Author's Note: Yeah, I know, I should finish my other stories, but this idea came to me, and I just could not stop it.
Chapter 1: And All There Was...
She was beautiful, all babies are beautiful. Especially to their own parents. But this child was truly a marvel. There she had been, all rolled up in a soft pink blanket, three hours old. Already had a head full of black tangle, green eyes bright, and roses in her dimpled cheeks. Most of all she seemed to possess an understanding of the world around her from the moment she was born, like she understood everything that was being said and done and thought, 'okay, when do I get to have a say?'
It made it all the more a tragedy when you looked at her family. No father, just a fourteen-year-old mother, with a fiery spirit and pink hair who had everything ahead of her. No one knew who the father was, neither, it seemed, did the Mother. She was a Shinobi who had experienced a mission gone wrong, yet still kept the baby. That took courage.
Well, at least the girl had gotten reassurance that it was worth it when she saw the baby. She just stared in awe of this little baby girl, who looked back at her with a steady gaze like she was saying, "Are you ready for this?"
The girl seemed to answer with a name. "Artemis."
The answer seemed to satisfy the little girl, who rewarded her mother with a laugh of the purest love and innocence. And with that, the beautiful young mother cuddled her raven-haired angel that was named as a goddess, and all there was was beauty.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The nurse gathered the little girl from the basin, thinking once more about how appropriate her name was. This little girl was such a little angel, the nurse was surprised she did not have wings. But she knew this little girl would grow to be a Goddess. She knew it. She layed the child down on the table to give her a check up. Gently, the nurse removed her onesie to use the stethescope, when something caught her eye.
It looked odd, like birthmark, but a very strange one. Like three black Hershey kisses in a circle, points facing outwards. How odd. The nurse reached out a finger and touched it. Instantly, the child began to wail, the nurse removed her finger. The child stopped crying and gave her a look that plainly said, "don't do that again."
"Alright," said the nurse aloud. She shook herself, she was talking to a baby. She quickly gave the girl a checkup, avoiding the infant's eyes. She didn't know why, it was just a baby. Satisfied the girl was in good health, the nurse dressed the baby and carried her down to her mother's room.
"Artemis!" Came the happy cry of the girl's mother as the nurse enterred, carrying the little girl. She could not help but smile at how happy new mother's always were to see their baby.
"Here she is, Miss Haruno," the nurse said. She should tell her.
"We're already to nurse, but i want to show you one thing..." The nurse lifted back the little girl's clothing, showing the mark on her shoulder. "Make sure you don't touch that, it makes her cry."
Without warning, the mother burst into tears and started hugging her baby to her.
"Ma'am, stop! You'll-"
It was then the nurse noticed the little girl wasn't crying. But the mother was sobbing and wailing horribly, spilling her tears into her child's hair. "No, no," she sobbed, "no no no no no no no, oh please, no. Not my baby, not my baby. Not Artemis." The nurse moved to rub the woman's back before the Haruno girl started screaming.
"SASUKE! YOU BASTARD! HOW COULD YOU? I WILL GET YOU FOR THIS I SWEAR! I WILL GET YOU FOR WHAT YOU DID TO MY BABY! NO! NO!"
Terrified, the nurse wrenched the baby girl from the woman's arms, shocked the child still was not crying. "DOCTOR? DOCTOR? GET IN HERE NOW!"
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
14 years later:
Sakura looked out the window blissfully. It was a beautiful night, beautiful, but sinister. Dark blue clouds everywhere in the dark abyss, the moon beautiful and big. Artemis loved nights like these.
"Mommy, come look!"
Sakura called to her daughter from the other room. "Look at what?"
"Come and look!"
Sakura grudgingly got up and walked into her daughter's room. Artemis sat on her beloved windowseat, her little legs drawn up under her nightgown, looking out the open window.
Sakura rushed over. "Artemis, close the window! It looks like it's about to rain, and you can't get sick again!"
That's what Sakura called it when the curse seal took hold, Artemis's 'sickness.'
"I'm never really sick," the five year old protested impatiently, "Now look!"
Sakura humored her and glanced out the window. "Okay what?"
"No, Mommy REALLY look. Isn't it beautiful?" The little girl said, staring mystified into the night, like it was too much to take.
Sakua sighed, "It's about to rain."
"Yes," the little girl admitted, "But aren't they beautiful?"
Sakura loked again. She could see what Artemis meant. The way the clouds gracefully drifted across the sky, briefly shadowing the moon. The way the crescent moon stood out like a curved pearl, making it all the more striking.
"Yes, it is beautiful."
Artemis sighed happily. "And so honest."
Sakura lookd at her, "What do you mean?"
"Well, clouds are warnings of rain, and people see that as bad, but it's really good. Rain helps us. But people see it as bad because the don't really look at it. They just groan about the rain, forgetting how good rain is. So on top of that, they don't appreciate the clouds' beauty, and they miss out on something really good because they don't stop and think that maybe it's something really actually very good."
Sakura never forgot that night. How could a child of five see the world with so much beauty, yet with such depressing realism at the same time?
With Artemis, you never could tell if she was happy or sad. Sure, she was always cheery, but you also got the feeling she also felt an eternal nagging at her heart. And not just the curse seal.
The worst part was that Sakura knew what it was, and knew how to fix it. But she wouldn't, and she hated herself for it. How could she do this to her own daughter? She just couldn't bear to see the consequences of what she had to do affect the both of them. If Artemis knew, she'd hate Sakura for keeping it from her, and go out and seek it. The village would instantly link it with Artemis's 'sicknesses' and start treating her differently. And the pain it would bring Artemis to know.
Sakura went into her bedroom and opened the drawer in her night stand. She extracted the photo from the drawer and looked at the people in it. Her happy smile, one that was erased not too long before Artemis was born. Kakashi, looking so amused and proud, his hands on the boys' head. Naruto, looking so angry, but in a comical way. And finally...
Sasuke.
"Mommy, whose this with you, Naruto-Sensei, and Kakashi-sensei?" The seven year old's cry came from her bedroom.
"Hmm? Where?" Sakura asked peeking her head in the room. She looked at her daughter, and at the picture she was holding. In an instant, she has snatched it away.
"HEY!" Her daughter's cry came.
Sakura looked at the furious little girl and sat down on the bed. "Artemis, that was just an old friend of Mommy's."
"Whose that?"
"Just an old friend."
"Then why don't I see him like I see Naruto and Kakashi-Sensei? And why don't I know his name?" That little girl did not miss anything.
Sakura sighed. "He went away a long time ago and did some bad things. Mommy doesn't hear about him anymore. She tries to forget him."
"Then why do you keep that picture?" Artemis demanded.
Sakura sighed again. "So I will never be able too."
The little boy scowled at her from the picture. She could not believe that was the boy who broke her heart and fathered her child. That grumpy looking little boy, that cursed little boy. Oh, how the years have passed. How he must have changed. Probably has grown to be even more handsome, that is, if he was still alive. Sakura did not even know. She knew Orochimaru was dead, at least. The found that horrible snake's body twelve years ago. But no word of Sasuke, not even a hint. Had he died? Did Itachi kill him? Or did he accomplish his life's mission and slaughter his brother?
How close the answer was to her, and she did not even know it. Worse, it was even closer to her daughter. In fact, as Artemis pondered the same subject, staring into the beautiful night's sky. The answer called out below her.
"Hello there! Let me pass!"