SAKUR:A
Chapter 4: Shadowed
.
.
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Sakura was… part of the enemy.
.
I…
I just didn't know what to say.
I...really...was lost for words.
Not only a soldier. But a spy as well.
I didn't get much out of Itachi when he wasn't willing to speak further. He turned away and walked off, leaving me behind without a word more.
Haruno Sakura.
Who were you actually?
I asked myself.
Looking at my hands, I started to doubt.
How many lives did I claim before?
I didn't.
The innocent?
I did NOT!
So why do I feel that my hands were stained even when they were spotlessly clean.
Was I a traitor to begin with?
And that I threatened the peace of my country?
I wouldn't…
I swear I would not do such a thing!
Sakura...did she?
If she did…
What would Sosuke think of me?
And Itachi?
And...Sasuke?
Or maybe.
I would harm them one day.
No...
With these hands.
Stop...
Their blood.
Stop it...
On these hands...
STOP IT!
*breathes heavily*
I suddenly felt the tension building in my system. Before I knew it, my temperature gauge began to rise, I felt unstable.
Wasn't I perfect as Sasuke said before I was released out of the laboratory? My stress indicator was fluctuating, the camera began to flicker.
Why do I felt so fragile?
Now there were beeping sounds in the back of my head; something's not right.
*Beep beep*
I need to calm down.
Calm…breathe…
*Beep beep* Beep beep*
Temperature rising: 45%
Crap! What have I triggered?
I started to feel the heat. What if I shut down a few systems.
Error.
Shut down failed.
Temperature rising: 62%
*Beep*Beep* Beep*Beep* Beep*Beep*
I began to panic, not knowing what to do. My systems went haywire. My vision began to blur.
"Itachi…help…," my voice failed me, disallowing me to call for assistance the least.
And the only thing that happened next;
Temperature rising: 74%
Initiating emergency shut down…
Disabling motion systems.
Turn on: low mode.
THUD!
I fell to the ground.
Still conscious, I saw Itachi ran over in panic despite my vision was less and monochromatic.
"Sakura! What's wrong, Sakura!? Can you hear me!?" shaking me a bit.
I hear you, Itachi. Just a little, I still could. Unfortunately, my vocal systems got shut down, I couldn't tell you that I'm fine.
With no choice, Itachi forced himself to carry me. I'm heavy for sure as he took a lot of effort to piggyback me then began running. He almost headed for the hospital but immediately remembered that I wasn't human. Silly, Itachi.
"Sakura. Sakura. Please be alright," I could hear his worried murmur between his pants as he ran. "If you're gone again. I don't know how to face the kids."
Itachi…the gentle Itachi...
He raced across the streets like it was an emergency. It was another kind of bumpy ride as I slumped motionlessly on his back and the world was uncoloured with only mixes of the black and the white.
Funny to say, I quite enjoy this while the Uchiha was already panicking.
Don't worry, I'll be fine. Sasuke knows how to fix this mess.
That's what I believed even when I was a little worried too. Speechless, motionless; I just had to wait until we get back to the penthouse.
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.
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Sky Suite, B-27
Itachi was having it tough with the keys.
It was hard for him to unlock the door while carrying a lump of steel: me, on his back. I felt him shaking from exhaustion as he was sweating bullets from running the mile while I was useless and needy.
I was actually built to help not be helped...
Anyhow, something and somewhere just went haywire on my first day out. It wasn't cool but...it happened.
I heard the keys fell to the floor and a curse from Itachi.
"Out of all times! Sweaty hands!"
He tried to to reach for it but I was impeding him from going down further to reach it or else we both would fall. Without any luck, he decided to set me down but before he did, we heard the door unlock with a quiet click.
And he door opened.
"Uncle Itachi, why must you always be so clum—"
Sosuke? Wait.
He looked at lot like Sosuke; the signature green eyes and black hair, so identical. However, older…
Ah, I know…
Souma.
My elder son.
The brothers were too physically similar that as a mother I tend to be confused most of the time. Except that now Souma was a lot taller than Sosuke. His short cropped hair made his maturity stood out more. During the times when they were much younger with similar heights, I had the trouble identifying them.
This year he should be sixteen.
Both my babies were growing up so fast while I was 'away'...
I could see him being dumbfounded at the sight of me. His lips were apart, eyes widen as he stood at the doorway where we ignored him as we passed through.
Itachi carefully laid me on the couch and left my side to try calling Sasuke which he failed along the way. While Souma slowly approached by me.
Stared at me.
His green eyes were darting everywhere as he scanned all of me.
He was so stunned that he did nothing but stare and look.
Until it came; a frown sewn its way along his eyebrows. The next thing, he dashed off and returned with a kitchen knife in hand.
"A fake… You FAKE! You're not mommy! Strip off that face now!" pointed the knife at me.
Souma…
The hatred in his eyes.
The agony in his tears.
The pain in his voice.
Told me one thing: He was disgusted.
He would not acknowledge me as his mother. Sakura shall be the only one: who slept under the soil, returned to Mother Nature. That IS his mother.
Not me.
.
Not me.
.
"What are you doing, Souma! Are you crazy!?" Itachi grabbed Souma's arm, trying to unhand the boy from the blade.
"Let go, Uncle! That impostor! I'll rip it apart!" the adolescent struggled to get close to me, Itachi obstructed him.
"Calm down, Souma! It's not like what it seems!"
"What's not what!? That irresponsible father did not care for us and made this...this piece of shit!" Souma yelled. "What's more, it has mommy's face! MOMMY'S!"
Itachi felt the pain from the thunders of the boy's cry.
"Rip it off! RIP THAT FACE OFF!" Souma screamed to the top of his lungs.
Please don't be this way Souma. I heard your cries. Your displeasure, your sorrow.
If I could move right now,
I would return your mother's identity.
Since my existence has caused so much unhappiness. Even when being alive has given me a lot of memories. I wouldn't want to hurt all of you…
The sight of their struggle, aches my insides. My heart?
And the more when Itachi started bleeding from the cut he got from a wrong move. Souma froze from the overwhelming guilt. He just stood there, almost tearing up.
Just like Sosuke. He's far more gentler. A bigger crybaby. Soft-hearted. An opposite of his external features.
For him to raise a threat, his insides must have been shattered, submitted to coldness. He was scared.
Too scared.
"ENOUGH!"
A man's voice thundered in the room.
He had terrible hair and temper, not forgetting that worn out white lab coat that was...no longer white? Appeared.
A splitting image of Itachi and similarly to Souma and Sosuke. That was the none other, Uchiha Sasuke. The Head scientist and founder of Uchiha-Intel. More importantly, the man responsible for all of the country's robotics and national defense system including Konoha's 'Great Shell'.
That was a brief introduction of my creator.
Angrily, paced towards our direction, where all the commotion was and came to Souma.
SLAP!
Sasuke! How could you…!
I watched, I didn't miss the moment when Sasuke land his hand against my son's cheek. So hard that Souma collapsed to the floor and the knife dropped with a metal clang.
Sasuke.
That's our child. Your child. How could you bring yourself to hurt him…?
It pained me.
All this was my fault.
MY FAULT!
The young boy held his cheek as he picked himself up, eyed the man whom he called father.
"You dare come back...You dare show your face to us after so long!" Souma was brave to be disrespectful.
That boy; was a copy of his father when Sasuke was young and rebellious. Don't, Souma…
Sasuke frowned,
"Shut up."
Don't, Sasuke…
"Is that the first thing you've got to say when you've come home after all this while!?"
Don't, Souma...don't…
"Have you ever thought of coming home!? Were you so scared of coming home!?"
Please Souma...that's still your father…
"Mommy…sniff...WHY THE HELL DID YOU REPLACE MOMMY!?"
SLAP!
All this...I've caused the Uchiha family to break apart.
I felt helpless. Meaningless. Useless.
To watch two men that I loved so dearly fight before me; because one spoke truth and one hated himself. All because of me. Sakura...I'm sorry.
Souma ran.
Fled out of the room without another word.
I was glad that the quarrel stopped. But not the unfortunate end. The atmosphere was less tensed as the three of us stayed silent.
Sasuke glared Itachi. His temper was as bad as before. It was understandable, frustrated to see an unstable robot. He glanced over to me once then turned back to his brother,
"What the hell did you say to her, Itachi!?" grabbed Itachi by the collar, growling.
The injured Uchiha brushed his brother off him, didn't explained much and left to aid his wound. I turned curious; why was Sasuke concerned of Itachi mentioning about the past, about Sakura?
Not to mention that Itachi stayed silent, as if he was previously warned.
Why was it that I wasn't allowed to know Sakura further? The restricted information was proof of Sasuke's contingency.
What was it?
Since he doesn't seem to get words out of Itachi, Sasuke left their conversation alone. He came to face me, stared at my fallen mechanism then lowered himself by my side.
"Looks like you weren't ready after all. Sadly, you have no choice. The show must go on since we are running out of time…," he whispered with a saddened expression.
What do you mean, Sasuke…
He sighed.
"We're going back to the lab. I'll shut you down for a while."
That was the last before he took away my consciousness.
Hello from BlueApple27:-
It's so nice to be here and all.
First of all, I want to thank you for reading, thank you for the reviews, thank you for the beautiful comments, suggestions and it was so exciting to hear from all of you. (I will make individual replies to reviewers below, do check it out :D)
Secondly, I want to apologise for being slow on the updates. I will do my best to write when I had the chance and post it. And for the short chapters (long chaps takes time so I would do short to increase the frequency instead of holding it back for too long). Hope you guys enjoy them.
Conclusively, I hope you guys enjoyed yourselves. And I enjoyed myself too when writing. I think that publishing a story it's not just about writing the story itself but something you do for yourself and others. I hope to do a better job and improve. Love to hear your advices and comments.
Reading the reviews always inspires me and fires me up to write for the better.
I'm getting long winded now so I'll stop here. I'll see you in the next chapter. Bye and loves!
Reply to reviews:
Sasusakusara7: Thanks for the review dear & I'm glad to hear that you enjoyed the story. I hope the story would continue to keep your intrigues up. Hope to see you again, beautiful! ;)
Guest (review on Feb 21): Thank you for the review sweetie! The time I read your review I was excited myself. I love how readers like to participate with me on this journey of reading-and-writing thing. Nice guess and let's see how the story goes, shall we? Hehe.
Hope to see you again.
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