a stupefied state as Lee continued to blow kisses, Tenten continued to drag Lee away and Neji left her with one more glare before turning his back to her.
She decided to dismiss that entire encounter as peculiar and continue her trek to Ino's house.
Momentarily, she forgot why she was going there, but then she remembered that she had lost her forehead protector. No, not LOST! Simply misplaced! Or worse, maybe someone stole it!
She hopped up the steps of Ino's house and knocked on the door. Instinctively, she looked around aimlessly until the door finally opened, and Ino's mother was standing there.
"Hi!" she greeted cheerfully.
"Hi." she said. "May I help you?"
"Is Ino at home?" Sakura asked.
Ino's mother paused for a long while, not saying anything, only staring at Sakura to the point in which she felt very uncomfortable.
"Um…no?" Sakura tried.
"Who are you?" Ino's mother asked finally.
"Sakura." Sakura said. "Ino's friend."
Ino's mother sighed and opened the door wider. "Come in." she beckoned.
"Um…all right…" Sakura said nervously as she stepped inside. She had been in Ino's house all the time when she was younger, and it always smelled nice like flowers. But it didn't smell so nice now.
"I don't know where you've been for the past few years, but I hate to be the bearer or bad news." Ino's mother began, gesturing for Sakura to take a seat.
"What do you mean?" Sakura said, slowly lowering herself down. "What are you saying?"
"Ino hasn't been with us for almost six years." She answered.
"'With us'?" Sakura repeated. "What do you mean?"
"Ino passed away in an accident when she was seven years old." Ino's mother replied. "I'm sorry."
Sakura's mouth dropped open and hit the floor.
"Since when?" she demanded irrationally.
That was obviously the response that Ino's mother had not expected. "Since she was seven…" she answered, looking confused.
Sakura stood up. "That's not true!" she commanded.
"I'm sorry, but it is." Ino's mother said as she stood up as well.
Sakura lowered back into the seat her eyes on the floor.
"How did you know her?" Ino's mother asked.
Sakura looked at Ino's mother. "We were friends." She replied. "The kids at school used to pick on me, and Ino made them stop."
"Well, that was Ino for you." Sighed her mother. "She was always that kind of person."
"What happened to her?" Sakura said. "What kind of accident do you mean?"
"Hm?" said her mother with a sigh. "I still remember it like it just happened. She came home from school one day with the same old story saying that her classmates were being bullies to a new girl. She looked around for hours for something to give her as a peace offering…"
She trailed off.
"She was in the wrong place at the wrong time." She continued. "There was a team of genin ninjas practicing… but she never made it to where she promised to meet the girl."
"That's what—" Sakura began, but then she stopped.
"I think Ino made more friends than she knew what to do with." Ino's mother said, trying to smile.
"What happened to the girl?" Sakura said.
"I don't really know." Ino's mother replied. "I didn't even know her name."
"I have to go." Sakura said, standing up and darting for the door.
Ino's mother followed her to the door, but then decided to let her go.
Sakura moved very quickly away from the house, and looked back for only a moment, wondering what went horribly wrong.
She felt the top of her head again and found that there was still no forehead protector.
And that's when she saw Chokai's Spiritual Stand.
Probably breaking the sound barrier on her way over, Sakura moved faster than she ever had before.
"Hey!" Sakura said, slamming her hands down on the counter, waking Chokai up from his slumber.
Chokai looked around and then caught sight of Sakura. "Yes?" he said. "Would you like to buy something? You look like someone who is troubled by something that happened in your past—"
"Stop trying to sell me stuff!" Sakura interrupted. "I already bought your Butterfly Crystal and—"
"Say no more." Chokai said, putting a hand up. "I know what's coming. You want me to make everything go back to normal."
"Why do you sell people these things?" demanded Sakura.
"Because I want to make them happy!" Chokai said.
"Well, I'm not happy!" Sakura said angrily. "So undo it!"
"There's only one way to undo the wish." Chokai said. "You have to buy another crystal and make a new wish."
"What!" demanded Sakura. "That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard! You should give me one for free!"
"Why should I do that?" Chokai raised an eyebrow.
"I didn't know that the wish was actually going to come TRUE!" Sakura said. "That's false advertising!"
"No it's not." Said Chokai. "I told you it would come true. It's your fault for not believing me."
"Fine!" Sakura said with a huff, throwing her money down on the table and holding out her hand. "Give me another crystal."
"Say the magic word." Chokai said, pulling out a crystal.
"NOW." Sakura said, stomping her foot.
"Fine, fine." Said Chokai, rolling his eyes. He didn't really care, as long as he had the money. And then he thought that maybe he should try this technique BEFORE telling people the actual way of undoing the wish. "Out of curiosity, what went wrong?"
Sakura sighed. "I accidentally wished that I had never become Ino's friend." She said. "I didn't mean that I wanted her DEAD!"
"You'd be surprised how often people end up dead." Chokai said with a nod.
"In addition to her being dead, nobody knows who I am!" Sakura went on. "Or everyone was being mean to me! I don't know how THAT worked out…"
Chokai shrugged.
Sakura paused. "Oh wait…" she started.
And then she realized why things were the way they were. Had Ino not come along, Sakura would have continued to be bullied about her big forehead. Because Ino had never come in contact with her, she probably kept being bullied. And, if she was bullied that much, it's likely that she was not strong enough to continue being a ninja.
She touched the top of her head again. She hadn't LOST her forehead protector; she had just never had it to begin with!
So THAT'S why Hinata was in her place on Naruto and Sasuke's team! It was all coming together!
"All that's left to do now is to undo the wish." Sakura announced. "And then everything will be back to normal."
"Be careful with your wording." Chokai warned. "You might end up making everything worse."
"What do you mean!" Sakura said. "I can't just wish that I had never bought the first crystal?"
"If you had never bought the first crystal, then you never would have bought the second crystal, which means everything will STILL be messed up." Chokai said.
"It doesn't work that way!" Sakura yelled.
"Hey, who's the one who made the things?" Chokai challenged.
Sakura gave an exasperated sigh. "So what do I say?" she said.
"How did she die?" Chokai asked.
"She was accidentally killed be a couple of genin students." Sakura said.
"Well, you can say that you wish that a jounin ninja just so happened to be passing by at the time and leaped out to save her." Chokai suggested.
Sakura considered that. "That sounds right." She said as she held up the crystal. "I wish that a jounin ninja just so happened to be passing by at the time Ino got in her accident and saved her!"
Sakura waited.
"Did it work?" she said.
Chokai looked around. "No." he said.
"No!" Sakura demanded. "How do you know!"
"Because you made a wish that would make YOU end up dead, and the crystal doesn't grant those wishes." Chokai said.
Sakura's face fell.
"What?" she said. "How could I have ended up dead?"
"I don't know." Chokai said with a shrug. "You have to try making a different wish so you can save your friend and not kill yourself."
"Geez…" Sakura moaned. "How about I wish that Ino's mom made her clean the dishes or something before she left so it would take longer for her to get to where she was going?"
"You could try it." Chokai said.
"Okay…" Sakura inhaled. "I wish that Ino's mom made Ino clean the dishes before she left to give me the ribbon."
She waited again.
"Okay, how was that?" Sakura said. "Am I dead?"
"No." Chokai answered.
Sakura sighed with a relief. She put a hand to her head to test if there was a forehead protector… but there wasn't.
"What's that all about!" she said. "How come I'm not a ninja!"
"I don't know." Chokai said.
"If Ino's not dead then that means she became my friend and if she became my friend then that means I became a ninja!" Sakura reasoned.
"Well, your first wish was that she never became your friend." Chokai pointed out. "So there must have been some other reason why you two never met and became friends."
Sakura put the crystal back on the counter and pulled her hair. "This is unbelievable!" she yelled.
"You could trying buying another crystal." Chokai suggested.
"No." said Sakura. "I'm going to go talk to Ino!"
"All right…but I'll keep a crystal ready for you." Chokai grinned.
Sakura stomped off back to Ino's house. Thankfully, it was close by because otherwise, there would be many more Sakura sized footprints in the ground.
She pounded on the door and Ino's mother opened it again.
"Hi, is Ino at home?" Sakura said, trying to sound pleasant.
"I'm sorry." Said Ino's mother. "Ino's out training for the day. Are you one of her friends? I'll tell her you stopped by."
"That's all right." Sakura gritted her teeth. "Do you know where Ino trains?"
"Well, I don't know where she trains exactly…" Ino's mother said absentmindedly. "But I know she meets her teacher and teammates on the bridge across the village."
Sakura slapped her overly large forehead.
"Are you kidding?" she mumbled.
"I'll tell Ino you came by." Ino's mother nodded.
"Thanks." Sakura said, turning around and stomping away, leaving Sakura sized footprints in the ground going in the opposite direction back to Chokai's Spiritual Stand. "Hey! Now Ino's on the same team as Sasuke and I'm STILL not a ninja!" she yelled at Chokai who had fallen asleep again.
"Sorry." Chokai said.
"Give me another crystal." Sakura said.
"All right." Said Chokai happily as he handed over another one and Sakura gave him the money.
"I wish Ino had not been obstructed in her meeting of me when we were younger and we became friends!" Sakura said forcefully.
Chokai frowned.
"How's that?" Sakura said.
"I don't know, how was it?" Chokai said with a raised eyebrow.
Sakura touched the spot where her forehead protector should be to find that it WAS there. "What a relief." She said.
"I'm sorry your wish didn't turn out the way you wanted it to." Chokai said, though he was probably lying.
"You shouldn't be selling these things." Sakura said. "People end up dead."
"You just have be more specific when you wish." Chokai advised. "Do you want another Crystal to try again?"
"No thank you!" Sakura said. "Because I know that if I wished that Sasuke was my boyfriend, then for SOME reason the entire world would crumble and come to an end and I'd just end up wasting MORE money!"
"Okay…" Chokai said.
"Besides, I've practically got Sasuke wooed over naturally anyway." Sakura said, flicking her hair.
Chokai avoided eye contact. He didn't even have to know about their relationship to know how close she legitimately was to "wooing Sasuke over naturally".
"Now what have learned from all this?" Chokai led, hoping Sakura would leave and stop scaring away the fish who he could potentially sell his clearly illegal products.
"Don't put faith in creepy men behind sketchy carts selling suspicious magical items?" Sakura tried.
"…Sure…" Chokai said, eyeing her.
Sakura turned and left, ready to go and tell Ino about her adventures with Chokai, the creepy weirdo.
"Well, I learned something." Chokai said with a satisfied smile after Sakura was sufficiently out of earshot of whatever witty comment he was about to make. "And it can be summed up into one of my favorite proverbs! A fool and her money are soon parted!"
Chokai turned around with Sakura's three crystals and smashed each of them, one right after another. He felt that, even though Sakura certainly was a fool, she didn't deserve whatever she was about to go and face. Because, even if she did wish for her and this Ino girl to end up being friends, they probably ended up being friends a different way… and thus, something else was strange or different about their relationship or various other things in their lives.
After all, those damn butterflies can make tornados.
Next chapter: For The Team
