DISCLAIMER: I Don't Own Naruto

CHAPTER 1 - The Attack

Being an heiress was not a terrible thing, if you were 5 years old. You were supposed to never know what was 'successor' means. Was it a type of food? Or a place to visit, like a tourist spot? Maybe, it was a country's name? You will never trouble yourself with these kinds of things, being as carefree as possible. Like most parents, hers had hoped that, being in the world of glimmering jewels and upper-class social status; she would remained to be modest and not blinded by it, acting all high and mighty. They never pushed their daughter with complicated talks, or philosophical thingy, but still she had to have several private lessons here and there. And also, it was successful (parenting approach from Mebuki and Kizashi) because of her parents' attention and love. They would never forget to spend some family quality time with her. And finding some friends of her age among their connections, so that she won't feel alone, or letting her to play at the playground with commoners' kids around the neighborhood. Despite some rough start in the beginning for her, with help from certain people, she was able to find herself and stand on her own two feet. Yes, everything was perfect for her for five years.

Until a certain event occur.

All she remembered from what had happened was, she woke up on her bed after laying there for who-knows-how-long, with her mother crying her heart, feeling grateful that her daughter was finally came to her senses and her dad's face was looked like what adults called as paranoid, troubled, panicked, because of a single event, an 'accident' that almost caused her to lose her life. And since then, she was forcefully ripped away from her wing of freedom, caged in within her mansion compound. And to make it worse, her playmate was reduced to non-existent, either moved away or forgotten. Forgotten? Yes, you got it; she lost part of her memories. And her family tried their best to help her regained back what was lost, and it was successful to a certain extent. Luckily there were still some pictures of her with people, or being in some events. And the neighborhood kid also helped by being there, though it was more of unintentional method as she watched them from within her compound, playing together and ignoring her. She realized, they were never really close to her anyway, since in the beginning as per mentioned, she was having some rough start because of her little inferiority, which was start with harsh teases because of her physical appearance, which later evolved into bullying and tormenting.

At first, she didn't feel like losing anything too much. The only thing she didn't have was her true friends. So she doesn't bother much, since her mother told her the truth of their whereabouts, and she accepted it willingly. But after being restricted for more than ten years, it started to become unbearable. She began to miss her lost freedom. She hoped that her parents will come to their senses one day, that she can't be confined like this, forever. And those years of 'reclusiveness' also took a toll on her, personality-wise and the way she expressed herself, and by saying expressing, it was meant nothing. She became stoic, poker face, cold, in a simple word, 'expressionless' was her only expression. She began to never voiced out her wants, her desired ever since her father and mother seems like distancing themselves from her, no more 'family quality time' shortly after her accident. Her dad was even worse; he became workaholic and over-protective over her. Her mother was a little more lenient, still trying to make sure her daughter doesn't feel neglected, but it doesn't help much anyway.

But her long-term negative change that affecting her did not escape from her mother's awareness. She did worry of her well-being. In secret since three years ago, her mother, Mebuki had been trying to convince Kizashi that their daughter has changed for the worse. Although he didn't buy it for a minute at first, he changed his own view after a while. When she was approaching the age of sixteen this year, and it was high time to prepare her as his successor; arranging the formal parties to introduce her, preparing all the study, on-job training schedule and all the what-not; he was able to witness it himself. He was a little surprised that his wife was right; it was almost as if she wasn't even human, or a teenager of her age. All night after that, he realized all the mistakes that he had caused, and he regretted for it. He shouldn't let his paranoia get ahead of him and caused her daughter so much pain like this, and above all, he regretted that his over-protectiveness was in turn also causing him to neglect her. But remembering the incident, he was still hesitant and afraid that history will repeats itself. After he did his own part to protect her, and the result obtained seems to favor him and his daughter's own good and benefits, he discussed with his wife what should they do.

Finally, he was ready and made his decision. Calling upon her, he was ready to tell her of his plan, approaching her like how he used to do when she was smaller. Although it was a little awkward, he admitted his mistakes and asks her for a second chance. This surprised Sakura a little bit, since she didn't very much expect her father to change his view anytime soon. "Sakura," Kizashi spoke after a moment of silence from their long, heart-to-heart talk. Sakura glanced to her side, waiting for her dad to continue. "I'm going to enroll you in X High School in the next school semester. So no more home tutoring, I'm going to give back your freedom."

Her expression seemed to be a bit surprised, although its visibility was almost none. "I get to go to high school?" she asked.

He nodded. Looking at her, he continued, "X High School is actually a school that a lot of our families have attended. It was also the place that I met your mother. It's a good institution with long and proud tradition and all. Despite that, it didn't preserved the enrollment to only the upper-class family, so I think it would do you some good to try and interact with people of different social status. And by that you will be able to learn their way of living, so it would help you with your long-term view on life. And also, the main reason that I want you to be enrolled instead of home-schooled was, I want you to experience as much of teenage life as possible, the good part of course, so that when the time comes for you to succeed me, you won't miss anything anymore. You already lost half of your childhood due to my own selfishness in judgment, and I want to put a stop to it". A tone of regret still lingers around his words.

"Thank you for your thought and decision, dad. I'm glad for it and happy that you shared the reason with me. I won't let you down," Sakura eyes softened a little bit more after hearing a bucketful of her father's thought. She was happy with these changes, and promised herself that she will try her best.

"I know you won't. Just take it easy with the other kids, and don't gobble up the entire first places that were available there. Then it will be no fun if there is no competition," he joked and laugh a bit, something that he didn't do towards her for a long time. Sakura responded by giving out a little short smile on her face. After it was settled, she took her leave, saying goodnight to him and went to her room. She was still pretty much can't believe what was happening, but pleased with the change.

And then, as promised, her father settled out the requirements for her enrollment to the school. She was glad that her father kept true to his words. And she was looking forward to her first day. However, being away from people of her age for too long cause her to be more nervous and awkward than it should be. She was unsure of how to approach them, or how to start up a conversation. And because of that, with her status as the daughter of the school's main benefactor, most people begin to give her negative perceptions. That was the start of all of these ill treatments. Her lack of emotion (although not as terrible as few months ago before her talk with her father) seems to rub off more hatred towards her. Seems like her high school days were far from perfect fairy tale. But she didn't want to disappoint her father and mother, so she just let it be and swallowed it all. She will find her moment to stand on her own feet, and as long as they didn't take it too far, she would just accept it as feeble attempts to annoy her or something. They will get bored of it anyway and stop it.

And it has been almost half a year now. Things still didn't change for the better. Instead, it began to get worse as she started to receive anonymous letters, taunting and threatening. Of course, she would ignore it, and kind of surprised that they are not afraid to do so. She was aware, that she had her trump card, immunity for her status or such and these people too realized it. But rather than succumb to it and have her way to silence them all, she let it go, since, let's face it; it was really immature and childish. And furthermore, the lesser her family was involve in this, the better. She won't burden them with these trivial issues, because she knows she can handle it, probably.

Several days later…

Tonight, the Haruno's is going to hold a grand party with sole purpose was to introduce Sakura with their business connections and exposed her to all this formal function in the future. And so, after school hour for today came to an end, she made her way to reach home as soon as possible, getting prepared. It's the least she could do today to repay her parents by look presentable and not bringing any shame to them. Getting a nice long bath, treated and styled her hair and thorough makeover, choosing suitable dress for the evening, she had her hand full. By the time she had finished, the party had begun for about 10 minutes. Taking a deep breath, she stepped out of her room and make way towards the hall. The moment she stepped into the room, some of people that were near the entrance were in awe of her appearance. Some of the bachelor acquaintances even admired her beauty, but of course she was a bit too young for them. Mebuki and Kizashi went towards her and introduce to the people there, from one to another. Mostly the connections came from pharmaceutical industry, engineering, and some heavy industries since her family business focus on research and developments of new drugs for medication.

"Ahh, there he is. Sakura, I would like you to meet with Col. Yamanaka Inoichi and his wife."

"It's retired now, actually. Well Sakura, it is always a pleasure meeting you. You really had grown-up from the last we met you when you were smaller." The man laughed a little and shakes her hand, followed suit by his wife.

"My husband was right. I can still remember how you used to play and spend a lot of time with our daughter, Ino. Perhaps you still remember her?" The woman chimed in as well.

"I think I do. Although, I'm not so sure," she admitted.

"Hurm, I understand. I can't blame you for it since we moved away when you were little anyway. Ino actually would want to come to the party tonight, but she had music lesson and can't skip it," said Col. Inoichi. He then stopped for a second, thinking on something, and asks her, "but you know, Ino actually went to the same school as you do. By chance, did you both in the same class, or did she ever approach you? It is kind of unexpected since you are one of the first things she talked about when we first moved back here. Since you have been to school for almost a year now, it is kind of hard to believe you didn't bump on each other."

Sakura fell silent. Well, since she was pretty much having a hard time at school in reality, she barely notice or remember anyone she met, even her own classmates. But, at that short moment, she tries hard to think of anyone that resembling Ino, the one that she grew up with for a little. Wait, there is actually someone in the class look slightly like her, although her hair is longer now and her bangs kinda fall and cover part of her forehead, not to mention her face actually more refined and all. Could that be her?

Seeing Sakura turn silent, Col. Inoichi quickly recovered, "Ah well, like I said, time sure change someone a bit too much sometime. Even my daughter's appearance had change a bit, so I think there might be chances that both of you overlooked each other. Even you have changed, Sakura. If I had another child and happened to be a son, I might just make you to be my daughter-in-law." Col. Inoichi laughed heartily.

"Ahh, maybe that was seems like it. But since now I knew, maybe I'll try to find her anyway," Sakura smiles a bit. Feeling a little exhausted, she politely bow a little to them and continued, "I hope you would enjoy the party, sir. I need to excuse myself now and do something else for a while. It is really nice to talk to you sir, madam. I hope we would be able to meet again in the future."

"Yes, of course. It's nice meeting you too, dear. And congratulation for being the next-in-line officially," Col. Inoichi congratulate her. The couple then watched her as she move away towards somewhere else. Col. Inoichi then let out a little sigh. Kizashi, who's now standing beside him, was well-aware of what Inoichi has been thinking.

"Looks like that incident really did take a toll on her, huh, Kizashi? When you first told me, I couldn't believe it myself. Now I do, and it must been hard on you to find ways to heal her," Kizashi spoke.

"It is."

"And about that boy? Did she remember anything now, or something relating to him? His family?"

"Not even a bit. Her memory of Ino was actually a miracle because one day, when she was holding a certain scarf I reckoned, and she said she suddenly seeing pictures of someone reflecting on the mirror. So from there, we were able to tell her about Ino. We did try asking her about him once when she was a little better, but she couldn't recall anything. But so far, she managed to salvage her memories from encounters and not from us telling her this and that, so we thought it's best that we let her to try find it back this way," Kizashi described in length of what had happened to his daughter.

Inoichi nodded. "I see. And I, we indeed feel a little sore and regrettable that we weren't able to do anything that time. If only I was there too, then I…"

"Will also be in deep danger," Kizashi cut him off. And he then continued, "Sigh, we all were actually. Sakura was happened to be there with the boy by chance. But since then, I did actually lived in paranoia and even dragged my family into it, because I knew we were next. And I knew how you really value our brotherhood and willing to be together here, but you were also bound to your duty, and I suspect it was also because of this very reason that your superiority moved you as far as they could from here. So I held no grudge or ill-feeling towards it, which means you shouldn't feel sorry for it."

Showing his old friend a comforting smile, Kizashi told him his wish. "What I hope now is that I can redeemed myself from our past mistakes and finally see Sakura recovers fully from her painful memories and being able to be like the daughter I knew before all of this happened."

Seeing the relentless optimism that he wanted to share with him, Inoichi chuckled a bit, and pat Kizashi's shoulder. "Not only you, my friend. We are hoping for the same as well."

As for Sakura, after she had finally 'escaped' from this party, she walked a bit towards the garden. Breathing in the fresh air, she looked at the sky. The moon was hidden a little bit behind some cloud, but the stars that were scattered above were still visible. The view was beautiful and breathtaking. She took a seat at one of the garden stool and began to enjoy herself with this little free-time. While her mind was wandered away and humming random tune, she was surprised with something heavy that suddenly pounced on her and landed on her lap. She was almost shrieked when she realized who the culprit was.

"Tenchi! You almost gave me a heart-attack! I thought you were in the kitchen with the servants," she exclaimed, half-heartedly scold the heavyweight Bombay cat. He responded with stretching his front legs and give out long and somewhat lazy yawn. "Meaaaoow," he 'told' her and nestled himself on her lap, purring and finally closing his eyes.

"Sigh, I swear, you are pretty spunky for an old coot. Not to mention you had gained more weight and lazier nowadays," Sakura sighed, and went on striking softly the cat's body. Tenchi have been around her as far as she can remember, and he was the only one that she can be really talkative, pouring all of her thought and talking to him like he could understand her (he probably was a little bit, since he was a house cat and all).

"Ne, Tenchi. You know what, all this while I could care less about my lost memories, since I grew up and see that how dull my every day is. So I thought if I had it, it doesn't change much since it must be the same. Then, I slightly remember Ino, and I remember you, and I realized it was still pretty fun when I was smaller? It was, right, Tenchi? You have been around me pretty long, so you must know something."

"Nyaaa." Then the cat was suddenly acting a little weird, looking around. He quickly jumped from her lap and slowly run (since he was heavy and all) a little further into the garden.

"What? What's wrong, Tenchi? And when I was trying to be a little nice to you, you gave this in return? Wait, you old…"

She was trying to give a chase to the runaway cat, and that's when it happened. In a blink of an eye, she was on the ground, pinned by a shadowy figure. Unknown to her, all the while she was hanging out at the garden, someone was watching over her, carefully timing himself to ambush the target. And that figure was as black as the night itself. She was caught by surprised and realized what kind of situation was this. It was an assassination attempt. Both of her hands were locked above her head by the figure left hand, and the other hand pressed a sharp blade on her neck. She knew, and she expected the worse will come anytime now, but the final blow was yet to come. Instead, the figure and she were locked in a gaze. His eyes was the only exposed part of the attacker, and yet the dark of the night caused the view of it from Sakura's point of view to be blurry. But she knew they were looking at each other.

For a moment, time seemed to stop and they remained in that position, unmoving. The moon suddenly emerge herself, and Sakura able to see it dimly. The figure's fiery and captivating gaze. But it was somewhat blank, as if he was confused with something. She was afraid, but seeing him, it was replace with fearless emotion, channeled through her eyes. Then, unexpected by Sakura, the blade was becoming loose, and was moved from the fatal area. Then, out of nowhere, Tenchi emerged to them, alerting the attacker a bit. And Sakura, afraid that something bad will happen to her beloved cat, shooed him away. But the cat didn't listened; instead, he sniffed the figure around and does something weird; he nuzzled the figure's leg. She was a bit shocked, but the situation doesn't allow her to ponder on it for long. As if on cue, they were startled more after that by the shout of someone who was terrified with the scene, alerting the other. Seeing that he has failed his mission, he quickly makes his way and vanished. Still overwhelmed with what happened, Sakura finally breathed in the air after it was held back long enough to cause her to faint.

- The End -