Watching the traffic and the people down below her, and as the sun was setting, Haruno Sakura was sitting on the ledge on one of the tallest buildings in Konohagakure deep in thought, her school uniform swaying in the warm breeze. She was thinking about a lot of things. One of them being what had happened on the school's rooftop with her raven haired classmate, Hyuga Hinata. In truth, Sakura knew that the Hyuga girl's intentions were pure and innocent. The girl only wanted to become her friend, and what she said on the roof, on her part, was her trying to help Sakura out.
Why did I do that to her? the pinkette thought to herself. Sakura could still remember holding her classmate's collar and starting to squeeze the life out of her, almost killing the raven haired girl. She even remembered the part about her threatening to kill her before she left the roof. Why did the one, emerald eyed girl do allthose things? Sakura then shook her head. No. I know exactly why. For the pinkette, the reason was clear as day. Hyuga Hinata, the kind and aloof raven haired girl, reminded her so much of another girl. A girl who knew Sakura's secret as a demon. A girl who accepted her completely.
Yuki-chan...
Yamanaka Yukiko. If Sakura closed her eyes, she could see the girl's face clearly. Shoulder length brown hair, beautiful and gentle, blue coloured eyes the same colour as the summer sky, and her small smile which had always made Sakura feel warm inside. She missed her greatly.
The pinkette quickly shook her head again. Stop it Sakura! she chastised herself. That was all in the past. And what happened then could never be redone... no matter how much Sakura wished it. The pink haired girl decided to clear her mind of all thoughts, and she let out a sigh afterwards.
"My, my. What's with the sigh?"
Sakura's one eye widened as she heard a voice behind her, and quickly turned her head around to look. There, in the middle of the rooftop she was on, was a pool of darkness that the pinkette recognised, and from within it, a figure started to emerge. Sakura narrowed her eye as she knew who the figure was. The demon woman, that had attacked her and Hinata the other night, was standing before her, in her human form once more and a smile forming on her lips.
The pinkette wondered though. Why didn't she sense the demon's arrival? She would normally be able to sense a demons presence from a mile away, thanks to training her instincts. But somehow, this demon had eluded that.
The demon woman examined the little demon's expression and smiled even more. "I'm sorry," the demon woman apologised mockingly. "Did I surprise you?"
Sakura glared at the demon as she stood up, never braking eye contact. She then hopped off the ledge she was perched on and moved closer to the demon, now standing only a few feet away from each other. "Have you come to get your revenge on me?"
"Isn't that obvious?" she said, her smile never leaving her face. "Not only did you get in the way of my prey, but you also killed my companion."
Sakura smirked at her comment. "That's interesting. I didn't know demons showed compassion for one another."
"Don't misunderstand me, my dear. That demon I brought was nothing to me. There are many more to use in the demon realm," she said proudly, but then the demonic woman frowned, almost looked she was pouting. "But do you know how long it takes to train them up to my standards?"
Sakura just wanted to laugh. The demons hadn't changed one bit and she knew that they would never change. The pinkette closed her eye and cleared her mind from all thoughts, focusing on the target at hand. When her mind was relaxed, the pink haired girl's dark blue tinted scythe materialized in her left hand from black flames. Gripping the weapon, her eye opened, and twirled the sharp tipped weapon over her head, swinging it to her side and was ready to fight.
"Impatient aren't we?" the demon woman spoke, the smirk returning to her face. "But that's fine too."
After those words, the woman removed her suit's jacket, leaving her with only her white buttoned down shirt and skirt, and tossed it away. She then began to transform, her skin turning reddish-pink, a horn on the right side of her forehead. Her bangs covering half of her face and her eyes becoming pupiless red. "Now then," the demon began. "Shall we begin round two?" She used her index finger to motion the pink haired girl to come at her.
Having enough of the woman's confidence, Sakura leapt toward the demon, closing the distance between them, at inhuman speed, and swung her scythe, hoping to end the fight with one strike. But as the cold, silver metal was about to slice her opponent, the demonic woman smiled and at the last possible second, she suddenly disappeared from the pinkette's line of sight, her scythe slicing nothing but air.
Where did she-!?
"Are you looking for me?"
Sakura's emerald eye widened in surprise as the reddish-pink demon reappeared next to the pink haired girl's side. The demon smiled, as one of her bladed wrists swung down toward the now open pinkette. Just as the blade touched Sakura's skin, she somehow managed to use the polearm of the scythe to block the incoming strike. But thanks to the demon's new found strength, the pink haired girl was pushed backwards, sliding a few feet away from her enemy.
Managing to regain her balance, Sakura could feel her arms shaking. Just from that one strike, the pinkette knew that this wasn't the same demon she had faced before. Her speed, and especially her strength, were proof of that, and Sakura couldn't help herself being a little frustrated. The girl narrowed her eye and turned her body to face her opponent. Things weren't looking good. It's barely been a few seconds since they had started to fight and already there's a huge gap between their power and strength.
Where did all this power come from all of a sudden? The pinkette just shook her head. She could think about it later.
The pink haired girl took on the offensive once more and lunged at the demon. She swung her scythe at the demon's side but she easily parried it with her other bladed wrist. Not wasting time, Sakura, while in the deadlock that was created, tried to punch the reddish-pink demon with her free hand, hoping her demonic strength would give her some distance.
But the demon grasped the approaching fist with her hand, and started to pull her forwards. The demon woman then cocked her head back and brought it down, hard and fast, head butting the pink haired girl's face. She wasn't finished however. As the other girl was falling backwards from the blow, the demon gripped Sakura's pink locks and pulled her back towards her, kneeing her in the pit of the stomach when she did.
The emerald eyed girl coughed up some blood from the impact, the demon releasing her hold on the girl's hair. Sakura staggered backwards and went down on one knee, clutching her stomach. Now feeling nauseous, the young demon girl looked up and glared at the older demon as best as she could, but the woman begun to laugh. "What's wrong?" she asked knowingly. "Is that all you've got? Don't tell you've gotten weak in one night?"
Ignoring the pain, Sakura got up shakingly, using her scythe as support. She somehow managed to regain some of her composure, and took her fighting stance once more.
"Oh, are you going to keep fighting?" she asked Sakura, sounding very amused.
The pinkette was starting to get annoyed with the demon's mocking tone and thought it was time to shut her up, permanently. With a burst of speed, Sakura got to the demon in a second and swung her scythe in a diagonal slash, trying to cut the demon in half. The demon, however, just smiled and swayed to the side, dodging the attack easily. "Not yet!" Sakura shouted as she saw her attack miss it's target. She twisted her body and swung her scythe in a horizontal arc, but instead of the demon's flesh, her scythe's blade met the woman's own.
After a second, they both jumped away from one another, and when they landed, in unison, the pair of demons charged at one another, their speeds almost matching. As their weapons clashed once more, they both disappeared from sight. The only thing filling the now silent rooftop was the sound of metal against metal, and spark flashing here and there, on different parts of the roof.
A few seconds pass as the pair of demons fought with lightning speed, and after one final blow, with both of their weapons, Sakura and the demon both jumped away from each other. When they landed, the pinkette began to breathe heavily on the spot, while the demon in front of her looked like she hadn't even broken a sweat.
She smiled at the now tired pink haired girl. "What? Done already?" She asked her,again, in a mocking tone.
Sakura glared at the demon. She was now sick and tired of the demon's gloating and at last, she really had enough of it. "Shut up!" The pinkette screamed and charged at the demon recklessly. She attacked the demon's side with a diagonal slash, but like every attack she dealt, it was easily blocked. With all her remaining strength, Sakura pushed in the deadlock that had been formed, hoping she would win. But the demon gave her a knowing smirk.
The battle had been decided.
She side-stepped and the pink haired girl lost her balance, starting to fall forwards. Her emerald green eye widened, not expecting the sudden action and the demon took the opportunity laid out before her. As the girl was falling forward, the reddish-pink kicked, again, her in the pit of her stomach, the girl's eyes closing from the sheer pain. The demonic woman then went behind Sakura, clasped both her hands together and, like a sledgehammer, swung down hard onto the younger demon's head, causing the girl to hit the rooftop, hard.
The last attack was that strong however, it caused Sakura to bounce from the ground and back into the air. Not missing a beat, the demon woman twisted her body and kicked the girl, with the heel of her foot, and watched as the pinkette flew towards the end of the building, coming to a sliding stop at the roof's edge.
Sakura felt extremely nauseous. When she opened her eye and tried her best to sit up, it felt like the world was spinning in front of her eye. It was twisting and turning so much that she wanted to vomit there and then. Finally managing to sit up, pain started to assault her body. Her body was aching from the beating that she had just taken, and it was crying out, telling her to stop. But she couldn't stop, not yet, so she paid it no mind.
When her eye sight started to come in to focus, she saw the demon approach her, a twisted smile planted on her face. Come on! Stand up! she screamed in her thoughts, trying to push her body into moving. I need to stand up. I have to stand up and keep fighting!
But, as much as she tried, all the pinkette could manage was going on her hands and knees. By the time she got into that position, the demon woman had reached her and was now by her side. Sakura looked up, her emerald green eye met pupiless red and she glared as best as she could at the demon. But said demon just smirked it off and bent down. She reached out, grasping the pinkette's hair and pulled her up, lifting her off her feet. Sakura was now left dangling in the air.
The pink haired girl's eye closed tightly as she bore a pained expression on her face. She could hear the chuckle in the woman's throat, finding her pained amusing. "That's right," she said. "I like that face."
Sakura opened her eye into a squint, looking at the demon, before she saw something in the corner of her eye. Looking down, she saw the demon's blade rotating around her left clavicle area. After a few seconds rotating (teasing in the demon's case) the demon woman's hand stopped, as did the blade, and then slowly, she started to push, forcing the blade through Sakura's flesh.
Sakura's emerald green eye widened as she started to feel severe pain. She screamed as the blade went in deeper and deeper into her body, and soon enough, the blade went through, it sharp metal tip poking out of the other end. Hot crimson started to ooze out from the wound that was created, and it had stained the pinkette's school shirt, v-neck sleeveless jumper and the demon's blade with the colour red. Sakura's scythe, which the pink haired girl miraculously held onto the entire time of her beating, fell out of her grasp and hit the floor, de-materializing into black flames and disappearing.
"Does it hurt?" the demon asked knowingly, her lips curving into a wicked smile. "You know, I can make this pain go away. You just have to be my little pet. What do you say?" She then cocked her head to one side. "You have such a nice body, I hate to go and ruin it."
Trying to withstand the agonizing pain that she was feeling right now, Sakura looked into the demon's pupiless eyes and glared daggers at her. "Go... to... hell..." she said slowly, each word coming out with a painful breath.
The demon sighed after the pinkette's reply. "Oh well," she said, and smiled once more. "Have a nice trip."
The instant those words left the woman's lips, she released her hold of the pink haired girl's hair, and with her now free hand, she punched the girl in the chest, causing the young demon girl to fly backwards from the rooftop. She smashed through a couple of buildings, before stopping at a construction site a few blocks apart from the building they were on.
Hinata was walking home on the familiar concrete path, during the rush hour period of Konohagakure. Again, like the night that she was attacked, the sun had set rather quickly and the night had graced the skies above.
Her thoughts were occupied by the events of the rooftop at school. The ravenette began to wonder if what she has been trying to do the entire time has only annoyed her pink haired classmate and wasn't helping one bit. No that's not right Hinata thought to herself. She knew what she was doing was only annoying her, what happened on the roof of the school was proof of that.
The ravenette's fingertips pressed lightly on her neck. She remembered how she had almost died from being strangled by her own collar, the seriousness and anger in Sakura's emerald green eye and most of all, the promise she had made to her.
"Hyuga Hinata," she called out to the girl sitting down. "If you say anything like that to me again, then know this. I'll kill you." And with those parting words, Sakura continued on, disappearing through the door and leaving Hinata behind.
When Hinata got back to her classroom after that, Tenten had come to her in a heartbeat, asking if she was all right and what had happened. The ravanette, however, didn't want her best friend to worry, so she put on a forced smile and told her that everything was fine. But even she knew that Tenten wouldn't buy that one bit. They were close friends after all. But thankfully, Tenten chose to go along with the bluff and she never asked her about it for the rest of the day.
What should I do? she asked in her thoughts. She stopped in her tracks and looked up, the stars in the night sky were shining brightly. Maybe... I should leave her alone. Maybe she should just give up. Take Sakura's advice and forget everything that had happened and move on with her life.
While lost in thought, Hinata felt something soft going round her legs. Looking down to see what it was, the ravenette saw a cat going through and around her legs, trying to get her attention. "Hey there little guy," Hinata spoke to the cat. She crouched down and began to stroke the small animal, the cat purring in response from the attention it was getting. Taking a closer look at the cat now, Hinata recognised it. It was the same cat that Sakura had rescued from the tree before, and thanks to that thought, Hinata then remembered.
She remembered the pinkette's gentle look and smile that could melt someone's heart. And her laugh. Hinata swore that there couldn't be anybody else with a cute laugh like that. Even thinking about it made her heart beat twice as fast.
I'm such an idiot Hinata chastised herself. She recalled why she approached the pink haired girl in the first place. She wanted to help her. The ravenette wanted to take away all the sadness, all the pain, the anger and every other hurtful emotion she had seen in the pinkette's one eye and replace with all the goodness that Hinata could give.
Thinking about it now, the raven haired girl found new determination. Stronger than the one she had before. Even if Sakura were to hate her, Hinata was willing to risk it, if she could smile and laugh some more. With that in mind, Hinata smiled and continued to stroke the cat, much to the creatures liking.
After a few seconds, however, a huge crashing sound could suddenly be heard, which caused the cat to run away. When she looked up, Hinata saw a huge dust covered cloud at a construction site, near to the ravenette's location. Passer-bys that were walking a long the street had stopped in their tracks, and looked at the scene, wondering aloud what was going on.
Is that... Hinata had a gut feeling at what or in her case who it was. And so, while everyone around her were just standing in place gaping at it, the ravenette quickly took off in the direction of the construction site, a certain pink haired girl coming into her mind as she did.