Prompt: Magic
Rating: M
Title: Bubble, Bubble
Summary: When she was told that she possessed magical powers, Sakura Haruno imagined wands, broom, Hogwarts, not this…
note: American Horror Story Coven… need… more!
"Alright," the busty woman begins as she sets a large stack of cards on the table. "What you see before you is a deck of tarot cards that date back to the beginning of our kind-"
"Tsunade," the boy interrupts, "is it really necessary to give me the entire introduction for a second time."
"It's tradition, Sasuke," she says sympathetically, after all, it is his second time facing the cards in under a year.
"Like I care about tradition," he says as his eyes narrow in anger, "Just let me get back to my room."
Tsunade rises from her chair, her honey-colored eyes burning with rage.
"You listen here, Uchiha! Don't you dare think for one moment that you are the only one to have lost your Matched." As her voice rises, so does the height of the flames of the candles behind her. "You are by far not the only one to have a tragic past in this academy and if you forget that for even a moment, I will personally make sure you're stuck cleaning up after conjuring class for the rest of the time you remain here."
Sasuke's face stays passive, his own thoughts buzzing with the events of the past couple weeks.
Before Tsunade can explode over his lack of resentment, the only door in the room cracks open and a man with long, dark hair pokes his head in.
"Lady Tsunade there is an woman on the phone about her daughter being a potential candidate for the academy. As Hokage, you should go speak with her; I'll observe young Sasuke for you."
Tsunade takes a deep inhale before shooting one last glance at the stoic teenager. "Thank you, Orochimaru."
She rises from her seat and switches places with the snake-like professor.
The moment the door closes behind the departed woman, Orochimaru leans towards Sasuke, a wicked grin on his face.
"Now, Sasuke, I assume you know what to do," he gestures towards the deck of cards, "Concentrate."
It takes only a moment for the deck of cards to burst from the neat stack and flutter around the room. As the boy disappears from view.
One second, she had been staring at the ice cream carton wishing for the solid treat to soften to a scoop-able state faster. The next moment though, the container erupted in flames and the smell of burnt lactose filled the kitchen.
Now, she finds herself on a train flipping through the packet that her mother had given her.
"It runs in the family and we always hoped that it would skip your generation like it did mine," her mother had said once the flames had been snuffed out and the kitchen was no longer in danger. "Konoha's Academy for the Magically Gifted is where many others of the Haruno family attended. They'll teach you what this all means and how to control it."
So, here she is flipping through the embellished card paper, reading the necessary information about her new "school".
The flyer is filled with pictures of teenagers looking studious, with cheesy smiles on their faces as they do the simplest tasks. Frankly, it looks like any other expensive prep school flyer.
Well, except for the course selection. It lists classes that are perfectly normal: math, English, cooking, but then a few that are peculiar looking like conjuring, partner magic, basic shape shifting.
Shape-shifting? Are you serious? I feel like I'm being thrown into a loony bin.
When the train lurches to a halt, she quickly stuffs the packet into her red backpack and retrieves the simple black duffle bag from the overhead container.
After maneuvering through the narrow walkways, she steps off the train, the light load making it easy to get down the narrow steps leading to the platform.
Barely two steps on the cement, a woman with cropped brown hair rushes up to her, taking the duffle bag.
"You must be Sakura Haruno," she says before making a motion with her hands that sends the duffle bag into oblivion. The woman ignores Sakura's panicked facial expression as the girl looks around to make sure nobody else on the platform noticed the unnatural disappearance of the bag.
Still in a stake of shock, the pinkette nods her head slowly.
"My name's Shizune and I'm the handler responsible for the girls at KA," she tells her before extending a hand to shake.
Sakura reaches forward and gently grabs the woman's palm, only to find herself standing in a large entry hall the moment their skin touches.
Emerald eyes widen as her brain tries to figure out what just happened. One second she was on the train platform and now she's standing in the center of a chalk circle.
Her head whips around and she finds a masked man with spikey silver hair, now resting his hands on Shizune's shoulders.
"Hello," he greets, the outline of a small smile forming beneath his mask, "I'm Kakashi Hatake, Shizune's Match."
"Is that a fancy word for boyfriend?" Sakura asks, her head still reeling from the transportation spell.
"Of course not," Shizune says as she wiggles out of Kakashi's grasp, a blush appearing on her cheeks. "You'll learn all about it in a little bit."
She clears her throat to ease some of her embarrassment and continues speaking. "Your bag is up in your room, along with your new roommate who will take you to Lady Tsunade's office. Just go up these stairs and it's the first door to the right."
Hesitantly, Sakura moves away from the (not really) couple and begins climbing the grand staircase that rests in the very center of the foyer. She forces herself to take deep breaths with each step, trying to convince herself that this is all a strange dream.
Taking the route that Shizune instructed, Sakura finds herself facing a door. Now, there is nothing spectacular about the door, in fact, it is rather plain, painted white, average height, smooth and engraving free. It's what lies behind the door that intimidates the pink-haired girl.
Roommate.
That word gives her the chills.
A witch as a roommate. What if she turns me into a frog or something? Well, I guess I'm a witch too…
A sense of nausea washes over her as the reality settles in.
Witch, magic, broomsticks…
Mustering up her courage, Sakura turns the knob and pushes the door open, only to find how normal it all really is.
There's two beds leaned up against opposite walls with desks sitting adjacent to them, a large window in the center of the room blowing the wispy curtains around, a pretty girl with blonde hair and blue eyes reclining on one of the beds, and a pale-skinned boy with dark hair sitting next to her.
"Uh," Sakura begins lamely, "I'm Sakura Haruno. I guess I'm your new roommate."
"Oh right!" the girl says before practically leaping off the bed. "I'm Ino Yamanaka and this," she gestures to the boy, "is Sai."
"Uh, hi" Sakura extends her hand towards the girl in greeting, but baby blue eyes simply stare at it.
"I recommend not offering your hand quite so readily around here," Ino tells her. "Some of the more advanced students, myself included, can do all sorts of things when you offer them skin-to-skin contact. So, unless you're willing to let others see all your deepest darkest secrets, I recommend investing in some gloves."
This causes the pinkette to jerk her hand back and begin subconsciously rubbing it with the other one.
"Anywho," Ino continues "Sai and I our Matches so you'll probably be seeing a lot of him around. Speaking of which, I'm suppose to get you to Tsunade."
Ino begins pushing Sakura right back out the door she had just come through as a soft chuckle from Sai follows them out.
"Wait, so are you two dating?" Sakura begins as Ino continues navigating them through the large hallways.
"Oh heavens no," the blonde says with a laugh. "Sai doesn't play for our team if you catch my drift. I'm actually dating this other guy named Shikamaru, but he's matched up with that bitch Temari," her blue eyes narrow in anger. "She rigged those cards, frizzy haired freak."
Sakura doesn't exactly follow Ino's words, so she remains silent. Instead, she finds herself admiring the artwork that lines the hallways. Painted portraits of different regal looking couples along with pictures that almost look like scenes from a prop heavy ballet. Though, for a boarding school, she finds it odd that there are no other students or teachers walking through the corridors. It's almost like she and Ino are completely alone.
"So, anyways, this is Tsunade's office, she's the current Hokage which basically means that she's like the Witch Queen," she moves closer and whispers in Sakura's ear, "though she's more like the Bitch Queen because of her temper."
The double doors that are, once again, plain white and rather dull swing open by themselves and Ino quickly shuts her mouth.
"Thank you for that introduction, Ino," a tense voice says from within causing the blonde-haired girl to pale slightly.
A very busty woman emerges from the doors and rests her honey-colored eyes on Sakura.
"So, Miss Haruno, shall we go conduct the test of the cards?"
"The what?" Sakura can't help herself from asking.
"You'll see," Tsunade answers back cryptically. "Ino, take her to the room, I'll be along shortly."
The girls walk down more empty corridors and by now Sakura's anticipation is growing. Ino babbles away about something or another, but Sakura has tuned her out.
Suddenly, the sound of footsteps echoes down the corridor as a boy with dark spikey hair turns the corner and begins walking towards them. Almost as if in slow motion their eyes lock as he passes by them. His are dark, endless, dead.
The second his footsteps are no longer audible, Ino leans forward to whisper in Sakura's ear. "Sasuke Uchiha. All the girls are secretly in love with him."
Remembering his appearance, Sakura can certainly see why. He is beautiful with his aristocratic features and alabaster skin, more than that, he carries an aura of mystery.
"Everybody used to want him as their Match, until the accident."
"What accident?" Sakura asks, unease washing over her.
"Two weeks ago he and his partner, Karin, were doing some sort of spell during the night. The next morning, Karin was dead and Sasuke was passed out on the floor, the remnants of the ritual were still scattered around the room.
"The teachers wouldn't tell us what spell they were trying to do, or what went wrong, and Sasuke won't speak to anybody about it," she lets out a light scoff, "like that's anything new. Whatever they were doing, it was something dark," Ino continues, "I saw some of the mediums they had used and one was a large python, it's stomach was split all the way down the middle and blood was all over the floor." She shudders in emphasis.
"Anyways, that's the reason we aren't allowed to room with our Matches anymore," she sounds a bit regretful. "Sai was such a good roommate too."
"Wait," Sakura interrupts Ino's musings. "What exactly are Matches?"
Ino lets out a little laugh, "Oh right, you're new." She laughs some more causing Sakura to become frustrated with the fact that nobody has actually answered that question yet. "Don't worry, Tsunade will explain everything." Ino opens yet another door and gestures inside. "Go in and take a seat," with a quick wink and a puff of smoke, Ino disappears leaving Sakura by herself.
"What you see before you is a deck of tarot cards that date back to the beginning of our kind." Tsunade says as she straightens the deck of black-backed cards. "Magic is not as it is portrayed in the media. It is a matter of balance. While one is able to conduct simple spells, a pair is needed to prevent any unsavory consequences."
Tsunade begins fiddling with one of the necklaces around her neck. "Each witch or warlock has a Match, a perfect complement of the opposite sex that will balance them out. Magic conducted solo is harmful to the user and much more difficult to control, but a Match allows you to adopt their power as well and make things run much more smoothly.
"These cards will show us who your destined Match is."
Sakura eyes the cards that sit on a table all the way across the room. They must be a pretty big deal if they're going to show her who she's "destined" to be with. "So what do you want me to do exactly?" she asks at Tsunade's expectant look.
"Pick a card."
Sakura begins to rise from the chair, but Tsunade lets out a "tut tut", and waggles her finger. "Pick a card from there."
"How am I suppose to do that?" Sakura exclaims. She has only found out about magic a little over a day ago, and didn't Tsunade just say something about performing magic alone is dangerous?
"Concentrate on the cards," the blonde woman says cryptically.
Rolling her eyes at the thought that this all seems to come out of a bad movie, Sakura stares down the deck of cards. She stares and stares and stares.
Right when she feels as if nothing would happen and Ashton Kutcher would pop out saying that she had been "Punk'd", the deck starts to shake.
Her eyes widen as the cards seemingly explode, sending them floating through the air.
Startled green eyes look up only to see flashes of scenery moving before her. She can only make out a few images,
A man sitting up in bed, crying, as nine swords spout from his back,
Women chained to the throne of winged, horned man,
A snake twisting around the body of a youth,
Gold coins falling from the sky.
The images begin to slow and Sakura suddenly finds herself standing in darkness. It is as if she is in a field where the grass has been dyed black and the sky is drained of all starlight. The large moon hangs upon the horizon, the silhouette of a cloaked humanoid figure standing in front of it.
It turns to her as wicked looking scythe appears out of the air. Hands belonging to a skeleton reach from the cloak and grasp the weapon. The blade shines in the moon light, almost taunting her with its silver smile.
The figure's head turns toward her and Sakura finds herself staring at the pearl coloring of bone that has been picked clean. The skull, though it has no eyes, stares straight at her, beckoning her forwards.
All logic screams at her to run away, to hide from the very bringer of death. However, her body moves forward, following an unspoken promise of something she cannot put a name on.
She reaches a hand out to place it in the ossein-like palm of the reaper –
Then she is gasping, crying out as a fire seems to consume the fingertips that were only a moment ago touching the smooth coolness of bone.
"This is troubling indeed," the white-haired man says after Tsunade finishes describing the situation to him.
"I think the answer is obvious," Orochimaru says calmly.
"What's so obvious about this situation?" Tsunade yells as she slams her fists on the table.
"The same happened with Sasuke's last test, minus the crying of course," the snake-like man reminds her. "He seemed rather accepting at being pulled into Death."
"This type of thing has never happened before, and now twice in one week?" Tsunade blows a stray piece of hair out of her face as she begins storming around the room.
"A student being pulled into the cards during their Match Test is unheard of, let alone the Death card."
"Thank you for stating the obvious Jiraiya, you've been a big help," the only woman in the room mutters sarcastically as she continues pacing.
"Match them," Jiraiya offers causing Tsunade to stop pacing, only to whip her head around in his direction fast enough to get whiplash.
"Are you out of your goddamn mind?" she exclaims. "To put two with such unheard of amounts of power together when He is beginning to make an appearance again. Are you already forgetting what happened a couple of weeks ago?"
"A student died, how could I forget that?" Jiraiya retorts. "But you can't deny the fact that this means they are indeed Matches of the highest caliber.
"And if they are and He really does decide to show up again, we will need them on our side," he finishes.
"And what side is that, Jiraiya." Orochimaru cuts in, "You are a 'wandering sage' as you so like to call yourself. What happens if He emerges while you're off chasing after women?"
"That brings me to my next point," Jiraiya glances at Tsunade who has begin drinking sake straight from the bottle. "I'm returning to the KA for good and will resume my previous status as professor."
The Hokage chokes a bit on her alcohol at Jiraiya's words.
"As professor, I vote that we allow Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno to carry out their Matched bond and study as a pair."
Sakura wakes up to the feeling of somebody touching her hand, the very one that is currently wrapped in bandages due to her little 'incident' with Death.
Her eyes flutter open only to be met with midnight pools that remind her of the world she had been sucked into.
She sits up and jumps back until she hits the headboard of the bed. Confused, she looks around to find herself in an infirmary of sorts. As per the usual theme of the academy , everything is white, the curtains dividing her from the rest of the room, the floor tiles polished until they shined, and the sheets on her hospital bed, which she finds surprisingly soft.
However, one thing does not look like the rest, the possessor of the midnight eyes clad in dark jeans and an even darker T-shirt, hair reminiscent of raven feathers completing the contrast.
"Sasuke Uchiha?" she asks the boy who silently moves towards her and takes her hand once again.
She watches at a loss for words as he begins unwrapping the gauze from around her fingers.
His own hands are clad in black leather gloves reminding her of Ino's earlier warning in getting herself a pair.
When he removes the dressings from her hands, the black charred skin of her fingertips is revealed to her for the first time. She lets out a sound of anguish, causing Sasuke to look up a her for a moment.
His gaze locks with hers as he removes the glove on his own hand. She gasps at what she sees.
The black char disfigures his pale skin as well, however it travels all the way to his wrist. He glances at her once more before pressing his scarred hand to her own.
She has an urge to jerk away as a strange cooling sensation washes over her heated skin, but Sasuke holds her in place muttering an almost silent "Watch."
It is an obvious order, and Sakura obeys eying their hands as the black scar fades until there are just silvery spider web-like lines in its place.
The moment the last of the black disappears from Sasuke's skin, he pulls away from her and slips his glove back on. Pulling a similar pair from his pocket and tossing them on Sakura's lap.
"Tsunade wanted me to give you these and to tell you to keep quiet about what happened," with that said, he pulls back the curtain and begins walking away.
"Wait!" she calls out causing him to turn around and stare at her as if he were bored, "I don't understand."
An unrecognizable emotion flashes through his eyes before he turns away once again.
"Join the club."
A/N: My knowledge of tarot cards is very limited so sorry if there are any screw-ups with that.
