Chapter Four: "There's No Rest For a Kunoichi"
Sakura: "The best part of running away was that I didn't feel so broken anymore. My life was supposed to be a peaceful after story. I should have left the country!"
—Facing Inner Demons Isn't Just About Fighting Monsters "Not all families are happy, but I would rather those memories stay as sad beer stories to moan about to other sad drunks."
Naruto: Cheers to that! *Exposed as Sad Drunk #2*
Kei: I just wanted to feel powerful until you guys ruined everything. Cheers, life is unfair!
Sakura and Naruto: … Get the fuck out of here! *Puts Kei back into coma*
Itachi: *grocery shopping in Tokyo* *Reads off mom's shopping list* Well, well. I can't wait to get dinner with my happy and psychotic family~
Sakura and Naruto: I…I can't say anything bad. *Sniffle* Itachiiiii! Live strong! And happy! Forget about Konoha!
Author: Yo. Stop breaking the 4th wall.
Meanwhile, lurking in the dark of Tokyo, Sasuke glares: I still hate everyone.
Sakura: Oh no. Not again. *Holds face in hands* How is he the same?!
Naruto: Hey, at least I don't with sleep with him. You're just attracted to bad boys. Typical pink-headed —
Sakura: *Cracks knuckles* You dissing my hair?
Naruto: Oh no. I love your hair. *Shuts mouth and runs to another bar* Imma be bar hopping!
Author and Kei's Spirit in Limbo: Get back to the story!
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Sakura stepped through the doors of the care home with cold hands. It was a reaction to everytime she saw her mother. Her body felt heavy, her palms sweated and she felt a chill down her back like a bad omen that never went away. From as far back as she could remember, she felt hollow in her presence. It wasn't fear. That died when her hits stopped hurting as much. It was depression, but that wasn't all she felt. If she had to pick one way to describe how her mother made her felt…
She felt ill. Being near her mother made her feel sick. Whether that was from the years of hatred or the trauma from finding her father a husk on the floor. She was never close to either of them, but she liked to think her dad loved her at least a little bit since he still fed her.
Yeah. Visiting her mother was a fiasco. The only good thing about her childhood was that they fed her and took her out sometimes when they weren't having a bad day. Joy. Super fun. This was shy she wanted to leave her past behind, no matter how strong she wanted to be, her body remembered the emotions and her mind soon followed. She hated the fact that she still couldn't control herself completely. She still wasn't strong enough.
Sakura sighed as the receptionist greeted her and she put on her best fake smile. It took years to fix her face like this, but now it looked natural. "Hello," she said. "I'm here to see my mother. She's Keiko Haruno."
"Hello. Keiko, you said? Okay, please sign in while I look up her information. If you leave an ID…" The friendly receptionist typed as she talked with a professional smile.
"Of course." Sakura placed the ID on the counter and filled in the sheet on the couter before she looked around. It was still the same as she remembered when she dropped mother off. Clean, bare and smelled like a sterile hospital room with the odd tacky ornaments on the counter top. The room was way too bright. She wondered if other visitors felt the same she did when they came through here. The welcoming entrance just looked like a shallow friendly face that hid the troubling histories of its residents. But then she was biased.
"Thank you." The room echoed with the taps of the pale receptionist's thin fingers on the keyboard. Tap tap. "Room 113. It will be on your right miss….Sakura." She glanced at the ID and sign in before handing the card back. "Great. Your mother will be sure happy to see you." With an innocent smile, she gestured down the hall. "Let me know if you need anything." Then she went back to typing away.
Sakura nodded and started to walk down the hall. "Thank you." Once she left the reception area, her shoulders dropped as she walked. It wasn't far, but every step down that empty hall seemed to echo and the closer she got to the door, the narrower the hallway felt. She cleared her throat before clenching and opening her fists repeatedly to work out her stiff fingers. Unlike the oblivious receptionist who was speedily typing away happily, she felt like a walking statue heading towards hell. Her heart beat picked up as her hands slightly trembled. She couldn't control it no matter how many deep breaths she took. The memories were still too fresh.
Tch. I was hoping I had longer than one measly year before I had to face her again. She needed more time to forget before she could forgive. If she ever did. She used to say it all the time — I forgive — because she read forgiveness was the only release to true freedom, but she still remembered everything as fresh as it was yesterday…and she couldn't control her emotions yet.
It was a hot mess.
Exactly how was she supposed to convince her mother to reveal their possibly super secret clan knowledge without getting triggered or attacked? She was bad before, but now she lost her mind. Maybe she should just go back to Naruto and investigate his family first. Maybe his clan would have some cool memory retriever and —
She stopped her train of thought and scolded herself for her cowardice: This was chakra not magic from Hogwarts, Sakura. There was only one way to get her mother to tell her what she needs to know. But she hoped she didn't need to use it. In the worst case scenario, maybe she would use that secret. Maybe her mother would be nice this time? Or maybe after a year of no visits, she'd learn to value her only child?
Ha.
She shook her head and just tried to clear her mind before she found herself in front of room 113. The door was open, but she hid just out of sight and she could read the door number from the side. Just like that, she was here. Forget it, it was too late to turn back. With a grimace, she imagined Naruto's face and took one last deep breath. She closed her eyes.
In.
Out.
Sakura opened her eyes as she forced her clenched fists to relax. Then with great determination, she took her first step into the room.
"Hello, Mother." She bowed slightly. "It's been a while."
Looking back at her, brown eyes tinged with red widened. Her body was thin, her silver hair looked matted and her lips chewed on. Dressed in a simple white dress, she seemed pitiful in her bed, but as soon as she saw Sakura, that frail woman seemed to have aged 20 years shook violently as familiar madness swam in her bright eyes.
"Sakuuuuraaa!" She shrieked and Sakura had to cover her ears. "I'll tear your hair out!" Her coarse voice thundered as she reached out a trembling hand with the intent to grab. When she couldn't reach her, she yelled out profanities that didn't match with her mother's gentle elderly image.
With cold eyes, Sakura watched as her mother could barely move up from the bed let alone grab her. The worst case scenario happened — Tch. Without any other option, she had to grab her mother's attention. She had to reveal the secret if Naruto and her were to get any real leads. She didn't know about Naruto's history, but she knew her mother was involved with this world of chakra. It explained so much. But that woman would never cooperate peacefully. There was only thing that would get her mother to listen to her. She didn't want to resort to this, but now there was no choice. "Yes. I'm sure you miss having pink hair, Mother. But I'm here on business." She could already imagine the care-takers running here so she got straight to the point before she got kicked out.
With a deep breath, she asked, "Don't you want to know where father's treasure is?"
As soon as the words left her lips, the screaming stopped. In a 180, the crazy old woman expression disappeared and cold, calculating eyes emerged. The atmosphere turned frosty as the frail woman narrowed her eyes at her only child with a sneer, "Conniving little brat, so you aren't going to play stupid this time?"
Suddenly, a care-taker burst into the room and said with a worried face, "Mrs. Haruno?! I heard screaming. Are you alright?" She glanced between the calm mother and daughter in confusion.
"Yes, Rin. We're fine. I apologize, I've had an episode, but it's truly fine for now. If you could give us a moment, please? I need to talk to my daughter." She smiled. "I miss her so much."
"O-oh, alright. Let me know if you need anything."
"Please close the door on your way out. It's a private family matter."
"Yes. I'll check in on you later on, okay, Mrs. Haruno?"
"Thank you." The Haruno ladies watched as the door closed.
Sakura pulled her lip back. "So that's how you explain your outbursts. Episodes? Oh, the poor old woman."
"Shut up, brat." Her mother sneered. "Talk. Your father hid that treasure since the day we married. It was the only reason I married him as you know so I deserve to know the truth."
"I thought it was a one night stand. Your story changed a dozen times, but in all of them you initiated the one night stand."
"You wouldn't understand how important the treasure is. Now spit it out. I'm sure you need information from me or you would never return here."
Sakura gritted her teeth. There were so many things to ask on this rare occassion, but before anything else, she had to know. "There are a couple things, but first things first. I thought about it for a long time, but nothing added up. Then I realized something. You'd do anything for that stupid treasure and you almost got it. But you pretended to go crazy. Why?" That was the biggest mystery — not father's strange death, nor her mother's assumed madness. No. The mystery that haunted her was.."Why did you kill father?"
Her mother grinned as malice formed in her eyes and the frail, gentle elder's face morphed into that of an evil witch. "Fufu, so the little bitch caught on. Yes, I killed him, but that wasn't what made him into a husk. And you know why, don't you, little weak Sakura? That little treasure your father gave you must have reacted at some point. You saw it, I'm sure. You felt the energy your father poured in with his death. Don't lie to me. You have no idea how important that is to me."
Brown eyes turned red as her mother's smile widened. Then for the first time, Sakura could sense the chakra in her mother's body. "Oh? You recognize the change in energy? Fufu. It seems you have discovered chakra. Poor dear."
With her palm faced outward, her mother threw her hand towards her and black chakra burst out of her fingers, wrapping around Sakura's body like snakes and tightening around her. "Now, dear daughter of mine, where is your father's treasure?"
Sakura scoffed. "And that's my other requirement." She ignored the chakra binding her as she looked down on her mother. "Since you know about chakra, tell me. How did you learn about it and why did you never tell me about chakra and shinobi?" To raise the chances for the truth to come out, she added, "There are other shinobi after the treasure. If you don't tell me, they'll take it instead and there goes your precious treasure. Mother."
Green eyes flared against brown as the Harunos faced each other over the family secret.
Naruto may have worried about dragging her in, but Sakura was sucked into the world of shinobi from day one. She just never knew much about it. But she knew one thing — her family already killed for the power that shinobi had and the treasure was one of the most powerful skills. Her family was far from innocent and now she had to come back and face their blood stained legacy dripping evil. But how could she lie to her mother without getting caught and still get the info she needed?
If her mother ever knew where the treasure hid, she'd kill her in a second.
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In Fukuoka Hospital, a certain security guard laid in the morgue bed while two men stood at the bedside with a frown.
"…So Kei was found dead under the stairs. There were no fatal stab wounds. It seems to be a one hit…um. A strong punch. It was an instant death."
The taller one seethed, "Let me understand. Not only did the kyuubi manage to escape an entire town swarming with shinobi, but he also managed to take out the new recruit in line for management despite being starved and exhausted with little chakra left? Then that un-trained jinchuurki took down a fully trained shinobi in a matter of minutes when he could barely run away. Finally, he was smart enough to get rid of footage, strong enough to destroy the floor and cunning enough to frame drug dealers in an apartment he's never visited before."
The already chilly morgue seemed to go down ten degrees and the trembling companion started shaking violently. He bowed deeply and said, "Y-Yes, sir."
Without a word, the man struck the bowing man across the face and he fell to the ground. WHAM! "Dimwit. He had help. Go and investigate every shinobi on duty and resident of that apartment. Be discreet. The Kaguya finally get a jinchuuriki. A born jinchuuriki. A vessel born with a fox demon is rare. No demon has been seen in the public in ages." Heavy pressure came down and the fallen shinobi shook harder.
The man watched until tears leaked from the weaker man's eyes and he let up his chakra pressure. He licked his lips with pleasure as the subordinate cried. "Go."
"Yes, sir!" He scampered away in a heartbeat.
Looking back at the corpse, the man smiled. "Good for you. You're dead. I don't get to punish you for losing our prized demon."
Ohhh. How he wanted to 'play' with the demon container. How much torture could he take? He was getting excited thinking about.
"Naruto Uzumaki. The Kaguya Clan will never let you go. I vow on the name of our goddess."
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Meanwhile, an oblivious yet determined blonde man sat bored in the car. "Achoo!"
Since he had nothing to do, he thought about Kei and how he got knocked out in one punch. That man was a professional. Cocky, but better at chakra control than a lot of the patrollers unless that was planned. He couldn't even sense him!
Naruto reviewed how the battle went when he fought versus when Sakura fought the creepy guard. He recalled how the chakra burst just before Sakura punched him…but it disappeared completely as soon as Sakura landed her hit. With her monstrous strength, he didn't know how Kei survived.
…But did he really? If a shinobi lost chakra, did they still lived?
He remembered being exhausted out on the streets and how he almost ran out of that special energy called chakra. Every breath became slower, every muscle ached. He felt on the verge of death as he barely managed to hold off Kei for a brief moment.
He couldn't confirm it yet, but if he ran out of chakra then…he would have died. He had a strong feeling about that. So didn't that meant Kei also —
Suddenly a burst of strong chakra erupted from the carehome. It wasn't like Sakura's feel…it felt…sinister. He couldn't explain it, but the chakra sensations had different feelings to them. He needed to learn more!
He ran out of the car and tried to sense where the chakra came from. If it were an enemy shinobi, he couldn't just burst in the home and place the staff in danger. So he ran outside the building until he got closer to the source of the spike. He ran quickly and silently until he reached a window. Here!
Peering in from the corner, Naruto found Sakura captured by black strings of chakra with some evil old lady smiling at her. Was this her mother?! He was about to crash through the window when he caught Sakura's gaze. She frowned heavily and he stopped moving. His eyes darted between the trapped Sakura and the evil lady. He swore. That was right — they still needed info! But what if Sakura gets hurt? Shit!
What the hell could he do?!
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AUTHOR NOTE:
Anhyeong Haseyo!
Another chap! Hope you enjoyed this chap and please review :)
Felt a bit dark so venting in this chap lol Fr, lots of reflections to do in 2021.
On other hand, I have donuts. That's gotta count for something. And I have Youtube. Viva la 21rst century.
I hope everyone is safe and that things get better this year.
Ja mata ne,
WitchySkies
P.S. Manalorian resumes 2022 waaaah. At least neverland season 2 is supposed to come out.
P.S.S. I won't keep Sasuke exactly the same as he was, but he aint cheery naruto. The clan is alive but of course got issues and Itachi might have unconsciously grown since his last life. I know it's his charm to be loyal and have his code, but god damn it, live for yourself too! Dont give up on your future for the greater good! (I'm thinking like a Sasuke haha). I…I know I said this is SasuSaku, but god…Itachi….Ughhhhh….Fine I'll try to get cannon, but…my ItaSaku fangirl couple….what do I do? Stop. You already decided the couple. Don't be greedy…
*CHUGS MEAD* Can I pretend to be Itachi's GF — *Gets smacked by fandom* *Mead falls all over floor*
Fandom: It's bad enough it's not a SakuXIta this time. Don't get greedy author!
"Tch."