Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, it belongs to Masashi Kishimoto. I only own the plot.
What Cyberwing had been doing:
I got a new keyboard—it's black, it's quiet, it's cheap and it's from Logitech XD.
I signed up at Gaia…(my username is Yuya(underscroll)Chan(underscroll)Chan)
I typed this up with 2 hours…sorry if the grammar sucks and things are completely random…
There's no room for fairytales in real life.
There will not be a prince charming riding on a white horse.
There will not be a prince to sweep me away from my pain.
There will be no such thing as soul mates.
There will be no such thing as happily ever after.
I'm already twenty, too old to be gullible.
For I know that nobody is perfect in every way.
For I know that running away is not a solution to anything.
For I know that you don't have to be in love to date someone.
For I know you simply can't be happy forever (unless you are delirious).
Even so—
Even though I knew--
And I knew it very well…
At the end of the day,
I wanted nothing more than to close my eyes
And dreamed away…
For things are much simpler that way.
The Sakura Chronicle-Chapter 1
Sakura coughed to spit the bitter water out of her mouth as she slowly climbed out of the small pond. Wiping water out of her eyes, she brushed her wet bangs out of the way as well (they were jabbing her eyes). Once she stood up, she surveyed her surroundings.
She was currently in a cave. There weren't much to be noted as it was a typical one.
There were tapering spikes of mineral formed at the ceiling due to years of water dripping. Some of them were ancient enough to touch the ground, forming walls in between the large cavern. However, it was large, as she walked, the sound of her steps echoed loudly.
She would've been completely blind if it weren't for the dimming light of torches at a distance.
She didn't know where she was neither did she cared. All she cared about right now was to get herself the hell out of here.
She didn't even want to think how it was possible for her to fall through the 'upper ground' (or the ceiling of the cave) and ended up where she was. What was worse was that she didn't know why Cyberwing would send her here in the first place.
Looking at the opposite side of the cave, she couldn't see anything but pitch black as the luminosity of the torches failed to reach the area (torches could only light up so much of an area), her only choice was to head toward the torch light and hoped that she wouldn't stumble upon a cult or something (she didn't like the thought of weird people using her as a sacrifice for some weird ritual like those heroines in some adventure movies she watched—ie King Kong).
When she turned her head around…
She screamed.
No, it wasn't because she saw Itachi's oh-so-handsome-and-sexy face, but rather, she saw…
"You!" Sakura exclaimed as she pointed at the person in front of her. "What the hell are you?"
In any normal circumstances, one would consider that Cyberwing had a typo. After all, in a grammatical sense, one should've referred a person as 'who' instead of 'what'. However, if one was seeing what Sakura was seeing, then maybe…maybe one would.
The man standing in front of her…
She knows him…
He had long platinum blond hair that could barely reach his shoulder. The front of his hair was tied up into a small bundle by a red band on both sides. What stood out the most to Sakura were his aqua green eyes. Not because he had beautiful emerald orbs like her (A/N: in fact, nobody else in the Naruto universe has 'emerald orbs'. She doesn't have green eyes, she had emerald eyes. It is like the way to describe her eyes are personally patented by Sakura herself. A similar analogy would be Sasuke's eyes. No, they are not black, they are onyx. Another example would be Neji, he has cloudy eyes; not pearl eyes for it is a word that has feminine qualities. Hinata can have pearl eyes, but not him, not Neji, because he's the 'Hyuuga Prodigy'…)
To make the Author Note short, he has green eyes…and ordinary GREEN only.
Especially when he had no eyebrows to go along with his eyes (he reminded Sakura so very much of Gaara…but Gaara at least had a perfect excuse. After all, he had a demon sealed within him…it ought to count for something…like the fact that if anybody had ever brought up the fact how odd he looked, they will have their lives squeezed out of them literally). The man also had two large dots imprinted above his eyes and deep crimson red mascaras outlining the end of his eyes.
As for what he was wearing…it was much simple to describe. He only had on a standard one-layered robe (A/N: think of the thing he was wearing when he was fighting Lee).
Kimimaru…
He was quite famous in Konoha, especially after Lee and Gaara had gone back to give the Hokage their reports on the battle. Everyone heard of how if he didn't died suddenly (which later, after autopsy, did people discover he died because of his prolonged genetic illness), Gaara and Lee would've taken his place. Lee…well people had never really thought that he would make it this far anyway. It was only those who knew him personally would have faith in him.
After all, he had only taijutsu and taijutsu only. He was (sorry Lee, she had to say this) defenceless against ninjutsu or genjutsu. If he weren't faster or stronger in comparison to his enemies…he would have no asset to fight with.
Well, there were times when strategies were considered to be quite important too. Take Hatake Kakashi for example, his reputation precedes him. It was claimed that he had copied over one thousand jutsus. However, during the time Sakura had seen him fight, most of the time, he defeated the strongest enemies with simple Chunnin jutsus. Therefore, one might not need high ranking jutsus to win every time, but it was clear to everyone that Lee couldn't be the sharpest kurai in the whole Konoha (a man that could be persuaded to wear the green jumpsuit, which he wore every day, and was willing to worship the ground tha his 'dear Gai-sensai' had walked made that fact cleared enough).
For Gaara…who was the son of the Kazekage…and the living vessel of Shukaku to agree to this fact. This said something. After all, Gaara might be emotionally unstable, but he had a demon (Shukaku) and his sand as his arsenal.
Kimimaru just wasn't someone who one could forget completely.
Several points from his profile came flashing into Sakura's mind immediately.
If one had thought that he had lived a sad (and possibly pathetic) life before…well, he had an eternity to prove the audience that…they are probably right. (The author simply couldn't decide which was worse):
The fact that he had been Orochimaru's little lapdog.
Or…
The fact that his dead body had became a tourist attraction.
That was right, a tourist attraction.
Explain how this had happened would take some time…
Naruto Manga and Anime fans, please recall his last scene. Remember how his ribs (or bone spikes…correct her if she was wrong) had covered a vast area on the field. His body was also elevated in high up in the air in preparation to attack Gaara and Lee (who happened to be floating in a sand cloud—that scene always reminded her of Dragonball Z but once again, she could be wrong).
Well, when Konoha shinobis headed out to the 'disastrous area', wanting to clean up the body, they realized...
For one thing (besides the fact that Kimimaru was sure one messed up dude—to do things to this extent) was that they couldn't get rid of the 'body'.
Kimimaru's bones, even after his death was still harder than titanium (another comparison would be Gundamium…except Gundams doesn't exist in Naruto's world). It wasn't as if it was indestructible but the money, time, and labour it will take to get rid of his body made it not worth it. Therefore, Kimimaru's body was left standing there in the large opened field.
Somehow, in some strange twist of event, one of the local tourism firms had decided that since there wasn't much new to see in Konoha, that field would make a good place to take ignorant foreign tourists there. Because of it, many people came to see it.
Since Konoha was so close to the field, most of those tourists were lead into the city to stay. During that time, it was almost impossible for them to not spend at all.
Not to mention that because it wasn't 'save' for tourists to travel outside of Konoha alone, shinobis would just have to accompany them. This allowed tourism firms to charge the tourists at a higher cost as security fees as well as to ensure local genins, who were fresh out of the Academy, many D,C-rank missions.
Also, since there were venturing carts near that area to sell local food, drinks, and souvenirs to the sightseers. They too also needed people to carry things around as well as to clean up, who would be more cheaper than genins (they were considered extremely efficient too in comparison to their price)?
Therefore, the economy of Konoha thrived despite the fact that most of the money had been used to rebuild Konoha and build Konoha's military defense.
However, having Kimimaru in Konoha also gave Tsunade-sama an good excuse to blast Orochimaru.
"Look at what big bad Orochimaru-bitch did to poor poor Kimimaru! He's not even human anymore! If we don't fight back, he might do his experiment on you, you, and YOU! Our honourable Uchiha was the best example, he would've never betrayed the village if it weren't for Orochimaru contaminating his mind. If we don't stop this psycho right now, he might go around different villages stealing prodigies. By then, it would be too late! We must defeat that son-of-a-bitch right now!"
Oh what a tragedy it will be if Orochimaru's presence was not to be scraped off the face of the earth? Just thinking about him brought fire to Sakura's eyes (she was burning in rage…HOW DARE HIM TAKE SASUKE AWAY! DIE!)
(Please ignore the fact that it was Kimimaru's bloodline ability to manipulate every bone in him. It WAS the after effect of the curse seal!)
'Cough'.
In summary, Kimimaru helped Konoha by:
-Genins's missions were secured in the long-run.
-Travel agencies were able to make big bucks as people from many places were pouring in (perhaps not as much they wanted to since Tsunade-sama had limited the number of foreigners that could enter Konoha at one time).
-Local restaurants, hotels, etc were able to make a living as foreigners spent money.
-Tsunade was able to bring Orochimaru onto the discussion table as people finally were willing to face the issue.
It was a silent knowledge to everyone in Konoha that although Kimimaru was working for Orochimaru, everyone thanked him for what he had done to Konoha after his death. In grateful for his deed, people was discussing whether they should build some sort of structure to surround him. Not that they wanted to have something to conceal Kimimaru from the outside just to make sure that everyone that goes in to see Kimimaru had 'paid for their admission fees. (No lechers will be allowed so to speak as it will be officially a 'criminal offence' when people entered the parameter without paying).
Sakura often had wondered if he would be rolling in his grave if he finds out. Well…guess she got her answer.
Anyway the most important part one should get out of Sakura's random BS was that Kimimaru was dead…
In other words…he shouldn't be in front of her at this place, in this particular moment.
He was dead…
He should be dead…
He should've stay dead…
Was he a ghost?
After a close examination, she found him indeed sort of transparent. Normally if she'd seen one, her inner Sakura would probably 'come out to play' (hell if her Inner Sakura could kick out Ino-pig, then exorcism shouldn't be a problem at all. Not that her normal self would've fainted dead away, allowing her other split personality to be released uncontrolled).
"What the heck are you doing here?" Sakura couldn't help but to ask.
"I'm helping Orochimaru-sama to spy on his enemies." The man who was a 'living' definition of the word 'undying loyalty' replied.
Sakura's face twitched as she asked, "you'd find a way to communicate with Orochimaru?"
Okay…this could be a problem. She'll have to alert Tsuande-sama about this…once she get herself out of this mess…
The platinum-haired man shook his head, deep in thought. "I will find a way. I will deliver the information to Orochimaru-sama."
Then Kimimaru lost that distant look and focused on her. "It had been a long time since someone could actually hear me…"
She could practically see words like 'I-will-not-abandon-him-even-in-death' and 'even-death-will-not-due-us-part' were written on his face.
Sakura didn't know whether she should get disturbed by his devotion to his 'Orochimaru-sama' or the way he was eyeing her at this very moment with a wistful look on his face.
As any rational people would do…
She sped away, heading in the direction of the light, hoping that she'll be able to get away from him.
Her day just couldn't get any worse.
Maybe she could get back to her normal life once she got out of her…
But normal was not something Cyberwing had in stall for her.
For when Sakura turned around to check if Kimimaru was following her or not, never once slowing her pace, she was surprised when she found herself colliding something hard.
Sakura was forced back several pace, wincing slightly at the throbbing pain in her shoulder.
Weird…she was positive that there was no wall in front of her the last time she'd checked…
She turned her head back front to see what she had hit.
Instead of seeing a 'wall' she had originally thought…
She saw Uchiha Itachi…
Oh shi--
At a distance, she thought she'd heard someone laughing perversely…
What will Sakura do now that she sees her objective face-to-face? The reverse question is how will Itachi react to the girl in front of him? What about Kimimaru? Will he only be in this chapter? So many questions! Lol…
Anyway, please click the bottom left button and review! It motivates me to write!