Alright guys, quick note. My reviewer shout outs will now be at the end of each chapter. Also, I made this chapter extra-long to make up for how short the last one was.
Alright, please enjoy the story.
XOX
Naruto sluggishly stalked out of his modest flat and out into the rain. It had been only a day before he left his tattered home and tear soiled clothing. He took Sakura's letters with an attempt to hand deliver the letters to each of her closest friends. He started in the order of people she was closest too. He would visit Ino and then Kakashi. The tall whiskered blonde was well aware of the stares he got trudging on his way to the Yamanaka flower store. He uncaringly splashed into puddles and kept his head down in a silent resolve to deliver his team mates last words.
He couldn't help but think he was responsible for her death. All he had wanted to do was protect her and he had failed at doing so. Before she had arrived that morning for the mission he and Kakashi had discussed Sakura and her mental state. He was trying to get help for her before she went completely crazy, before she did something she would really regret. He had told no one else of the rosettes fall from sanity, but Kakashi had noticed it as well. What choice did he have but to tell him. After naruto had finished his recollection of Sakura's last rampage, Kakashi gave him that same crinkle –eyed smile that he had given when he had promised him that Sasuke wouldn't leave.
That smile was a lie.
As much as he hated it he had known somewhere in his gut that this would happen. Kakashi had not wanted Sakura to go on this mission because of her mental state and the Catalyst that could occur if she came face to face with Sasuke again. She was so precious to both of them and Kakashi did not want her to go insane. He had seen so many of his fellow a go crazy, they cut themselves, got addicted to drugs and alcohol, and then sex before falling back into the system, washed up in a liquor bottle or a rogue ninja with the world attempting to kill them. He did not want that for her. She was his student, and one of his three part legacy. Naruto wondered if Kakashi knew how much he had neglected her over the years. First it was him and Sakura, with Sasuke was his favorite pupil. When Sasuke defected, Kakashi started to devote all of his time to him, and they left Sakura out in the cold. How blind he had been.
He looked up only to read the large hand painted sign that held the Yamanaka clan symbol before solemnly opening the door. A small bell rigged to the door jingled when he entered the shop. A thin happy woman spoke out without ever turning her head.
"Good Afternoon! Welcome to the Yamanaka flower shop."
At not hearing a reply the beautiful blonde woman turned on her heels and a pupil-less aqua eye stared at her incoming customer. The sight before her made her switch over and become serious. There, in front of her one of the best ninja's in Konoha, and one of her friends stood. He was both deathly pale and his blue eyes sat on a back ground of irritated red. He stumbled forward before she rushed across the counter.
"Naruto? What Happened? What's wrong?" She tried to keep her tone calm as she queried him,
He choked a sob before rummaging into his pocket. He pulled out a small crumpled note that held a familiar penmanship
The front only read "Ino"
She looked into Naruto's eyes and searched for the approval to go forward with the letter.
"Ino – Pig, if you are reading this, It means that I am gone, I loved you like a sister and even though you were my rival I wouldn't trade a minute of the arguments we had. You made life colorful and brought joy to every one you knew, I will see you again someday, when you are in the afterlife. Please take care of my patients now and help Tsunade, she will need you. Listen to me, you are a strong ninja and a beautiful woman. Hold on to Chouji, he is a good man and he really loves you. One day you will have children of your own and you will have an amazing life, Thank you for being my rival, my sparring buddy, and my friend. I will always miss you.
Good bye Ino,
Sincerely, Bill-Board Brow. "
By the end of the short scripted letter Ino had difficulty reading the note, her eyes sprinkled with tears for a forgotten friend, she still had so many questions. She had just spoken to her a week ago! What the hell happened! She lost the strength to stand as she grasped the stool Naruto sat in.
"…. How did she die?" She sincerely wanted to know what killed her friend as Naruto looked up at the ceiling through the skylight.
It took him a moment to gain enough composure to speak before answering her.
"She took a suicide mission"
The thought of this angered Ino. Why would she just end her own life like that! Didn't she know that the people here needed her!
"She wanted to keep her honor instead of going to prison. Kakashi and I said some things we shouldn't have. She snapped at us and cut my face and almost killed Kakashi."
No. No. NO! That was not the Sakura that Ino Yamanaka knew! She wouldn't have turned on them! What could they have possibly said to her? Her eyes narrowed viciously at the thought of the cold dead body of the pinkette.
"THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT" She pointed an accusing finger at his face carefully staring in anger at the haphazard jagged lines across his face.
"SHE IS DEAD BECAUSE OF YOU!" She threw her letter onto the ground before reaching across to grab naruto by the collar. Her rival, the sister that she had never had was dead.
Naruto's blue eyes widened with shock and sadness. His eyes burned in a solemn sorrow.
In a low and shaky voice he responded to her.
"I know. I know this is my fault. If I could do anything to take it back I would. But she is gone…She is gone and I can't ever bring her back. I wish I could. I would do anything to see her again. "
Ino said nothing else as she turned back towards her arrangements on the back wall. He could hear her cry but said nothing as he turned back around and walked back out of the shop and away to Kakashi. The bell on the door rang yet again, and thus ended the solemn meeting of Naruto Uzumaki and Ino Yamanaka.
To say that Sakura Haruno was beyond tired was a drastic understatement. Her chakra reserves where strong and barely tapped into, however, her mental struggles had taken much of her energy, and her mentality was growing weary of the impending night fall. In the Heli-Carrier the bright lights betrayed the time of day, however observers could look out into the endless blanket of night and discover just how late it was in the Avenger's temporary headquarters.
Sakura had worked during the day to stick to her duties to keep away the melancholy, nostalgic sadness that came with thoughts of her home. She sluggishly dragged her legs through the vacated hallways that had long been abandoned by most of the SHIELD agents (whom unlike her were most likely napping peacefully.) She would not admit a strong sense of jealousy towards their ignorance to the many problems involving the agency..
It truly wasn't fair. She had worked her ass off today and would have to wake up extra early and go to sleep extra late. Sakura Haruno was not under any circumstances ever a morning person or a damned early bird. She preferred late night excursions where there were less people, and those that were awake in those late hours where usually too drunk bother her in any way. Night fall was when the fun really started and she had never really needed that much sleep as long as she had a regular schedule.
Three hours a night sufficed her need for sleep as long as it was usually the same three hours. In this particular case, her transition from Konoha to Earth had taken away one of her precious three hour cycles. This resulted in two things: one; she would be very difficult to wake up in the morning and two, she would sleep longer.
She lugged her petite body with deep anguish. She was not pleasant when she was tired, not pleasant at all. Many people found it humorous because Naruto was such a chirpy chipper early bird and often dragged her out of bed. She laughed softly at remembering the many times he would bust into her small apartment screaming "Dattebayo!" and "believe it Sakura Chan!".
She felt a moment of weakness pull her to the side thinking of her ex-team mate.
Ex-team mate sounded too harsh. That was only reserved for that duck ass bastard Uchiha.
She gave an involuntary growl before reaching the final hallway back to her room.
It was here that she paused and put her hand on the wall wrapped up in her own thoughts. She had sincerely hopped that Tsunade had given the letters to them.
She began to feel nauseas at the thought of naruto. Naruto had been her lover, brother and best friend and she cut him and hurt him in blind rage. It was enough to make her sick remembering how she had treated him. He loved her and only wanted to protect her. In the letter she had written a sorry but it wasn't enough. She stood keeled over with her hand against the wall breathing hard and attempting not to cry. Light pink hair fell across her green eyes. Tears threatened to spill as she tried to steady her uneasy breathing.
She had managed to stay strong the whole day because she had kept herself busy. Now she was alone and the weight of her decision to leave crashed down upon her like a wave on an unsuspecting victim. Her green vibrant eyes clouded with sadness and misted with regret.
Had she not been on the edge of inner turmoil she would have noticed the person walking up the hall. This was due to his large and imposing figure.
Thor had just come from the kitchen, he cursed, and when he was nervous he could out-eat even the Great Volstagg of the Warriors Three.
Oh how he missed them, and Lady Sif. She had always been a close friend whom he could tell anything, he however was also aware that she loved him.
He did not love her. Not in the same way at least. She was a sister, not a lover, and even if he had loved her in the same way, they could never be together. Odin had already forbidden it. Thor had no idea why the all-father rejected Lady Sif as a suitor. She was a lovely maiden, and all the all father had said when he turned him down was that the match was not in the stars.
But he digressed. At moments like this he found a strange comfort in a mortal food called a "pop tart". Thor thought that is was downright sinful that they would create such a wonderful thing in such small portions. He had currently discovered that strawberry was his favorite flavor. It was not surprising since while he was walking through the hallway he was munching on one with the box in his hands. He also had three more boxes stashed in behind his back under his cape, waiting to be devoured when they (the pop tarts were now lovingly referred to as his darlings) reached his living quarters. It was when he rounded the final hallway to his room he looked up to see the new medic with her hand braced against a wall looking like she was about to pass out. She also appeared to be ready to cry.
Crap.
Thor was not an insensitive man, not by any means. But he was a man and had absolutely no clue on how to properly deal with women when they were upset. As clichéd as it was he never really had to do much to gain the attention of Asguardian women. They were fickle shallow creatures that cared only about vanity and outward appearances. They were a few exceptions such as Sif, but she had to suffer social alienation because of it, and many of the other women talked about her behind her back. Had she not been the goddess of war, he was sure that she would have caved to their fang toothed will millennia ago. Thank Odin that she was still her old self.
But that still didn't help him in this situation. There was a crying young woman in front of him. Had she been a man, he would have offered to train with her to get her mind off of it. Hell, she might want to, earth had a new breed of women that scared the shit out of him. This class of woman held dangerous assassins that trained to kill and could easily destroy any man in their way. He shivered at the thought of another woman like Romanov
He could always pretend he hadn't seen her and attempt to back away slowly and into his room. Yes. He would do that. But that wasn't very manly. Damn him and his manliness.
He took a deep intake of breath before he made his way other to the pink haired girl in distress. She did not notice him until he sighed and kneeled down beside her. He honestly hadn't realized how tiny she was until standing right next to her. He set down his box of pop tarts and knocked the remaining blessed strawberry flavored crumbs out of his beard.
Well now or never. He had to say something to her. But what was her name… Sakura Haruno?
"Um Uh… Lady Haruno, are you alright?" there, that was surely safe enough wasn't it? It was at this moment she awoke from her saddened trance to stare him in the eyes. His eyes where a sky blue, he noticed that hers where an unnaturally vibrant green, the kind of green that occurred rarely when a high quality emerald shined and reflected with light.
He was taken aback by her eyes. They betrayed nothing about her, but swelled with emotions and a high intensity stare that could read any ones personality to their very souls. Eyes like that were very unnerving, even to a god.
She looked back at the ground before straightening herself up.
"I am alright… uhhhh?" Crap. There was no way to say the man's name respectfully. She only knew his first name, and saying that sounded so casual.
She didn't like casual.
He seemed to sense this.
"You can calm me Thor. " At noticing her embarrassment his tense posture seemed to loosen slightly as he dropped his large shoulders and looked at her.
"Well I am alright… Thor." She quickly corrected, testing the name,
"I am a God."
Well obviously Sherlock. Thank you for point out the obvious. Her facial expression must have spoken volumes as she narrowed her eyes in a comical sarcastic fashion.
He threw his head back in a deep rumbled laugh as blonde hair fell to his shoulders.
"What I mean is, do you honestly think you can lie to me?"
Shit. He had a point.
She let exasperation take her over before letting her bangs tickle her nose.
"I'm sorry Thor, I really am fine. I am just feeling some home sickness. "
"Ah. I know the feeling."
She looked at him as her vibrant eyes widened in disbelief.
"….You do?"
"Yes. When my father cast me out to Midguard without any of my powers I felt completely alone, it amazed me how many of the little things of my home I took for granted and I learned to appreciate the value of both worlds. "
His blue eyes cast a sullen glance while he leaned against the wall and questioned her.
"If you don't mind me asking, where are you from? I believe pink hair is an abnormality on Midguard correct?"
She again looked at him with shock and surprise. He actually was intelligent. No wonder he was the future king of Asguard. She assumed he was more brain than brawn, with smashy smash now think about it later. She realized now how very different Loki and Thor had been perceived to be based solely on outward traits. She noticed that they shared some qualities like nobility and pride. But she digressed. That was a conversation for another day, if they even had another conversation. After seeing her moment of weakness he probably thought she was bat-shit crazy. Oh well, time to answer his question.
"You are correct. I am from Konoha of the Shinobi nations." Her eyes cast down recollecting her home
"Ah. I know of that place. I have never been there, but the all father has. He spoke highly of the many strong warriors that hail from the land."
Oh. So he did know of konoha. That was a plus.
She snapped out of her musing when she heard a rustle and then thud behind his cape. A small box fell out from behind his back with a pink square thing on the label.
Picking it up she read the English across the front of it; "strawberry" and "pop tart"
Looking up from the label the sight in front of her was enough to cause a girlish laugh to escape her mouth.
The god of thunder was blushing like a school girl. Humor won over reason in her battle of the wits and she continued to snigger at his obvious discomfort. She thought through her laughter she heard him mumble something along the lines of "Damn pop tart" and "Why are you so good?"
He straightened himself up immediately. Damn he was tall. He almost had a two foot height difference against her. Stupid tall people. The hell with being tall. She was fun sized.
She left her inner thoughts behind and bid the flustered blonde god good night with a yawn before walking down the end of the hall to her door. She faintly noticed his steps fall in place behind her before opening his own door straight across the hall.
Well that answered one of her questions. She still had yet to figure out what a pop tart was. She would ask him tomorrow.
Mindlessly she pulled out her electronic card and swiped the door that allowed her access into her room.
She did a quick chakra scan to ensure that no one had been in her living quarters before undressing herself.
God it felt good to get that stupid vest off. Her now decompressed chest filled across the front of her body. Sakura let out a breathy sigh before continuing to strip until almost complexly naked. She closed her eyes and summoned a tank top and a pair of black pajama pants from her scroll. She took the thin black tank top and placed it over her shoulders and slid the comfortable material onto her body whilst pulling her pajama pants up.
She always felt a chill after changing. This was caused by the rapidly lowering temperature of her body after removing her trench coat. The trench coat kept her extremely warm throughout the day and still allowed her to move easily. When she took it off, she always became extremely cold until nestling into her blankets for a night of rejuvenating rest. Immediately she crawled into her grey comforter and assumed a fetal position around a pillow with her blanket neatly snuggled on top of her. By morning she would probably be off the bed and in the floor with her fleet sticking straight up choking on her blanket. She moved a lot in her sleep and tended to wake up in some very odd positions. They were the kind of positions that would make even the contortionist yoga elite cringe at the amount of twisting her body was able to do.
She grabbed her blanket closer to her in an attempt to comfort herself as another wave of mental pain hit her as she thought of naruto and Kakashi. She sighed as she nestled herself deep into the abyss of sleep. With her will not to cry left as she slipped into sleep and tears began to free fall from her eyes and stain her pillow with her pain.
Loki smiled from his meditative state at noticing the pinkette's final drift into sleep. He had sensed her go into her quarters and her lowered energy meant the she was asleep.
Now was the time to attack. He conceded in his own ability to enter her mind as she hovered over to her location. From there through his slicked black hair he was able to make out her petite form that was dwarfed by her bedding. He had to admit that she was truly a pretty girl. She was interesting to him; she was mortal with extremely high intelligence, and cunning like that of a vixen. She had extremely powerful abilities but what made him question her the most where her fighting tactics.
She had the upper hand on him and she knew it, yet in the middle of arguing with her she had just left. This irked him to no end and it was a deep blow to his pride as the god of mischief. Never had any one threw him so off kilter. He peered with his projected green eyes as he intently watched her sleep. It was now that he noticed that she had tear streaks across her pale face. What had upset her? She truly was an interesting woman. He needed to know her weakness so that he could properly crush her completely at their next meeting. She had made a deeply regrettable mistake in challenging his power.
In Sakura's mind a completely different world surrounded her. Up until this night she had always had the same, fuzzy, barely memorable dream. Ever since the Chunin exam she always had this dream, the same odd dreamscape and the same beautiful woman. This time her dream was crystal clear. She could feel the blood coursing through her veins and the vividness that surrounded her betrayed her ability to tell that it was a dream.
In her dream scape the sky was a deep black with purple clouds and a single large yellow moon overlooking a white fallen castle. She made her way through the black thorn covered trees across a rickety bridge and into the bottom floor of the humungous castle. Black intercepted her vision before a large flock of black birds flew in front of her vision. In the front of the room, she could make out a white crumpled, ornately decorated throne. Tapestries fell from an open sky with crows and gory battle scenes across them. Above the heavy throne a large broken and cracked stain glass window held the image of two black wings spreading across the room. She turned to look up at the starless sky and then swept a heavy glance across the floor. There was a deep black and red mosaic that resembled a decrepit Shogi board. The birds that had previously flew past her formed a congealed mass of black sheen and feathers before forming into the back of the woman she had seen so many times before. She had never seen the woman's face and had only ever viewed her back A swirling black tattoo crossed her right leg from the middle of her back. The tattoo was a beautifully intricate black cherry blossom tattoo. She had beautiful extremely long glossy black hair.
"Do you know who I am child?" The pale woman had never spoken to her. But sakura felt the answer as clearly as she had always felt the woman's presence even if she had never seen her.
"You are me aren't you?"
The woman gave a black velvet laugh
"I knew you were smart when I chose you."
Sakura looked at the woman on the throne whom she could tell was barely wearing anything but thick black bandages.
"But why am I here? What is this place? And what are you?"
The woman with black hair only laughed again before turning. This time she turned to look at sakura before answering. Her Face greatly resembled Sakura's. Her eyes were a golden flecked yellow that bled with knowledge and power.
"My name, child, is Karasu. I am a tengu blood demon, and you are my container. This place we are in is a fusing of your conscious and mine. This place is our middle ground, in your mind. Here you can control everything about this place. "
Sakura's eyes widened with pure shock at the powerful woman in front of her.
"Karasu-Sama, if you are a demon, does that make me a jinchuriki? "
The gold eyed woman now known as Karasu gleamed a fang toothed smile.
"No it does not. The tailed beasts are weaker demons that require the use of a sacrifice to be able to take on a human container. The tailed beasts all came from one powerful demon, known as the ten tales. Demons need strong containers to be able to thrive in this world, that can contain there power. Also, they older the demon, it usually means the stronger the demon becomes. I am one of the oldest and thus one of the strongest. I am the Crow Demon Karasu, and I have full control over all anything with wings and thus so do you. Demons are only compatible with humans that share similar personalities. I am aware that you have always felt my presence. But my nature to destruct as a demon has sometimes caused you to break into rage. I have always been here and will lend you my power when needed. I only ask for blood.
"Blood Karasu –sama?"
A hell no way she was killing anyone thank you very much. Her green eyes narrowed in suspicion.
"Yes blood. The only way to only way to stifle our lust to kill is to consume blood. Be it animal blood or any other kind.
When you wake up you will need to consume some amount of blood every day. The more you use my power the more blood you will need to consume."
"Why now are you revealing yourself to me, of all times?"
She pointed a black painted finger at the necklace on Sakura's neck.
"That necklace increases your bond with me and allows you full access to my power. It removed the seal that your body placed on me. We can now communicate freely whenever, and wherever. "
Sakura nodded and looked down while studying the details on the cracked stone floor.
"Why do you look human?"
"Higher level demons such as me can change our form at will. I am genderless. It was your mind that gave me this appearance and I must say I certainly approve. My true form is that of a giant grotesque bird. I will reveal my true form to you when you are ready to see it. But for now our time is winding down. Sleep my child. You have a rough day ahead of you. "
And with that sakura was cast back into a state of deep sleep.
Little did she know of the god that rummaged through her mind and eaves dropped through the conversation. Loki cancelled his projection and smiled from within his cell. This Sakura was truly interesting.
Tomorrow he would challenge her, when his plan to get out of this god forsaken cell finally came to light, and the one of the monsters aboard the Heli carrier were released.
Interesting indeed.
XOX
WOOT! Karasu intro! BTw Karasu is Japanese for crow I do believe. So yes sakura has a demon, and Karasu will be speaking more and more instead of just making her feel things, also I have more plans for the necklace and more reactions soon. Kakashi is next! I know it was some what sad, but hey, we had more Thor this chapter…and his beloved poptarts.
XionNight
Thank you!
that one kid
Thank you! The reason she injured the woman's ankle is because the woman kept being rude to her, I know it felt sorta off, but I needed to add some of Sakura's current mental instability such as anger problems, etc, up until her inner self reveals itself and what it is. Thank you! And you should watch the movie, it was amazing!
srooone
Thanks!
rikutanza
Yay! Thank you
NIKA-CHERRY
Sorry for the cliffy lol. And yes there was some Thor in this chapter!
Black Wolf Lady
Yes, yes he is, He under estimated her and she outwitted him, a bit of a blow to his pride.
]lol
Of course! I Aknowledge all of my readers And you are special to me for reading my story!
EliseDCervantes
Lol nice. I will. And YES, CHILLS, mwahahahahahah. And I love your Avatar
Guest
Thank you! Loki is one of my favorites too, Take that Loki!
Guest
Thank you!
PrincessNerd
Thank you so much and of course I wouldn't ignore good criticism! Thank you for giving my story another chance and in this chapter I elaborated on the first chapter a little more.
Paper Reaper
Yep, Sakura was being smart towards Loki because of his arrogance and pride, lol, he tends to trust the more intelligient people more
Renee-chan11
Aww thank you awesome reviewer!
MM
Naw I would never do that lol. Yay! Brain ninja!
xXSakura-Hime-SamaXx
Such an awesome pun! And yes… more Loki Sakura interaction and indeed I try to keep the character in character. It makes the story more believable. Next chapter will have more Tony!
Death-Candy-Eater-Mari-Yoru
Woot chapter seven! And sorry about the other chapter being so short. This one was way longer though!
Yama-Chan
AWW thank you O_O such nice awesome-sauce reviewer! And action will come soon I promise!
Yuuki-Hime 2097
A fake death would be nice, and yes unnerving pink haired girl!
crazycherry459 I know right? Lol everything went well
XOX
PLEASE REVIEW MY DARLING READERS!
