Author's Note: I was listening to this song, by Loreena McKinnet, and then looked up the actual poem that went with it. It's by Alfred Noyes. The Highwayman is a poem by Alfred Noyes, and I thought it would make a lovely ItaSakuSasu story. So I took it and did some rewriting. Remember, this is a fan story, and I do not claim to have created the plotline. It's all Alfred Noyes's work. The original version is amazing, you should all read it.
The Avenger
Part One
I
The wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees,
The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas,
The road was a ribbon of moonlight, over the purple moor,
And the avenger came rushing-
rushing-rushing-
The avenger came rushing, up to the old inn-door.
II
He'd a headband on his forehead, a lack of cloth at his chin,
A shirt of the flimsy muslim, and breeches of dark cotton-thread;
They fitted with many a wrinkle: his boots were well above the ankle!
And he rushed with a jewelled twinkle,
His kunai handle a-twinkle,
His sword hilt a-twinkle, under the jewelled sky.
III
Over the canopy he raced and stepped in the dark inn-yard,
And he tapped with his hand on the shutters, but all was locked and dark;
He whispered a plead to the window, and who should be waiting there
But the landlord's green-eyed daughter,
Sakura, the landlord's daughter,
Plaiting a dark red love-knot into her long pink hair.
IV
And dark in the old inn-yard a stable-wicket creaked
Where Itachi the ostler listened; his face was white and peaked;
His eyes were hollows of madness, his hair like slick like hay,
But he loved the landlord's daughter,
The landlord's red-lipped daughter,
Sharp as an eagle he listened, and he heard the avenger say-
V
"One kiss, my cherry blossom, I'm after a prize to-night,
But I shall be back before the morning light;
Yet, if trouble should meet me, and slow me through the day,
Then look for me by moonlight,
Watch for me by moonlight,
I'll come to thee by moonlight, though hell should block the way."
VI
He rose upon a tree limb; he scarce could reach her hand,
But she loosened her hair in the casement! His face burnt firey red
As the pink cascade of perfume came tumbling over his breast;
And he kissed its waves in the moonlight,
(Oh, sweet pink waves in the moonlight!)
Then he shot off in the moonlight, and travelled away to the Leaf.
Part Two
I
He did not come in the dawning; he did not come by noon;
And in the tawny sunset, before the rise of the blood red moon,
When the road was a kunoichi's ribbon, looping the purple moor,
A red-cloud coat troop came walking-
walking-walking-
Akatsuki's men came walking, up to the old inn-door.
II
They said no word to the landlord, they drank his sake instead,
But they gagged his daughter and bound her to the foot of a narrow bed;
Two of them knelt at her casement, with giant swords at their side!
There was death at every window;
And hell at one dark window;
For Sakura could see, through the casement, the road that he would take.
III
They had tied her up to attention, with all their sniggering jests;
They bound a kunai beside her, with the tip beneath her breast!
"Now keep good watch!" and they kissed her.
She heard the dead man say-
Look for me by moonlight;
Watch for me by moonlight;
I'll come to thee by moonlight, though hell should block the way!
IV
She twisted her hands behind her; but all the knots held tight!
She writhed her hands till her fingers were wet with sweat and blood!
They stretched and reached in the darkness, and the minutes crawled by like
years,
Till, on the stroke of midnight,
Cold, on the stroke of midnight,
The tip of one finger touched it! The handle at least was hers!
V
The tip of one finger touched it; she strove no more for the rest!
Up, she stood up to attention, with the tip beneath her breast,
She would risked not their hearing;
For the road lay bare in the moonlight;
Dark and bare in the moonlight;
And the blood of her veins in the moonlight throbbed to her love's ceasement.
VI
Tlot-tlot; tlot-tlot! Had they heard it? The footsteps
ringing clear;
Tlot-tlot, tlot-tlot, in the distance? Were they deaf that they did
not hear?
Down the kunoichi ribbon of moonlight, over the brow of the hill,
The avenger came rushing,
Rushing, rushing!
The red cloud-coats looked to their priming! She stood up strait and still!
VII
Tlot-tlot, in the frosty silence! Tlot-tlot, in the echoing night
Nearer he came and nearer! Her face was like a star!
Her eyes grew wide for a moment; she drew one last deep breath,
Then her finger moved in the moonlight,
Her kunai sliced the moonlight,
Sliced her breast in the moonlight and warned him-with her death.
VIII
He turned; he sprinted to the Leaf; he did not know who stood
Bowed, with her head o'er the kunai, drenched with her own red blood!
Not till the dawn he heard it, his face grew grey to hear
How Sakura, the landlord's daughter,
The landlord's green-eyed daughter,
Had watched for her love by the moonlight, and died in the darkness there.
IX
Back, he sprung like a madman, shrieking a curse to the sky,
With the white road smoking behind him and his sword brandished high!
Blood-red were his eyes during the golden noon; wine-red was his cotton shirt,
When they stabbed him down in the treeline,
Down like a dog in the treeline,
And he lay in his blood in the treeline, with a lack of cloth at his throat.
Part 3
X
And still of a winter's night, they say, when the wind is in the trees,
When the moon is a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas,
When the road is a kunoichi ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor,
A avenger comes rushing-
Rushing-rushing-
A avenger comes rushing, up to the old inn-door.
XI
Over the cobbles he clatters and clangs in the dark inn-yard,
And he taps with his hand on the shutters, but all is locked and dark;
He whispers a plea to the window, and who should be waiting there
But the landlord's green-eyed daughter,
Sakura, the landlord's daughter,
Plaiting a dark red love-knot into her long pink hair.
Author's Notes: I hope you liked! Remember to read and review!
Love and hugs-
Crystal Renee