Haunted, Chapter 7
A/n: I got too much too say. I look terrible and I did a week's worth of homework in a day. And I learned today that writing four chapters at the same time for four different stories and trying to finish writing all four chapters is a difficult feat. I got chapter 8 finished, it will be up next week. Lust, my other story will be updated either today or this week. I was planning just to focus on Haunted, but ideas kept on popping up for Lust. And Living with Itachi will be updated too. Sorry if there are any grammatical errors for this story, my BETA reader isn't responding at the moment. I'll post the edited verison once I get in contact with my BETA reader. Also, I would suggest listening to "Runaway Love" By Ludacris while reading this story. It goes along with the story, I guess. Or maybe, I just like that song too much. I'm in a good mood, Harry Potter 7 is coming out soon and I just found some very hot pictures of Daniel Radcliff pretty much naked. Anyways, ignore what I just said about my freakish obsession with Harry Potter.
So enjoy. Happy Super bowl.
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She raced down the stairs and into the basement. Sakura rushed over to where she kept her mother's picture. Grabbing it, she hugged the picture with all her might. Tears spilled down her cheeks.
"Thank You, Kaa-san. Arigatou. He's not home. Today's been a miracle." She quietly whispered.
She set down the picture and stared at it.
Thinking about the past. When her mother was alive. She didn't even stop her self this time from thinking about the sore subject. She allowed her mind to drift back into the past...
Her mother had been a strong, smiling woman all her life. She was a spitting image of her. As long as Sakura could remember, it had always been her and her mother. Plenty of times, she had asked about her father. And Everytime there sad and faraway look was on her face. "Your father has gone away for some time. One day, he'll come back for us."
She could only guess her father had left her mother.
They had been pretty well off strangely, since her mother did not work at all. She and her mother had lived in a big white single-family de attached house in Tokyo. Sakura still could remember the spacious backyard, which she could play in and the smell of chocolate cookies that filled the house that her mother would make.
School was OK. Other kids would tease her about her big forehead. And Sakura hated it. But her mom would always tell her, "Sweetheart, don't believe them. One day, you'll grow out of it." and make it better.
Then she met Ino, who in Sakura's opinion was popular and pretty, things she wasn't. Things changed. She and Ino became best friends and slowly she started making other friends such as Naruto, Hinata, etc. as she grew older.
It was heaven.
Then one day when she was nine, she and her mother had to move away from the big house, that they lived in and moved into a small room apartment. She still remembers when she asked why they had to move away from the single family de attached house they lived in. Her mother would say "Sweetie, I'm sorry but we couldn't afford to live there anymore. Things will get better, I promise you."
And Sakura believed her.
Her mother started working at a nearby hospital almost all the time, seventy hours a week to scrap enough money to keep them in the apartment.
She was left alone most of the time, learning to cook and do the laundry and other household chores by herself, so she could save her mother some time. Since, when she came home, she would always be exhausted.
But even though, they were poor, Sakura and her mother were still together. And sometimes, when they had some money left over after paying the bills and the rent, they would sometimes go out places together, shopping, vacations, etc.
But they still couldn't afford to live in the apartment and had to move into an even shabbier and smaller apartment in a bad neighborhood. After a couple of years, Sakura's mother had lost her job at the hospital. She couldn't find work anywhere and had to resort working to working at a bar, late at night.
Sakura even took up a job herself, babysitting and doing chores to make enough money to keep them from not living in the streets.
Your little piece of heaven turns to dark...
That's exactly one day that happened to Sakura. The day when she lost one of the dearest people to her heart. The worst day in her life, when her heaven broken into pieces.
Sakura will never forget that day in her life. That cold day in December.
When she was told, "Are you Sakura Haruno? I'm very sorry. Your mother is dead."
She was never the same after those words.
This was also a reason why she always hated the holidays. The anniversary of her mother's murder.
Flashback
It was a beautiful snowy day in December. School was almost over and winter break was only days away. Everyone was abuzz with excitement. It was Sakura and Ino's free period and they were hanging out at the school's library.
"Neh, forehead-girl. What do you want for Christmas?" Ino asked her.
Sakura laughed. "I have no clue. What do you want Ino-pig?"
"That hot guy we saw at the cafe the other day." Ino said, dreamily.
Sakura snickered. "In your dreams"
Ino smacked Sakura. "How rude."
Suddenly Haruno Sakura, please report to the office now blasted out of the school's loudspeakers.
Sakura furrowed her eyebrows. That's strange. I never get called down to the office. Maybe I'm in trouble?
"You better go. I wonder what you did to get called down to the office." Ino said teasingly.
"Yeah. I'll see you later." and with that, Sakura left the library.
As she strolled down the corridors to the office, Sakura felt an uneasy feeling down in her gut.
Something isn't right here.
Soon, she entered the office. The principle was waiting for her. A kindly old lady. She peered down at her. "Sakura Haruno?"
"That's me."
A sad expression crossed the principle's face. "We just got a call. Your mother has been shot and is in the hospital." She said softly, her voice filled with remorse and piety.
Suddenly, it was hard for Sakura to breath. Her eyes widened in shock.
"Is she OK? How is she?" She asked the principle, breathlessly.
A grim expression crossed the principle's face.
"From what I know, she's in a critical condition -"
Those were all the words Sakura needed to hear.
She ran out of the office, unto the school's campus, and unto the streets.
"Wait! Her condition could improve." The principle cried out and made a motion to stop her.
"Don't run there! It's too dangerous. Let me get you a cab to take you there." The principle begged her in last minute attempts to stop her.
But it was too late. No one could stop her now.
Tears streamed down her cheeks as she ran. With only one destination in her mind. The hospital.
She closed her eyes. Please be ok, Oka-san.
She ran like she has never before. Her heart pounded with fear every step. With each step, she grew faster. Full of energy and fear. She raced through the streets, knocking people over. But she didn't care.
Please let me be there in time.
Soon, the hospital came into distance.
She burst through the entrance doors.
"Can you please tell me where is Sachiko Haruno located?" She asked the receptionist at the desk, panting.
She flipped through the pages of her hospital book. "Third floor, critical injury ward next to ER. Room #25." The nurse instructed her.
And off she went.
Sakura dashed up the stairs and up to the third floor. Surgeons were swarming the place and sick patients were being transferred to different floors.
Room 25, she thought scanning each room.
There it is! And she sprinted towards the room.
Suddenly, a cold hand was on her shoulder stopped her from entering.
It was a doctor.
"Looking for Sachiko Haruno?" He asked her gravely.
"Yes. I was told she was located here. May, I please see her?"
The doctor stared at her. "Are you Sakura Haruno? I'm very sorry. Your mother is dead." He said his voice full of piety.
Sakura's heart stopped. "No, no. This can't be true." She whispered quietly.
She shoved the door open and ran it.
Then she stopped, dead in her tracks.
There was her mother covered in a hospital sheet. Her mother's hand lifelessly danged from the bed. Sakura clasped her hand.
She stepped towards her mother and lifted up the sheet, a sheer look of pure fear and sadness was on Sakura's face.
Her mother's eyes were closed and she was as pale as a sheet. But a peaceful expression was on her face.
Sakura stared at the blood seeping through the thin hospital gown her mother wore near her stomach. Near her shoulders even there was even more blood stains.
"She died of the gunshot wound to her stomach." The doctor said sadly.
"This is just a dream." Sakura told herself and pinched herself.
Then the full blow of realization struck her then hard.
She was there and her mother was dead.
She sank to the ground and started weeping. Holding her pink hair in handfuls, miserably tugging it. Trying to tear out her beautiful pink hair. But alas, it was no use. She started pounding her fists on the ground.
"Why?" She screamed.
"WHY?" She then howled.
Her screams echoed through out the entire hospital.
But it was no use her mother was gone. Dead. Nothing or no one could bring her back.
End of flashback.
She found out later that her mother was shot by a thug, on her way to the bar where she worked as a bartender. He had shot her twice. The first bullet hit her back, wedged between her spinal cord and the second bullet hit her in the stomach. The bullet which hit her in the stomach had started seeping acid into the heart and lungs and eating it away, which was the deadly and painful cause of her death. The thug, who was drunk, apparently had mistaken her mother for one of his former notorious girlfriends.
But Sakura could never believe that reason. Both, Sakura and her mother had distinctive natural pink hair and Sakura doubted any of the thug's ex-girlfriends had natural pink hair. You could never mistake the both of them for anyone else except maybe each other.
She became bitter and hatred began to build up inside in her heart against her mother's killer. Desperate for revenge.
And so with this determination, Sakura couldn't wait for the trial for her mother's killer. She wanted to crush him with the lawyer the state had given her for free.
Days passed and soon the day of the trial came. It was a heart wrenching and horrible experience Sakura would never forget. Especially, when she in court and saw that thug looking not a single bit remorseful, claiming innocent.
It took all her willpower for her to just not to kill him in court.
Her mother's killer DA was smart, convincing, and shrewd. They ruthlessly bombarded Sakura with questions. They claimed that Sakura's mother was a cheap prostitute who worked at the bar and that their client had just made a harmless mistake and he wasn't drunk. He had no motive.
This enraged Sakura. There was no way her kind, beautiful mother was a prostitute! She had dignity.
It tore her heart to pieces to see them dishonor her mother like that.
But in the end, the juries had decided that her mother's killer could be let out on a five hundred thousand dollar bail. And so, he paid the bail and was free.
And on that day Sakura learned that there truly is no real justice in this world.
Soon, her mother's funeral came. Sakura had saved and scraped every single penny for this day. It had cost her a ton to afford a coffin, priest and services at a funeral home. The only people that attended the funeral were a handful, Sakura's friends and coworkers of her mothers from the hospital and from the bar. It was a cold and rainy day. That was also a day Sakura would never forget.
Then came the problem of who would take care of Sakura and be her guardian since she wasn't legally eighteen. Sakura's only family was her mother, she never knew who was her father and she had never met her mother's family.
She ended up in foster care, but no one wanted her for long. She was tossed around like package. Finally, social services found her mother's family and she was moved into their care.
But they weren't happy to see her. They despised her and her mother and didn't want anything to do with her. "The whore's child" she was called often. They treated her terribly, like she was some kind of disease, not allowing her to eat with the rest of her family. They confined her in a small room, giving her food every now and then and letting her go to school and the bathroom. She always heard them whispering about her and her mother, poking fun and disrespecting her mother. Kids wouldn't play with her, always whispering "Did you hear about her mom? She was a prostitute."
The people there hated her and wanted her to be gone. She was unwanted.
Finally, social services removed her from their care. They were desperate to find someone to permanently take care of her. Finally, they found a new person to take care of Sakura, "An old friend of her mother's."
But then her new guardian went missing and when finally Social Services found her new guardian whereabouts, her new about to be guardian was found dead.
The social services were very desperate to get rid of Sakura. And they arranged Sakura's guardian to be her mother's old friend's son, with ought checking his background. And all, she was told was his name "Uchiha Itachi."
She would never forget that day when she first met Itachi. Never ever. And little did she know on that day, her new guardian was a heartless crazy monster...
END OF CHAPTER 7
End of authors a/n: I really hoped you liked that. Next chapter will also have a little more about Sakura's past and her relationship with Itachi.