Apologises for any use of repeated words in this story. Also a big thank you to TheBigFour for the support and for telling me about Hinata's last name. I've changed now. (From Hyuga - Hyuuga)
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. I'm just using it's characters for this story.
After moving far away from the construction site that she could manage, Sakura, carrying the raven haired Hyuuga girl in her arms, found herself in a park. Normally at this time of night, the park would be full of couples going on a lovely night strolls, spending time each other. But at this moment of time, it was absolutely quiet.
Making sure that there really wasn't anyone around, Sakura made her way to a vacant bench and carefully, laid Hinata on the smooth wooden object. With the her now on the bench, the first thing the pinkette had to do was to get the demon's blade out of Hinata and treat the injury. She had no idea how much blood her classmate had lost, so time was really of the essence.
Before the pink haired girl could take out the blade, she had to remove an obstacle first. The girl's clothing. "I'm sorry Hyuuga," Sakura apologised sincerely and then summoned her scythe. With a quick swipe from the sharp blade, Sakura had sliced the ravenette's sleeveless v-neck vest and school shirt down the middle, around the blade, cutting it in half and exposing Hinata's bra and skin to the cool air.
"Ha...runo...san..." Hinata spoke weakly, looking at Sakura with half lidded eyes.
"Try not to speak," the pinkette told her. She could tell how fragile the other girl was at the moment and speaking looked like it took a lot of energy to use. "You're going to need all the strength you have for when I take this blade out." The raven haired girl nodded slowly in agreement and then after began to smile. When Sakura caught sight of the girl's smile, she looked at her strangely. Seriously, the girl smiling, even during this time, baffled her to no end. "Why are you smiling?" she decided to ask her.
Hinata looked at her with gentle eyes. "That's because... I'm happy," she replied, taking a breath every now and again. "This is... the first time that... we've spoken properly... to one another."
Sakura looked in white, pupiless pools, that were still filled with warmth, for a while longer before she turned her gaze away. "You're a very weird girl," Sakura said. Hinata smiled and giggled at the comment, but the giggling got cut off as the raventte started to cough out a bit of blood.
Sakura looked back at her with a wide eye. Damn it! she cursed in her thoughts. There wasn't much time. The pink haired girl grabbed the blade, gripping it firmly and ignoring that the blade's sharp metal bit into her hand. "Are you ready, Hyuuga?" she asked the ravenette. "This is going to hurt, but you'll have to bear with it."
Hinata, again, nodded her head slowly, giving consent and with that, she started to count back from three. When she got to zero, she slowly, and trying her best to make it as painless as possible (even Sakura thought that was a stupid think to hope for), pulled the blade out with her demonic strength.
Hinata's eyes closed tightly as she felt the blade slowly move from within her and she bit her lower lip, trying her best to stop herself from screaming from the agonising pain that she was in.
After a few seconds, or what felt like an eternity for both girls, Sakura had successfully removed the blade from Hinata's abdomen. The girl herself began to start panting strongly, sweat slowly starting to pour down her face. It was over on Hinata's part but the pinkette was far from done. Unravelling the white gauze on her left arm, Sakura started (and struggled) to wrap it around the girl's stomach, knotting the points where the blade had entered and exited and somehow, she managed to wrap it around her, stopping the bleeding momentarily.
But even though she had stopped it, buying herself a few hours at most, the half demon girl knew that she had to get the ravenette somewhere safe for more treatment. Sakura then moved on to Hinata's hands. She wondered if they had been cut when the raven haired girl held the blade to stop it from killing the pinkette. They were, but thankfully the wounds weren't deep as she thought, which was good.
Sakura then proceeded to unravel gauze from her eye, keeping her demonic one closed. She then tore the white material in half and wrapped them around both of the girl's hands. The pink haired girl let out a sigh when she had finished, decided it was best to plan out her next move. But as she did, she heard a quiet voice calling, "Haruno-san..." and she turned her gaze to the gentle eyes that where looking up at her. "Thank you," she said, smiling another genuine smile towards the pink haired demon.
Sakura was shocked to see the girl could still be smiling brightly, even after all that she's been through, and she couldn't help asking the girl, "Why?" she asked. She really couldn't understand it. "Why are you thanking me? Don't you understand that I'm the one that did this to you!?"
Hinata was a little surprised at Sakura's outburst but she remained silent as she hadn't finished talking yet. "I'm the reason you're hurt," she continued. It was dark out but Hinata could see the water that had started to gather in the pinkette's eyes. "This is the reason why I'm alone. Why I give everyone who wants to get close to me the cold shoulder. I don't want what happened in the past to happen again. I wouldn't be able to bear it."
The pink haired girl looked up at the night sky full of stars. She watched them as they innocently sparkled, not having a care in the world. "Do you want to know why I fight demons?" She asked the other girl. Hinata was silent, but Sakura took that as her cure to keep going. "It's because I'm hoping that one of them will eventually kill me, and end it all." The girl lowered her head, a mocking smile on her lips. "But so far no luck."
The pinkette then turned her emerald green eye back to Hinata. Now that she was letting everything out, there was something Sakura wanted to know. Something she had to know. "There's something else that I don't understand," she said. Hinata just layed there on the bench, looked at with gentle eyes of white. "Why is a pure hearted and innocent girl like you, so interested in becoming friends with someone like me? A monster,a demon and..." she looked her now exposed demonic arm, "... an ugly excuse of a girl."
Having said and asked what she wanted, the pinkette continued to look at her arm in disgust. She lost count on how many times she just wanted to rip it off of her body. But every time she tried, she couldn't it. She could imagine the pain that would come from it. Ironic really. That she wanted to die,yet she was too afraid to get rid of her arm because it would hurt.
Lost in her thoughts, Sakura didn't realize a hand had reached out and wrapped it's fingers around the pinkette's demonic arm. She knew who the arm belonged to and looked toward the bench, seeing Hinata with a sad smile on her face.
"You're wrong Haruno-san," she told the pinkette. The ravenette wondered why the girl only saw the bad side of herself. "You may be half demon, but all I see is a cute girl trying to live a normal life. So please-" the white eyed girl could feel her eyes start to water, "-don't say that you want to die. It makes me sad to hear it."
True to her word, a few tear drops had started to run down her cheeks and when Sakura saw them, her chest suddenly went tight. The sight of seeing the girl cry, this girl cry, with a small smile still on her face, made the pink haired half demon a loss for words.
All of a sudden, Hinata began to go into a coughing fit. Sakura quickly knelt down next to the ravenette who, after her coughing fit past, started to breathe a lot heavier. When she got a closer look, Sakura didn't even need to ask what was wrong. Despite it being night time, the pinkette could clearly see that Hinata's cheeks had become a feverish red and more beads of sweat had started to pour down her face. It was most likely the stab wound that had caused the fever, and it was only going to get worse if Sakura didn't do something. And quick.
Damn! she cursed once more. She could only think of one place to take her. I'd best hurry up before- but the girl's thoughts were interrupted when she heard a voice behind her. A voice filled with bloodlust and venom, but most of all anger. Sakura's emrald green eye widened when the she heard what the voice said to her.
"I found you..."
Feeling the hot breath on her neck, the pinkette turned her head around, fast. All she got was a quick glance of the thing standing there that she didn't want to see or not as fast as she liked to, before a reddish-pink hand gripped her throat and lifted her up with ease. Sakura grabbed the arm that was holding her up with both hands and glared at the horned demon who was smiling, baring her teeth.
"Now that wasn't very nice," the demon spoke smiling, yet her pupiless eyes was showing a very different emotion. She was really pissed off.
Sakura noticed how the demons strength had increased in just short time. No. It wasn't that the demon increased her strength, she had been holding back her true power. The demon woman had been playing with the pinkette the entire time during their fight and now that she was extremely angry, she wasn't holding back any more. Shit! she cursed inwardly again. There was no way of ever winning the fight in the first place!
"My, my," the demon spoke, looking past the dangling half demon and seeing Hinata laying on the bench. From where she was standing, it looked like the ravenette's breathing was slightly ragged and her cheeks were tinged red, sweat forming on her head. "She doesn't look well does she?"
"I won't... let you... touch her..." Sakura squeezed out. She needed to get oxygen into her lungs and soon.
The demon looked back at the pink haired girl, the crooked smile never leaving the woman's face. "Tough talk for someone dangling in the air," the woman said, slowly tightening her grip around the girl's throat. Now both the girl's eyes were closed tightly from the lack of oxygen, and her wind pipe being crushed in the process. The demon was enjoying every second of it. "Now then," she began again. "Why don't you go lie down for a bit?" The horned demon then brought Sakura closer, and whispered in her ear. "Once I take care of Hinata-chan, I'll come back for you."
When the sound of Hinata's name reached Sakura's ears, the pinkette opened her emerald coloured eye widely and she was brought even closer to the demon before she was thrown, sailing through the air and smashed into the park's playground equipment, leaving a dust cloud from where she landed.
As the dust cloud settled, all the demon could see was the pinkette stuck under the debris of the fallen playground equipment. Now then the demon said in her thoughts, turning her attention to the raven haired girl laying on the bench. The girl's cheeks had become even more red and her breathing grew heavier. It looked like her fever was getting worse. "Poor girl," the demon spoke out loud this time. She walked up toward the bench and the sick girl opened her eyes weakly. It looked like it took a lot out of her to do such a simple thing. "Don't worry, Hinata-chan. You won't have to suffer long," the demon chuckled.
Sakura slowly started to open her eye. Her vision was a little fuzzy, and she could feel something heavy weighing down upon her. After a few seconds, however, her eye that held the emerald green orb flew open, realizing the situation she was in.
Looking behind her, she saw what was weighing her down. Parts of, what looked like playground equipment, were crushing her lower half, but luckily she had still had the feeling in her legs. Finally she looked up, and what was in front of her widened her eye in fear. The demon had it's arm wrapped round Hinata's throat, and was now dangling in the air just like Sakura was only moments ago.
No! the pinkette screamed in her thoughts. The girl turned her body around the best she could and tried, with all the strength she had left, to push the debris of the equipment off of her. Come on! Come on! she shouted in her mind, but it would only budge a little bit and Sakura eventually stopped, panting heavily from her actions. And that was when she heard the chuckle and looked back to where Hinata was. She gasped, paled and her eye widened some more. The demon woman had started to lick the ravenette's face, muttering something in her ear and a blade came out of her free wrist.
Sakura just closed her and lowered her head. It... was over now. She couldn't do it. She couldn't protect someone, who thought Sakura important, again! The pinkette punched the ground out of frustration. Damn it! she screamed in her mind, and then punched the ground again, Damn it! and again Damn it! and again Damn it! Sakura could feel her eyes starting to tear up from her helplessness. Why... she wondered, Why can't I do anything! She slammed her fist down one more time. Why!
"It's because you're weak..."
Sakura's emerald eye opened when she heard a familiar voice, which sounded slightly underworldly and sinister, and looked up. At this point, Sakura had forgotten how many times she had been shocked or surprised tonight. Everything had stopped. Time seemed to have stood still, as the demon had her bladed wrist cocked back, ready to deliver the final blow against Hinata.
"What's... going on..."
"What does it look like idiot, hehehe..."
The pink haired demon looked around her surroundings, trying to find the familiar voice that was speaking. When she faced forward again she noticed a pool of darkness, similair to what the demon came through with, before her and like before, a figure came from within it. The figure was mist and shadow at first, but it soon began to take shape. In the form of a girl.
If what was happening now wasn't strange enough, what Sakura saw was even creepier and the pinkette couldn't help but gasp. Standing in front of her, with a grin on their face, was... herself.
The girl was virtually identical to Sakura in everyway. The same pink hair. The same physique. The same demonic arm. She was even wearing the black kimono with the pink cherry blossom petals that the pinkette would wear when she went out to hunt demons. But there was one difference between the two Sakuras. Their eyes. The identical girl's sclera, the white of the eyes, were black and her pupils were demonic eyes that were similair to the pinkette's left one. The other girl chuckled under breath.
"What? You don't know me?" the other Sakura asked. The pink haired girl looked at her doppelganger with a furrowed brow and when theother Sakura saw that, she started to laugh maniacally. "You really are an idiot! I've been with you ever since you were born!"
"What are you talking about?" Sakura asked, getting slightly impatient. But the other girl continued like Sakura never asked the question.
"Well it doesn't matter at the moment," she then turned her head and looked at the frozen pair behind her. "You know this is a bit of deja vu," she chuckled a little after that and then turned her attention back at the girl under the debris. "Only this time you fought back, and even doing that you couldn't save one simple girl!" The demonic eyed Sakura started to maniacally once again.
Sakura looked back at the ground as her other self laughed. She hated to admit it, but she was right. The demon woman's strength and power out matched hers and if she carried on fighting, she would be killed. The pinkette balled her hands into fists. She felt utterly powerless. And she was so lost in thought that she didn't noticed the other Sakura had stopped laughing.
"Do you want power?" Sakura looked up at her double. She thought that she had misheard what was said. The other girl grinned even more when she saw the look of disbelief on the pinkette's face. "You heard. Do you want power to destroy that demon? To crush her?"
Sakura did hear right then. This thing, whatever it was, was offering her something that she desperately needed the most at the moment. But the pink haired girl had to wonder. Can I trust it? The other Sakura snorted as if she knew what the original was thinking.
"It doesn't matter to me whether you trust me or not," the girl said. "But once I leave, you won't have much time before the girl dies." Sakura's eye widened in realization. "So if you want to use my power, all you have to do is one thing." The demonic girl crouched down so she was level with pink haired girl and whispered in her ear. "Call out my name..."
Sakura gasped inwardly and looked at her other self with worry. "Your name?" she said questionably. "But... what is your name!?" But the girl just chuckled at Sakura's outburst as she stood up, and then the pool of darkness that she had come through appeared beneath her feet. "W-Wait!" Sakura cried out.
"That's up to you to find out, hehehe..." and that was the last thing she said as she laughed maniacally again and sunk into the ground,disappearing from the pinkette's sight.
True to the her other self's word, as she left, everthing slowly started to move forward again. Sakura stared at where her doppelganger left from and was at a loss for words on what to do. How could she know what that girl's name was when she didn't have the slightest clue of where to start?
"Ha...aruno...san..." Sakura, surprised she could hear a quiet voice, looked up again, her emerald green meeting gentle orbs of white. "Thank... you..." Hinata said, closing her eyes and giving her a smile and that made Sakura's heart ache when she saw it.
The smile the ravenette was showing wasn't a smile that the pinkette would normally see the girl with, which was joyful and full of life. Which met her eyes. No, this smile was far from it. It was forced, trying to tell her that everything would be all right and just run for it. Damn it! Sakura cursed, more to herself than anyone else. She wondered why it hurt her so much to see the ravenette like this.
No. She knew why it hurt. If Sakura was completely honest, when Hinata first started talking to her and tried to be friendly with her, she thought it was annoying at first. But as the ravnette kept doing it more and more, she realized that the girl was genuinely caring and concerned with the pinkette. It reminded her so much about her precious friend back in the past and then remembered how she died due to Sakura's cowardliness.
No more... Sakura thought determinedly. She refused to let what happened then happen now. She absolutely refused it!
"Do you want power?" The pink haired girl remembered the words her double had said to her: if she wanted power. That was exactly what she needed. "Do you want power to destroy that demon? To crush her?" She wanted, no, needed power to protect the ravenette from this and any other demon that would dare harm her. "So if you want to use my power, all you have to do is one thing." She will, definitely, bring back the cheerful smile on her raven haired classmate's face, and make sure it stays. She will protect that smile and the girl. "Call out my name..."
With that thought, Sakura finally opened her eye that held her demonic orb and it began to glow. She suddenly started to feel power flowing through her. Power that she had never felt before. And she called out a name. A name she didn't know, yet it escaped her lips so easily, as her determination, to protect the one girl that cared about her, grew sky high. Because the girl named Hyuuga Hinata had melted the ice that had surrounded Sakura's heart and crawled her way into it.
"Izanami..."