Author's Note: Hello, all you beautiful people! Sorry for the delay. Here is chapter four. This one focuses more on Sakura's part in the love story, as requested by many viewers. Thank you for all who reviewed. You're sooooo totally cool. Anyway, enjoy!
By the way, there are some words in here in Japanese that you may not understand. Here's a quick glossary:
Taisho- palm heel strike
Nukite- spear hand strike
For those of you familiar with karate, you'd probably know those words.
Ok, that's all!
Zarrah-chan
Chapter 4
The Desert Lotus
Sakura chuckled lightly as she strode through the quiet corridors of Konoha Hospital. There was something about her encounter with the Hyuuga prodigy that amused her. That man had more comedy to him than everyone was led to believe, and she wondered how anyone could ever miss that. Back when she was a genin, all she could ever see in him was a cold-hearted, selfish bastard, who had the nerve to beat his poor cousin to a bloody pulp. Contrary to her earlier assumptions, she found Neji's character to be greatly charming and comforting after their meeting in the closet. The kunoichi laughed some more at the recollection of their conversation, and questioned why the man didn't have oodles of young ladies drooling over him. He was smart, strong, and hey (she was a girl, after all), he was a complete hottie.
Surprised at her sudden childish thinking, Sakura shook off the unimportant facts and resumed her path to the Hokage's office.
When she reached the large wooden doors, she placed her hands on the brass handles and pushed them open. This brought back memories of the day she requested to train under the legendary medical sannin, and despite her massive growth in strength, the kunoichi couldn't help but feel a tingle of nervousness. That, too, was shaken off. The Kunoichi had opened those doors a billion times before. How was this any different?
Sakura was met by the stern gaze of the fifth Hokage, whose arms were crossed so that the line of cleavage was more predominant.
Crap…she thought. Am I in trouble?
The pink-haired girl folded her hands together to hide the perspiration pooling in the center of her palms. She'd become quite a powerful jounin, but the one person she still cowered beneath was the great and beautiful Tsunade...
…And her overly-large breasts.
Sakura took a deep breath.
"If this is about the medicinal supplies, I'm really sorry. It wasn't entirely my fault, I—"
The Hokage held up a hand.
"Hang on there. Relax. This has nothing to do with your job." She interrupted. Tsunade signaled for the girl to have a seat.
It wasn't until Sakura was completely in the room that sheer panic attacked her nerves. There, on the couch beside the Fifth's desk, were Mr. and Mrs. Haruno Kamuii, politely seated next to each other.
Wide green eyes stared blankly at the two figures before her, and confusion overwhelmed the pink-haired kunoichi.
Her parents? What were they doing here?
Sakura sat down across from her guardians, and gave a helpless look to her teacher, silently asking for an explanation. The Fifth, however, only gave her full attention to the Haruno couple.
"What's going on?" Sakura finally asked after what seemed to be hours of catching the adults exchange glances and eye signals.
A parcel on her mother's lap caught the girl's attention.
"Sakura…" her mother stammered, not knowing where exactly to begin. She fidgeted a moment before slowly opening the parcel. When the brown packaging was removed, a bright purple flower rested in the middle of Mrs. Haruno's lap.
"Do you remember this?"
Sakura cocked her head to a side, examining the mesmerizing flower, and skimmed her memory of it. Unsure of the relevance it had to her, she reluctantly nodded.
It was a desert lotus.
She'd seen it once, on her fifth birthday, given to her as a gift. She didn't understand its importance back then, and ignored it. After all, which would a five year old girl pick? Dolls? Or a useless flowers?
Sakura twiddled her fingers as her father cleared his throat in growing impatience. She knew he was a straight forward man, and definitely not one to beat around the bush. Haruno Kamuii nudged for his wife to continue, and she obediently followed his silent command.
Mrs. Haruno dropped her eyes and cradled the flower in her palms. Sakura was oddly reminded of one of her best friends, Hinata-sama, when her mother did this. Both were strong females alone, but when a man was added to the picture… both faltered and completely surrendered.
"Sakura…" her mother tried again, breaking the girl out of her incoherent thoughts. "You remember your father's accomplishment at Sand village eighteen years ago?"
Sakura nodded. She'd often heard stories of her father from prior to her own birth. Although neither of her parents were ninjas, her father held an honorary position in solving political issues between countries and villages, maintaining the peace between them. Sakura had been told of all his success due to his ingenious plans, and it had been in him that she was proud to have inherited her intelligent genes.
Sakura peered at her father who only sat cross-armed with both eyes closed. Eighteen years ago, she had heard that he had gone to the Sand village for a political meeting, when a group of hired assassins from the Hidden Mist Village attacked their gathering. Although her father had no training in the shinobi field whatsoever, he had managed to survive the ambush and returned to tell about it. Only three men lived from that meeting, and Sakura was proud that her father was one of them.
Mrs. Haruno shuffled a bit, bringing Sakura back into the topic of conversation. The pink-haired kunoichi glanced at the flower, to her father, and back. There was something she couldn't quite piece together, in spite of her high-leveled intelligence. What did the flower have to do with her father's job of more than a decade ago?
Her mother, sensing her ascending anxiety, decided to continue with the explanation.
"There's something we haven't quite told you…" she trailed off.
Sakura's blood ran cold and she hated the words instantly. There were terrible confessions that usually followed those words, and the girl didn't want to hear any of it. They'd tell her she was adopted! They'd tell her they were getting divorced! They'd tell her she housed a killer monster in her body that if ever it were to escape, they'd have to kill her on a full moon and sacrifice her to the other monsters housed in other shinobis' bodies!
"It's about the meeting at Sand village eighteen years ago."
Phew. So it wasn't the monster prediction.
"The day your father went to the meeting, assassins from the Hidden Mist village ambushed the council and killed all but three."
Sakura nodded as her heart beat returned to normal. She's already known that. Why were they deciding to tell her now?
"And when he returned," she continued, "The political board honored his survival, and awarded his bravery, despite not being a shinobi."
Yes, yes… She'd known all that as well…What was the point of all this useless information?
"The truth is, your father nearly died. It was a Sand shinobi that saved him."
That hit Sakura's head harder than she thought. So all those stories about his survival were false?
Sakura eyed her father who glanced at the doorway, as if anticipating someone to enter. Just what was he up to?
"The reason why we're telling you this," Mrs. Haruno trailed off, "Is because you play an important role."
Sakura flinched. Me?
"You see, the Sand shinobi who saved your father was a very powerful one and trusted very little people. He questioned your father about his loyalty to sand. After he rescued him, the shinobi didn't allow your father to return to Konoha unless he had gotten something as a repayment to prove his loyalty." Mrs. Haruno said, fingering the petals on the delicate flower, as if reminiscing something from a distant dream. "That was the year I was pregnant with you…"
The woman inhaled deeply, before proceeding with the news that was most important.
"Your father had no choice, Sakura. The shinobi would have killed him if had tried to escape…"
Sakura's forehead creased in growing confusion.
"Mom…?" she asked with uncertainty tainting her soft voice. It was as if she were a little girl again.
Her mother sighed.
"Your father promised to give him you."
A billion questions ran through the kunoichi's head at the time, but her mouth produced nothing. Given away? What was she, a simple package--- a present just for one man's delight?
Unwilling to look her daughter in the eyes, Mrs. Haruno kept her own on the flower.
"The Sand shinobi had a son a year prior to that meeting." She began again, after a long moment of silence. "When he discovered that your father was married and that I was pregnant with a girl, the man suddenly became interested in a bargain. He told your father to give you to him. You were to be arranged in a marriage with the boy by the time you reached eighteen. This would pay off your father's debt to him. Your father eventually agreed."
Another wave of silence. Sakura wasn't sure if all this information was making its way to her head. This was a dream, she told herself. A terrible, terrible dream…
"To remind your father every year of his promise, the Sand shinobi sent an engagement flower, from the day you were born, and every year after that. The desert lotus was a symbol of his commitment with the ninja that saved his life, and it tormented us every year.
We were afraid of what you would say, so we always kept the flower a secret from you. We hid it every time it arrived, so that you wouldn't find out. For a while, we believed he had forgotten about it, but as soon as you turned eighteen, he sent us this." She paused, cupping the lotus.
"Your fiancée has arrived."
Sakura's fingers went cold and she was sure that her heart had stopped pumping. An arranged marriage?
She suddenly felt nauseous, and it felt like all her childhood dreams were stripped away from her. All those plans of her fantasy wedding with the perfect man were torn apart right there. The realization of her fate hit her with a bang. She would have to spend the rest of her life with some man that she did NOT love. That was worse than any brutal shinobi training she had ever faced in her entire life.
Sakura could tell that her mom mourned for her. Her father, on the other hand, looked as if he could care less. It was entirely unfair for him to give her away like a worthless shoe, and not even show signs of loss.
The pink-haired kunoichi glanced at her mom who tried her best not to cry, but failed as two drops fell from her eyes. Her lips moved as she mumbled soft sentences over and over again. Though Sakura could not hear it, she read the mouth movements like a book.
"Your father would have died, your father would have died…"
It was then that Sakura erased all feelings of bitterness toward her parents. Her father had lived, and that was the important factor. If she chose not to marry the stranger, she was sure that her father would pay a greater price than the one he did eighteen years prior. Sakura felt a wave of guilt build up in her gut. It was completely unfair… but she would do it.
She would do it for her father.
Sakura swallowed hard before speaking.
"Who is he?" she simply asked, indirectly agreeing to the arrangement.
Tsunade smiled in admiration at her pupil's courage. Sakura was a tough girl, and a strong-willed woman, but she obediently followed her family's obligation when push came to shove. If the Hokage were in that situation herself, she wasn't sure if she could handle it like Sakura did. And in that fact alone, Tsunade was proud of her subordinate.
Tsunade was determined to make the engagement easier for the young woman to handle.
"He's actually not that bad, Sakura. You'll learn to like him." The Fifth said. "He's even put his duties as a Kazekage on hold, just to see you."
Sakura's green eyes widened.
"Kazekage? My fiancée's a Kazekage?"
She felt a burst of strong chakra build up behind her, and the sound of flowing sand rang in her ears.
"Gaara." The stranger breathed. "Gaara of the desert."
Neji couldn't shake the kunoichi off his mind and in that, he became immensely irritated.
The Hyuuga walked stoically towards his humble home, with a large frown plastered on his handsome face. The sun was nearing the horizon line, and signaled its departure by painting the sky glorious shades of orange, purple, and red. It was just hours after his heart almost failed on him in utter panic at the kunoichi's sudden unconsciousness.
Yes, Hyuuga Neji had very much been scared to death over the condition of a girl he barely knew.
Insignificant?
No way in hell.
This was a heck of a bloody big deal.
Hyuuga Neji NEVER, in the entire span of his life, was as frightened as he was the moment the kunoichi hit the ground. It was as if his body moved completely on its own. In moments quicker than he could grasp, the young man swept the girl into his muscular arms and raced as fast as his shinobi legs could carry him to the only place he knew to take her. Konoha Hospital.
Yet as bad as that was, it wasn't the worst part.
Fear chewed away at his heart a second time in the hospital when he spotted familiar Konoha nurses head his way. He had looked at the situation from a distance with his Byaakugan, and did not like where it going.
'The Hyuuga prodigy, in a disarrayed state, clutching an unconscious Konoha nurse tightly in his arms.'
That did not sit so well with him.
In a panic, Neji had bolted into the closest door possible.
It was dark, and for a moment, he had mistaken the place for the morgue. Perfect. He remembered thinking. I can just leave her with the dead people and no one will suspect a thing.
When he found the light switch, he discovered his mistake, and his plans instantly deflated.
This was a closet.
Crap.
There were only SO many conclusions that people would immediately come to, once setting eyes on the couple alone in a janitor's closet, and he liked none of them.
This was, by far, the suckiest day of his life.
Not knowing what else to do, Neji had laid the girl down onto his lap, hoping to God that no one would suddenly find the need for a mop. He fanned her face with his sleeves and felt her wrist for a pulse, all while gawking at her pale face for any responses. If this was her idea of some sick joke, he would personally pay her back with Divine Punishment.
Fortunately for her (and UNFORTUNATELY for him), she was knocked out cold in what seemed to a very deep slumber.
He could not tell her how utterly EXTATIC he was when her emerald eyes finally fluttered open, an hour after they had been stranded there. He remembered thinking about hugging the girl in colossal relief, but considering the current circumstances, he found reason to keep his distance.
Then, the strangest of all events to happen that day: the two had immersed into a very enlightening conversation. And as strange as it sounded, he liked her company.
But he would rather stab himself with a kunai than admit to anyone that fact.
Neji let out another frustrated sigh, unable to pinpoint what it was that made him so angry. It was suffocating him and he needed to vent it out.
Passing by a training stump, Neji paused at an idea. Thanking the Lord Almighty for the invention of the object, Neji decided to release his tension with a couple of hundred taisho's and nukite's to the stump. Nothing would please him more than the bloody calloused hands of a day's worth of hard training.
Neji took the proper stance, and prepared to begin.
"NEJI-NII-SAN!" a high-pitched voice called in panic. The Hyuuga was so close to ripping his hair out in insanity.
"What?" he barked at the panting figure approaching him in a total wreck. It was his gentle cousin, Hinata, looking as if she had witnessed a fire and was calling for immediate help. Hinata ignored his rude response and tugged at his sleeve.
"Ottousan is looking for you. It's urgent, he said. If you don't come quickly, he'll tear the whole house apart!" she squeaked.
Neji analyzed this.
Being a tad afraid of her elder cousin, Hinata was not one to touch him so impolitely like that. It must have been quite an emergency for her to nag at him like she did.
The Hyuuga cursed at his increasing bad luck.
The fates were just not on his side today.
Whizzing by shops and houses, the two cousins finally arrived upon the Hyuuga mansion, to the room where Neji was so urgently being beckoned. Upon entering, Neji turned to look at Hinata whose knees quivered at the thought of opening the door. Nevertheless, she did.
"Ottousan…" she rapidly spoke, immediately dropping on all fours in a submissive bow. "Neji-nii-san is here."
The man pounded his fist on the mats impatiently.
"Bring him to me this instant!" he bellowed in a deep voice.
"H-hai!"
Hinata bowed once again, and exited the room, giving her cousin a "good luck with him" look. Neji nodded and obediently entered the room, dropping into the same respective bow.
"You called for me, Hiashi-sama?"
Despite his uncle's earth-shattering call, Neji was as calm as the eye of a storm. He didn't raise his voice, nor wished to. He felt more irritated than afraid, and would find great difficulty in disguising that instead.
"You are a Hyuuga disgrace!" his uncle yelled and Neji immediately looked up in defense. Whoa, he thought bitterly. A tad quick to conclusions, are we?
"Have I disobeyed you, Hiashi-sama?" Neji simply asked, hoping that none of his anger slipped into the tone of his voice.
"Carrying a woman, who is not even your wife into a closet alone, Neji! What in the name of all things sacred were you thinking!" the elder Hyuuga boomed, disregarding Neji's question.
Neji froze, eyes wide open. He SAW that? The saying was completely true. Walls DID have eyes. And they apparently belonged to the Hyuuga household.
Kuso. What in the world was he supposed to say?
"Hiashi-sama. I can explain---" he began but was cut off by louder shouts. If the Sand village could hear him, Neji didn't know what couldn't.
"It's bad enough that you have not chosen a wife in the supposed time frame, now I have elders and family members telling me they saw you randomly pick up a stranger and affectionately carry her into the privacy of a closet! Have you no pride in the Hyuuga family name? Outrageous behavior with a young woman… I can only question how many more you have on the side of her! Perhaps THAT is why you cannot choose a wife! You are tormented between MANY mistresses!"
Holy crap, if anything had ignited the way Hiashi's speech ignited Neji's rage, the whole world would have died in the fire.
"Hiashi-sama!" Neji shrieked with a flaring temper. MANY women? The guy could barely get ONE! And the one he "had" was NOT his woman. Hiashi, in blinding anger, refused to listen to anything the boy had to say.
"I should banish you from this family, and strip your memory of all the techniques you know of! Disgrace has tainted you as a Hyuuga and I should not welcome you anymore!" he threatened, his face painted in red.
Panic struck Neji flat across the face. His precious techniques meant more to him than his very existence! Now way, he wanted to loose that!
He looked to the side, searching for a quick escape. He needed an excuse…God, he needed an excuse. Any excuse would be better than this grilling he was taking here…ANY excuse.
"…She's my fiancée."
Neji immediately wished he could swallow those words back into his mouth. What in the bloody earth had he just said? Tell me this is a dream… A Horrifying nightmare….
"I've known her since ninja academy and have been waiting for the right time." His mouth had completely gone insane, and ran with unstoppable words. "I took her to the closet, yes, for privacy. I was proposing to her."
This was it. Neji wanted to shoot himself, right there, right then. It was as if madness had devoured his entire genius mind and was spreading across his body like wildfire. This was the FIRST lie he had ever told in his entire life, spoken right in the face of possibly the most dangerous man in his world. That was it. He could carve his tombstone right there. Hyuuga Neji, nineteen years of age. Beloved son, cousin, and nephew…Cause of death…UTTER ANNIHILATION BY HIS GREAT AND POWERFUL UNCLE. Yes, sir, he was ready for it. The beautiful succession technique preformed right on himself. Brace yourself, Hyuuga… This should be an honour…
"Is this true?" Hiashi spoke, sounding more surprised than suspicious. The lie… had been BOUGHT?
"Hai."
This would be the perfect day pigs chose to fly, and cows chose to produce orange juice.
His uncle BELIEVED him? WHAT HAD THE WORLD COME TO?
Hiashi allowed time for his face to return to the normal shade of peach, before he cleared his throat in attempts to calm down. The elder Hyuuga placed his hands on his knees.
"And what is her name?"
This was a beautiful disaster waiting to happen.
Neji tried with all his might to ignore the gnarling feeling in his gut while he opened his mouth.
"Sakura. Haruno Sakura."
Surprisingly, the name flowed through his lips more smoothly than he had anticipated. It was a pretty name, really, and the Hyuuga noticed that it matched her very well. Simple beauty, he noted, like the cherry blossom itself.
Neji shook off the bizarre thoughts and forced himself to concentrate on the situation, which, he reminded himself, was not very lovely.
The younger Hyuuga slowly raised his white eyes to meet that of his uncle's.
"I apologize for the delay."
Hiashi stared his nephew down for a moment, and then headed for the sliding door.
"As long as you love her." He said roughly, tightening his belt around him.
"Hai, Hiashi-sama. Very much."
Neji could not believe how easily that slipped out of his mouth, and how he had just gotten away with his first handful of lies. How the heck was he going to pull this off?
"Good." His uncle responded. Before closing the door, he paused. "I look forward to meeting her."
As his presence drifted away from the room, Neji heard yet another distanced outburst.
"The ceremony will be set for two weeks. I expect to have an approved encounter with her by then."
With that, he vanished.
Neji sighed at the growing pain in his temples.
Haruno Sakura was going to KILL him.
Author's Note: Hello, my little duckies! How art thou? Hahah well, I have to admit, this IS my favourite chapter so far. This sort of gets the ball rolling. I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did, cuz OH MAN, DID I ENJOY THIS! Hahaha. Woo.
Neji, you little trouble-maker, you….
Ahh. Love him.
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