Tempest
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Chapter Three
Sakura Haruno
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I feel so much better
Now that you're gone forever
I tell myself that I don't miss you at all
She'd caught him staring at her. Naruto Uzumaki. The class clown, but a very good friend of hers. She knew he liked her. Everyone knew he liked her. But…she didn't like him. She liked his best friend.
She liked Sasuke.
They've been in the same class for over four years, now. The three of them along with Ino, Hinata Hyuuga, Shikamaru Nara, Choji Akimichi, Kiba Inuzuka, and Shino Aburame. They've been in the exact same class for the past four years.
Sakura was one of the very few people, which included Ino and Naruto, that actually enjoyed coming to school. School was a haven for her, a place where she could be with people that enjoy her company and where she could be herself.
A place…where she could be safe…
A place far away from home.
It all started two years earlier. It was the first day of her second grade class. Sakura was running home, happy that she's been, once again, in the same class with her two best friends.
Her eyes were bright, as she ran home, and her short pink hair blew prettily behind her.
She waited and waited for her mother to pick her up, but she never came. Sakura decided to run home when she found herself alone in the school.
She didn't mind. She liked walking home alone. It made her feel older, more responsible. After all, Naruto and Sasuke did it all the time, so…why couldn't she?
She sped up when she saw her house. Pushing the front gate shut behind her, she ran towards the front door. She knocked and knocked over again.
"They must be sleeping!" She whispered to herself excitedly. Oh, they'll be so proud to find her home all by herself.
She remembered what her mom told her about what to do when the door's locked. The rosette-haired girl hummed to herself as she stepped on a rock just under the window and pulled herself up on the window sill and looked inside the house.
Her eyes widened and she froze. The house was a mess, the living room was scattered with broken glass and pots, flowers were everywhere, pillows were half ripped. The curtains were hanging halfway off the wall. The couch was flipped over and the TV was face down on the ground.
Her green eyes continued to look around the room until they landed on a body laying hunched over on the floor, shaking.
Sakura gasped as she recognized her mother's dark pink hair. What happened?
Her eyes snapped to the right as she heard another voice inside the house. A familiar figure came into her view as she let out a sigh of relief. Her father is going to fix everything. He's going to help her mother and get the house fixed up.
Sakura was about to grab the keys and jump down the window sill when a scream of pain made her blood chill and her body freeze. Her eyes snapped wide open at the scene unfolding in front of her.
Her father raised his leg and another pain-filled scream was torn from her mother's throat. Her father kicked and kicked and her mother kept screaming.
The more she screamed the more he kicked.
Suddenly, he kicked her so violently, she slammed into the wall and hit the back of her head on a table. Her body slid a bit down the wall and fell limp on the ground.
Her father stood there, panting, glaring down at her mother's limp body. After a while, he clutched his head and walked up the stairs, as though nothing happened.
Sakura jumped off the window sill and turned away from the house. She ran out of the gates quietly, slowly closing them after her, and headed to her one true safe spot. The lake.
The beatings, as Sakura soon came to find out, were a daily routine. They would barely talk in the morning when she woke up. Her mother would wear baggy clothes to hide her bruises and cuts and she would leave her hair down to cover those on her neck and face.
She would smile and greet her like every morning before giving her her lunch. Then they would leave without a word of goodbye to her father, who was still sleeping in the room. Her mother would drop her off in school in their little Ford Focus and tell her to be careful, have fun and wait for her after school, promising that she would come pick her up.
Sakura would smile and nod before turning away.
She didn't like her mother telling her this, because her mother would always lie.
After all, it was a daily routine. She knew it. It was a part of her life.
It's been two years now and nothing has changed. She realized one day, though, that her father beat her mother because of his excessive drinking.
He would come home late at night, drunk, and sit down in front of the TV. He would call out her mother's name, and the woman would hesitantly come over to him with his dinner. On good days, he would eat, then he would yell at her and pass out.
On bad days, he would do no such thing.
Sakura remembered an incident not too long ago, an incident that scarred her for life. She blamed herself. If she hadn't been in his way when he came home, her mother wouldn't have gone through that beating…that abuse.
It was a Friday night and Sakura was happily heading to her room, eating an apple. As soon as she walked past the front door and started to head up the stairs, the door burst open and her father walked in. He had a dazed look in his eyes as he walked over to her, muttering her mother's name.
Her heart beat faster and faster. Where was her mom? What was she supposed to do.
"H-hai, f-father?" She whispered.
"Father?" He slurred. "I aint yo daddih…" He muttered a few words to himself before reaching forwards to her. She let out a scream and tried to pull away, but he was too quick for her.
"Where's mommy?" He muttered, licking her cheek. She let out another scream as his grip on her arm tightened tenfold.
"S-stop! It hurts!" She shouted, punching his arm.
"Oh, come on baby…" he whispered in her ear, making her shiver with disgust. This didn't feel right. "…you always liked this before."
He was about to take off her shirt when her mother's voice stopped him.
"Let her go!" She shouted, running at them. She yanked her daughter away and pushed her up the stairs. "Go to your room and lock the door!" She shouted, pushing her farther up. Sakura stared down at her, tears in her eyes. Her father regained his balance and grabbed her mother's hair. The panic in her mother's dark green eyes made her run as fast as she could, and hide in her room.
She left the door cracked just a bit so she was able to see what was going on. She heard her mother's screams of protest as her father carried her on his shoulder into the room. She caught her mother's eyes and fear bubbled inside of her when she saw the tears streaming down her mother's face.
She couldn't sleep that night as she listened to her mother's screams of pain and her father's curses. She heard thumping the whole night and things being broken.
Nightmares plagued her mind the whole night and she kept thinking of how she was ever going to face her father again. Could she even call him that anymore?
Morning came sooner than she thought. Today was Saturday and she was meeting Ino at the flower shop. But could she really leave her mother alone with that man?
After going through her morning routine, she peaked in her parents' room, only to find her father laying spread eagle on the bed, the sheets covering his lower body. She felt an unpleasant shiver run down her spine as she closed the door noiselessly.
As she made her way downstairs, she smelt the smell of bacon and eggs, her favorite. Her mother was up already? Did she get any sleep?
Again, her mother's clothes were baggy, and her hair down. She did not even bother to give Sakura a smile today as she put her breakfast on the table.
"Are…you going to go to Ino's today?" She asked, her voice cracking a bit. Sakura nibbled on her turkey bacon, and shook her head no. Her mom's eyes widened a fraction as she asked why.
Sakura contemplated her answer. She wasn't supposed to have seen anything and she was going to act like she didn't.
"…I wanted…to spend the day with you…" She said, looking up at her mom with bright green eyes, pleading her to say yes. "…unless you have to work of course."
Tears filled her mother's eyes, but she turned away before Sakura saw them fall. The woman wiped them away hurriedly and smiled at her fullheartedly.
"I'd love that, Sakura!"
It was only a few months after that…that Sakura realized her whole world was about to change. Her father had another fit and this time, her mother wasn't around to protect her.
Her whole body felt like one big bruise as she tried to run from her dad…He grabbed her left leg and pulled her down the stairs. She screamed and kicked him in the face. He cursed and let go.
She got her footing back quickly and ran towards her room, which was down the hall on the top floor.
She slammed the door shut behind her and locked it, before turning around and inching away from it. She heard her father begging her to open the door for him. She replied with a no.
"Sakura, honey, I'm sorry. Daddy was just trying to show you how much he loves you…" His voice was sadistic and cold. Disgusting. "…Daddy just wanted to give you…his lollipop." She heard him chuckle and she couldn't help but bite her lip to keep from throwing up. She didn't understand what he was talking about, but the way he said it…it just sounded wrong.
"Open the door, Sakura…" He sounded pissed as he kicked the door repeatedly.
"No!"
"Sakura-!"
"No! I hate you! I hate you, you're not my father!!"
The very next day, her mother woke her up at around six in the morning. How she got in the room, Sakura never found out. But as they grabbed as many clothes as they could and put them in the suitcases, Sakura couldn't help but feel a bit of sadness.
They were leaving…
And she didn't even say good bye to Sasuke and Naruto…
She was leaving everything she ever knew behind.
Now, as she sat in the passenger seat in her mom's Ford Focus, she couldn't help but let a few tears fall.
Why me?
She never thought she'd return to Konoha. But she did. Six years later.
After her mother-
I love you, Sakura…
-the one person that ever cared for her-
Take care of yourself, baby…
-the person that gave her life protecting her-
I'll always be there with you…
-her biological father's girlfriend-
Don't ever give up…
-Ayana Haruno-
"Mother!!"
Tempest.
A/N: Ew. That was the gayest chapter I have ever written. But review anyways. This story doesn't seem to be winning much favor these days…thanks. Next chapter will be in PRESENT form. Meaning, when the actual story is taking place, not these history lessons…okay? So…get ready for that!