A/N: Hola! It's summer and I figure it's about time I updated something. I mean it's been over a year! I think part of the reason why it's so hard to write these days is because I'm losing interest in Naruto- both manga and anime- and have been that way for more than a year :(
Hoping that's gonna turn around!
3: Wrong Cause of Death
Laying on the floor and exhausted after his brief glimpse into Hell, Sasuke now found himself looking at his guardian angel. The terrifying image of fire and brimstone that would be forever etched into his memory slowly found itself being pushed into a remote corner of his mind. Now that the words 'guardian angel' flashed through his thoughts, all of the pent up frustrations he'd felt since coming to Limbo resurfaced, and Sasuke was about to make sure that this girl would get a taste of it.
"You." Sasuke spat the word vehemently to convey his fury but judging by the fact that the girl did nothing but smile obliviously at the unpleasant acknowledgement, he figured the effort only went to waste. Grunting in anger, Sasuke made to push himself off the floor when he felt a hand latch onto his arm and hoist him upright with surprising strength. Once at eye level, Sasuke finally got a good look at his angel for the first time.
There she stood, clad in white robes and withstanding his murderous aura with nothing but a smile on her face. Sasuke supposed she looked rather pretty but then wasn't that a given to all heavenly beings? After all, who has ever heard of an ugly angel? At the moment she looked rather normal since there was no halo atop her head nor did she sport a pair of iridescent wings. For all he knew, she could just have been a pink-haired, good Samaritan who saved him from being thrown into eternal damnation.
However, Sasuke knew she was the one. She was the one responsible for this entire mess starting from when the robber shot him in the gut all the way to his harassment with the bastard that threatened to send him into Hell. While still in the middle of completing his negative impression of her, she spoke rather cheerfully:
"There you go. Sorry about all of this, Sasuke. Well, first things first! As I'm sure you're already aware of, I'm your guardian angel. My name is Sakura. It's nice to finally meet you in person!"
The girl still had that nervous grin plastered on her face as if hoping they could get off on the right foot. Well, she was wrong. Dead wrong. As a response, Sasuke gave her the deadliest Uchiha glare he could muster so that it was clear that this was going to be no chummy meeting between old friends.
Sure enough, after seeing the Uchiha's dark eyes glower at her, Sakura's upbeat attitude deflated a bit much to Sasuke's pleasure. No one was immune to the glare and angels were no exception.
Sakura bit her lip and avoided eye contact with Sasuke so there'd be less pressure to begin explaining his ordeal. Without his piercing gaze upon her, she managed to pluck up the courage to start.
"Okay…I honestly don't know where to begin except to say I'm sorry…again. As a matter of fact, I'm a thousand times sorry for everything that's happened to you-"
"You think 'sorry' covers it?!" Sasuke interjected forcefully making Sakura wince. She knew he wasn't a happy person to begin with but having all of his rage directed towards her was something she'd never plan on happening.
"Let's see, uh…before we get down to business, let's go inside this empty office room here so we can have a seat. You look like you could use it." Sakura opened the nearest door and graciously motioned for him to go in first.
"You think I can use it?!" Being treated like a damsel in distress only served to make the Uchiha's disposition worse but fortunately, Sakura was completely unaware that her kind gestures weren't helping. Gritting his teeth, Sasuke ignored his shaking body and stalked past his guardian angel into the room and slumped down into a chair. He mentally ran through a list of questions and complaints to bombard Sakura with once the chance was given.
Taking a deep breath, Sakura closed the door and situated herself across from her brooding charge. She folded her hands neatly on the table and tried to think of a good place to begin.
"Alright, how about we do this? You can ask me any questions you like and I'll answer to the best of my abilities. Afterwards, I can fill you in on the rest. How does that sound?"
Sasuke scoffed but complied anyway. "Fine. Let's start with what happened back there. Care to explain why I was almost sent to Hell? I thought you people here at Limbo were all about being fair and judging people based on their good deeds, not send them off into oblivion for a minor infraction!"
Much to Sasuke's astonishment, Sakura let out a little laugh before explaining. Did she think that was some kind of joke? "Oh, so you've already heard of the routine 'Justice of Limbo' spiel?" After seeing that Sasuke didn't find that remotely amusing, she coughed and continued. "Yeah, you weren't really going to be punished. Someone was just trying to scare you- kind of like a joke. You know, funny haha…"
"A joke." His nails dug into his palms as he tried to control his temptation of bursting out of the room and hunting down the guy who pulled the prank.
"I think I know the person responsible for this. Was it a guy? Tall, long dark brown hair, crazy white eyes and a holier-than-thou attitude?" Sakura asked and ticked off the characteristics on her fingers.
"Yes. The asshole."
"Yeah, that was Neji. Sorry, he's kind of like the security guy around here. It's really easy to set off his short temper so don't worry, you aren't the only one he's tricked. What you saw was just an illusion of Hell. If it was the real deal, there'd be no way I could stop it with a mere snap of my fingers."
Sasuke mentally swore yet again that he would get revenge on the Neji bastard before he went to Heaven or Hell for good. The fatigue once again present in his body, Sasuke decided to forego most of the questions and cut right to the chase.
"Okay, just answer this last question then we're done here," Sakura was taken aback for a moment before nodding for Sasuke to go on. "Where is the exit back into the living world?"
He saw her hands tighten before she answered solemnly, "Sasuke, I can't let you go back into the living world. I'm sorry."
Sasuke ignored her completely and continued, determined to make her agree. "You know very well that I shouldn't be here right? That's why you keep apologizing left and right because you're guilty of letting this happen to me! If you want to make amends, you should lead me back to the living world where I belong. Right now!"
"I-I'll admit that it's my fault you died. Believe me this wasn't how you were supposed to meet your end. I don't know what happened but I do know that some of it is my fault. If there was any way I could bring you back to life, I would do it but I can't change the fact that you're-"
Sakura couldn't bring herself to finish the sentence and resorted to lower her head in guilt. She honestly wanted to help him go back to his comfortable lifestyle, back to his best friend, back to the world where people knew his name and where he should have lived for another couple of decades, but it just wasn't possible.
The silence in the room served as a little reprieve for the both of them. Sasuke, still stewing in his resentment and frustration, began to see the hopelessness in his case. He was being unreasonable. It wasn't like his death was unheard of. People die in all sorts of circumstances fair or otherwise all the time so why should he be any different and get special permission to come back to life?
The resignation started to settle his temper as he realized the chances of getting revived were slim to none. Maybe he should just be strong and look forward to going up…or down. He suppressed a shiver and looked at his guardian angel.
Sakura looked rather pitiful. It was obvious that she felt immense remorse for screwing up (in Sasuke's opinion) and anymore chastisement from him wouldn't help either of them so he decided to lay off. For now.
In an attempt to ease the tension, Sasuke manage to arrange his features into a stiff but calm look and said, "So explain to me why I'm in Limbo."
Surprised to finally hear words that were free of any animosity, Sakura perked up smiled so cheerfully that the Uchiha wondered whether if he'd just been duped by her acting or if she was just insanely optimistic.
"You are here in Limbo for a chance to find out what happened to you and I'm here to help!" Sakura said enthusiastically as though she were congratulating her charge for winning the lottery.
But Sasuke only heard half of what she had to say. "What? What do you mean what happened to me? I died of a gunshot wound."
Sakura shook her head and pulled a small black book out of her robes. Sasuke noticed that his name was etched onto the cover. "This book was given to me the day you were born. It's all about you, your life, everything that happened in your entire existence is in this book right here."
Sasuke eyed the book suspiciously as Sakura began flipping through the pages trying to find a certain part. "Who gave that to y-"
"Aha! See? Look." She had turned to a page near the end that marked a date in green ink which was followed by a paragraph. Scanning it over quickly, Sasuke realized that he was reading how he was supposed to die.
"I was supposed to die peacefully in my sleep?"
"Yup, that's the way to go if you ask me."
Sasuke never really gave much thought about how he would meet his end so his indifference was expected. What was more important however was that something did indeed go wrong. He most certainly didn't die on that date nor in that way.
"So I'm here to find out why I died prematurely?"
"That's right. I mean it's actually very rare when something like this happens. When your life was determined, everything is supposed to go as planned, down to the very last detail."
"And why didn't you tell me this sooner?"
Sakura laughed and closed the book. "Well in all honesty, if you had just waited in the room like Kakashi said, a lot of trouble could have been saved."
Sasuke scowled irritably but realized she was right. If there was one thing he hated as much as being dead, it was being wrong.
But that aside, Sasuke started to see a whole new light to this situation. His death was a screw up, no doubt about that. If he could play his cards right, he could have a winning hand resulting in his return to the land of the living.
Yeah, for now I'll just go along with whatever ridiculous rules they have here. And as for her…
Sasuke glanced at his guardian angel who innocently smiled back completely unaware of the scheming going on in the Uchiha's mind.
She's the key to my escape.