The Gate Amidst the Ivy

Chapter Three

(Ha! Found you, Sakura!

Ugh, Naruto!

Okay, okay, my turn!

I hate hide and seek!)

Shikamaru came to Sakura's room after her duties. Ino glanced back and forth between the two for a second, taking note of Shikamaru's tensed shoulders, and said her goodbyes. "I don't know what you did to get him so angry," she muttered to Sakura on her way out, "but I'm not getting in the crossfire."

Sakura rolled her eyes but inwardly prepared herself for war. Shikamaru rarely made an effort to seek anyone out, and when he did, it was serious.

When Ino exited, Shikamaru turned on Sakura. "So, Sakura."

"Yes, Shikamaru?"

"You're so damn careless!" he told her vehemently, his eyes shooting fire. Then abruptly his tense stance loosened, his eyes lost their spark, and he shook his head, muttering, "Troublesome."

"Oh no—did Prince Sasuke do anything?" asked Sakura worriedly, her mind immediately going back to the rather one-sided conversation the noble had had in the garden with her.

(Are you okay, Sakura?

Yes, I'm fine!

That damned blond-haired boy didn't do anything to you?

Mama, don't say such horrible things about Naruto!)

"Look," said Shikamaru, circumventing her question, "it was idiotic of you to open up that garden again. And maybe I helped you, but only because I trusted you to be careful. But the first thing you do when that prince comes home is practically scream out that you were—"

"Oh, come on, Shikamaru! I honestly didn't do anything. I was just in the garden, minding my own business, and then he came in—I even hid myself!"

"And a fine job you did, too, leaving your boots and your wig with him…"

"Wait—how do you know?" exclaimed Sakura in disbelief. "I haven't told you anything—"

"It's not that difficult to figure out," explained Shikamaru sardonically. "Your hair always did seem a bit too poofy, you know. That's often what a wig looks like on someone's head—too big and too poofy. Anyways, you were always so miserable on hot days. It doesn't take much genius to put two and two together. And do you think I haven't noticed that you've spent the last two days doing your work in the dress shoes we all bought for your birthday? You'd only use them if you didn't have your boots—and you wouldn't have your boots unless they'd been taken from you, of course. What other explanation is there? Even you're not stupid enough to lose your own boots. Sakura, you idiot."

Concernedly, Sakura, ignoring Shikamaru's heartfelt lecture, insisted, "But did he threaten you in any way, Shikamaru?"

(I don't trust that boy, Sakura.

He's fine, Mama! It's just Naruto!

You mark my words, Sakura, he's the wrong type of boy for you to hang out with—)

Shikamaru waved his hand carelessly. "Only the classic weasel words of nobles. 'I'm afraid I'm beginning to doubt the competence of the gardening staff.' 'Perhaps I will have to install annual… inspections.' 'I sincerely hope that weeding out any incompetent servants will be unnecessary. As a gardener, I'm sure you'd appreciate the need for pruning.'"

Immediately Sakura felt cold. "But, Shikamaru, wasn't he just… threatening to fire you? How can you handle this so calmly?"

"He's just bluffing," Shikamaru said. "Disregard it. He was just hoping I knew something and thought that if he threatened my job I would break."

"But—but—you do know something!"

"Well, he doesn't know that for sure, does he?"

"Shikamaru," continued Sakura, genuinely worried, "please, be careful. You may be a genius, but still, he's a noble and he could fire you at any moment."

"That's my line to you, Sakura. A troublesome woman like you won't stop going to the garden no matter how much I beg, but please, for your sake and mine… be careful, would you? There's no telling what he'd do, Sakura—he hates that garden."

Sakura nodded. "Yes, I don't want to make my life any more complicated than it is."

"I'll take your word for it, Sakura. But if I have to bail you out one more time, Sakura—"

"You won't," she said confidently, and she meant it.

Already, delicate sapphire tufts sprouted from the little green shoots of bluebells. Sakura smiled at them, fingering them lovingly, and let herself be lulled by the joyous babbling of the fountain. The calm of the garden was deceptively at odds with the turmoil within her. The parchment and pen she had confiscated from one of the many abandoned suites in the castle crinkled within her skirts. Sakura had had the sudden nameless urge to capture this moment of awakening, of rebirth, though she knew her drawing skills were mediocre at best.

(Ha! Sakura, what's that?

Shut up, Tenten!

Were you trying to draw me?

No! It was just—

You kind of failed, Sakura. I don't actually think my hairstyle is that lopsided.

Look, it's really difficult to draw things symmetrically!)

"You know, you're causing a lot of trouble for me," she told the fountain conversationally, spreading out her parchment and attempting to sketch the fountain while she spoke. "Almost more trouble than you're worth, I'll have you know. Prince Sasuke has already threatened to fire Shikamaru, and when he finds me, who knows what he'll—I mean, if he finds me, who knows what he'd do to me!" Sakura cursed herself for her slip-up. When Prince Sasuke found her? Who said he'd find her in the first place? Everyone was so damn sure he'd find her that apparently she'd lost confidence in herself as well.

She lapsed into contemplative silence after that. The only sound in the garden besides the fountain was the scratching of the pen as Sakura drew and the wild chattering of the birds.

"You know, you're quite difficult to draw," she informed the garden after a while. "And I'm not even much of an artist in the first place. I do believe we have a conflict of interests. I suppose I could give this to Ino; she's great with flowers and drawing. But she doesn't know about this garden in the first place…"

Sakura sighed and laid her parchment and pencil aside, staring absently at the clouds in the sky. Lying down, she spread out her arms and let herself sink into the wonderfully green grass.

(Sakura-chan! Come here!

Ugh, wait, Naruto! We need to—

Who cares? Come here, come here! This place is so beautiful!)

"Hey, Naruto," she whispered, letting the wind carry away her words, "remember that one day when we were supposed to be drawing water for our families, and we got lost and found that lake instead? Mama was incensed that we were so late, let me tell you, but…" But I loved that beautiful quiet there, I loved how—I can't put it into words.

(Naruto, we need to go! Mama's probably about to—

Just a minute longer here, Sakura-chan. Isn't this place beautiful?)

Sakura let go of her aura, let it spread through the garden. The soft emerald glow of the plants comforted her, and the bright energetic ruby flashes from the robins kept her on her toes.

Frowning, Sakura noticed a sickly sprout of one of the poppies. She got up and walked towards it, crouching down once she was in front of it. Then, steeling herself, she bit her thumb, drawing a small droplet of blood. She let it fall in the soil nearby the sickly little flower, and as the drop of blood sank into the soil, Sakura focused her aura around the plant. In her mind's eye she could see the pastel green of her aura enveloping the faint emerald green of the sprout, comforting it and caressing it. Immediately, the plant straightened, spreading out its leaves. Sakura smiled, satisfied.

(For every healing or growing spell you perform, Sakura, you must give an equivalent sacrifice.

Equivalent sacrifice?

Sometimes it's energy, sometimes it's blood, sometimes it's something else.)

Her reminiscing was stopped when the gate opened.

Heart beating quickly, Sakura whirled around and faced the gate.

Within the garden stood Ino.

The blonde walked in slowly, gingerly, taking in sight of the garden as though sipping very hot tea. She carried a cloth bag on her right hand. It was so utterly surreal—

(Sakura, you've been playing with that Naruto boy again!

I'm sorry, Mama. But he just looked so lonely—

The devil always wears the most pitiful disguises!

Naruto isn't a devil!)

"So this is where you're always disappearing off to," Ino said wonderingly.

"I-Ino?"

"Don't think I haven't forgotten that you totally hid this from me," said Ino sharply. "But in case you were wondering, I found a pretty cheap black wig fairly similar to your hair at the bazaar. I expect you to pay me back soon. If you're wondering how I found you here, it's a fairly strange story. I'm pretty surprised myself. I asked Shikamaru where you were, you see, and he just handed me his gardener's keys and told me to go into the section of the gardens that's locked off. I thought you'd be in the maze or something, but wow… this is some secret, isn't it?"

"Do you—mind?" asked Sakura tentatively.

"Mind? Well, of course I mind," retorted Ino, her voice deceptively calm and good-natured. "I mean, I'm the only one who knows your hair is pink, right? And you still haven't told me about the garden? And even after I told you that I'd totally kill you if I found out you were hiding any more secrets from me? I'm going to think up of some horrible punishment soon, you know, but in the meantime—bluebells? Why on earth did you plant bluebells? The poppies were a good choice; they'll add some variety to the garden once they bloom. But you have far too much blue going on. I'm going to have to find some daffodils and daisies to offset the blue, though I'm sure once the rose vines bloom this garden will have more color. It's a bit late to plant them, to be honest, but I think we'd manage—"

Sakura blinked. She could never be sure quite what to expect from Ino. "But—why did Shikamaru even—?"

"You tell me. You probably swore him to a vow of secrecy or something, didn't you? Maybe he felt I had a right to know. At least he has some common sense," grumbled Ino, ambling over towards where Sakura stood.

Once she got to where the pink-haired girl stood, she handed the cloth bag over. "Open it," the blue-eyed girl demanded. "My gift to you. Not that you deserve it after this stunt you pulled, but take it anyways. I expect your eternal and undying gratitude."

"Of—of course," replied Sakura, faintly amused, accepting the bag.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" said Ino, crossly and testily, crossing her arms. "Try it on."

(Don't you like this dress, Sakura?

Of—of course.

Well then, what are you waiting for? Why aren't you trying it on?

But—Mama—why?

Just because your father is sick doesn't mean you can't enjoy your childhood!

Ah…

So try it on!)

Sakura smiled at Ino and fastened it on her head. Its heavy stifling weight was unfamiliar yet strangely comforting. Sakura just then realized how naked she had felt without a wig.

Impulsively she threw her arms around the taller Ino. The girl's blonde hair tickled her nose. Ino laughed, and Sakura laughed with her.

(She threw her arms around the blond-haired boy, his ocean-blue eyes opening wide.

S-Sakura?

I love you, Naruto! You're like—a big brother or something. A little brother, sometimes.

I love you too, Sakura. You're like the family I never had.)

Sakura let go and took a step back.

Ino reached out her hand and patted Sakura on the head, fastening the wig in place. The rough raven hair brushed against Sakura's neck.

"I had to get a shorter one," explained Ino, "because we couldn't really explain you suddenly gaining about six inches in your hair, could we? And I trimmed it a little bit on the way here with some scissors from the kitchen. I knew this wig would work out perfectly. See, you can trust good ol' Ino!"

"Thanks, Ino, again," gushed Sakura genuinely. She gestured around the garden, at the fountain, the plants, the vines, the gates, the trees. "I'm sorry for not telling you, honestly, but it was like… I didn't want to get you in trouble, Ino, really I didn't."

Her close friend rolled her eyes. "It's a bit too late for that, you know. I'm going to crash with you as it is if Prince Sasuke ever finds out about your hair color. But you better not try to apologize. I want to stay angry for as long as possible, and it's easier to do that if I think you're utterly ungrateful for any of the sacrifices I've made for you. Anyways, we need to go soon. Aoki's probably going to start wondering where we both are if we don't get out of here."

Sakura nodded, adjusting the wig again. Taking the cloth bag with her, she forgot all about the piece of parchment she had left lying about in the garden.

(Hey, Sakura!

Yes, Aoki-san?

Go to the western suite and clean out the first three rooms. Oh, take Umayo with you. No one's been there for the last five years. You might find things a bit… dusty.

A bit?

Well. Dust shouldn't bother maids, anyways. Umayo, get over here! Do what Sakura tells you to do!)

Umayo squinted at Sakura. "Is it just me, Sakura, or is your hair a little different?"

Sakura shrugged. "Ino always said my hair was too limp or something. She gave me a sort of shampoo that was supposed to add… volume to my hair, I think. Did it work?"

The other girl nodded. "Oh, definitely. Do you think Ino could give me some of it too? I want to try it."

Sakura bit her lip, then quickly lied, "Nah, I think she gave the last of it to me. I'll have to ask her. Maybe she'll buy it again next time we go to the bazaar, but you know the wages for maids aren't the greatest wages out there."

Pouting, Umayo agreed, "You got that right! I can barely eat, much less buy spare trinkets, with what they give me."

Sakura nodded mechanically as Umayo launched into a description of her financial woes. The west wing of the castle wasn't going to clean itself, after all. Diligently, she began dusting the stone sculptures in the extremely decorative, extremely impractical first room of the west wing.

"—and, can you believe it, I have to be extra careful because it turns out Prince Sasuke is doing an inspection of all the servants—"

"What?" interrupted Sakura.

Umayo frowned. "Weren't you listening to me? Prince Sasuke told Shikamaru-san that he was going to be pruning some of the more incompetent members of the staff and basically inspecting everything. So now we have to be on our toes every minute of the day." Fretting, she added, "What if he fires me, Sakura? I worked so hard to get this job—"

(Oh, Tenten, what will I do if I'm fired? Papa won't be able to get the medicines that he needs without my help—

Relax, Sakura! You just messed up once, that's all. You'll be fine.)

Rolling her eyes, Sakura pointed to the bed in the ornate room. "Make the bed while I dust everything else out. If he walks in now, all he's going to see is a responsible servant doing her job and a maid chatting the servant's ear off. You don't want that, do you?"

"Oh, yeah," agreed Umayo distractedly, heading for the bed. "Izanami was telling me that Prince Sasuke was asking around about new servants. Oh my, Sakura, what if he's going to fire all the new servants because he decided he couldn't afford them—"

Sakura decided not to tell Umayo that she was a new servant as well. "Calm down, Umayo," she ordered.

(Granny Tsunade—Papa… Papa is much sicker now! What will I do? What if he doesn't get better this time? What if—

Calm down, Sakura! Fretting will get you nowhere! Back to your studies now.)

Umayo sighed, and both of them lapsed into silence. Then, suddenly, the younger girl perked up again and demanded, "I heard from Ino that Lady Hinata called you up to her room. What did she want to say to you?"

(—certain circumstances made it quite clear that a match with her was c-completely un-unsuitable—

It—it is only a matter of—of when—

I feel we—we could have been good friends.)

After a long, deliberating pause, Sakura said, "Nothing important. She just asked me how maids spent their days and what their lives were like. That sort of thing, really. You know how peculiar nobles can be sometimes."

Umayo's skeptical silence made it quite clear what she thought of that explanation. "Uh-huh," she said. "No, really, what did she ask?"

"Fine," sighed Sakura, pretending to give in to Umayo's questioning. Honestly, sometimes it was better to just answer the persistent girl's questions. "To be honest, I think she was just lonely, and I happened to catch her eye. She just told me some old legends about this castle."

"Oh, poor girl," said Umayo. "But lonely? Isn't she the heiress to the Hyuugas? She must have other nobles hanging off her arms left and right, waiting on her every word."

Sakura supposed some unimportant details would give her glossed-over account a sense of credibility. "I don't know about that, really, Umayo. You should have seen the way the servants were treating the poor girl. They were very respectful, of course, but you could tell just from their eyes and their tone of voice that they hated Lady Hinata. Or if they didn't hate her, they thought she was an absolute idiot or something like that."

"Oh, how sad," agreed Umayo. "And all that wealth and beauty and splendor around her, too. But I thought nobles could just dismiss their servants? Why didn't she dismiss them if they were so… hateful?"

"She seemed very polite. And she was so very shy. I just don't think she had the courage to do anything like that. You should have seen her, Umayo," admitted Sakura. "I felt like… protecting her from the other people in the world, almost, ridiculous as that sounds, me being a maid and she being a noble. But I'm not sure a girl like that is cut out to be the heiress to one of the most powerful families in the land."

"Shush, you," insisted Umayo. "What if someone else heard us? What you said practically amounts to treason, you know!"

Sakura shrugged.

(I hate nobles, Sakura-chan! I hate them, I hate them, I hate them! They took away everything!

Naruto, shut up! What if someone besides me heard that? Do you know what they'd do to you?

I don't care! Those stupid, selfish nobles—

Naruto!)

"You look so far away," remarked Umayo. "You get like that a lot."

"Huh? Oh! You just—reminded me of a conversation I had once."

Intrigued, Umayo asked, "Really? What?"

"Don't you have to make the bed?" deflected Sakura.

"Fine. Say, Sakura, I've been wondering, where did you learn your healing magic anyways? I thought magic was pretty rare."

(What do you want, Granny Tsunade?

Have you heard of magic before, Sakura?

Well, yeah. Who hasn't? Anyways, what does that have to do with anything?

Do you want to learn how to—comfort your father's pain?

Wait… are you offering to… teach me…?

It's only a temporary thing, of course. I'm not sure we could work together. But you do have potential.

But I thought you needed—magic for… spells?

Of course.

But I don't have—

If you didn't have magic, do you think I would be offering?)

Sakura shrugged. "My magic isn't particularly strong. I just happened to be lucky enough to live near this old woman. She was a healer and taught me the basics of spells like that. But I didn't get very far."

Lying. I've gotten far too good at it.

Umayo leaned closer, abandoning the pretense of doing work altogether. "Regardless, do you think you could teach me how to do things like that, Sakura?"

The pinkette turned her back on Umayo, making her way to the windows to clean them.

"Well?" insisted Umayo.

"I'm sorry, Umayo, but—you don't have any magic at all, to tell the truth. I could teach you the theory, but you just wouldn't be able to do it no matter how hard you tried," explained Sakura truthfully.

The fellow maid let out a sigh of disappointment. "Ah, well." Losing interest in the conversation, she turned back to the large, four-poster bed, with ornate figures carved into the dark mahogany wood, and sneezed at the dust the bed sheets whipped up into the air. "I wish Prince Sasuke had never come here in the first place," she muttered resentfully. "Now we have to clean up rooms that no one even goes into anyways, all because we need to keep up appearances."

Sakura rolled her eyes and continued dusting the figurines.

Sakura and window-cleaning seem to be popping up each chapter. Interesting how these things work out.

And it appears that everyone in the castle is finding Sakura in her secret garden except for Sasuke himself. XD

This chapter may not be as good as the first or second ones. Writer's block has hit, and it has hit hard. –hides- Oh well, I tried to get it out in time for the weekend.

Sorry! No SasuSaku interaction in this chapter either. But just to tease you, I'll tell you that in the next chapter something very big involving Sasuke and Sakura will happen. :D

Yes, this chapter was mostly filler (like the second one), but Ino giving Sakura a new wig was important to the plot, and I needed to get it out of the way. And a Sasuke cameo just didn't fit into the picture.

Review and a leprechaun will come and give you a pot of gold!