Amaya blinked in surprise. She looked from the card to up at Temari as if waiting for her to explain.
Kankuro and Temari just stood there dumfounded and wide-eyed.
"Temari? Explain please." Kankuro turned to his sister and said.
"I-uh don't know. I've never seen this happen. I thought that chakra could only be wind, fire, water, earth or lightning natured." Temari said still staring at the card.
"Wait! I got an idea! She is fire and water natured because when water puts out a fire its turns into black ash!" Kankuro said confident that he was right.
Temari turned her gaze to look at her brother. "No that can't be it. If it was ash then it would've turn into ash not just stay black."
"Gaara's here." Amaya said flatly and as if on cue Gaara appeared in a burst of sand.
'She's good at sensing chakra. I didn't notice Gaara at all.' Temari thought.
"What are you doing here?" Temari asked.
"Checking on your training." Gaara answered.
"Oh really? Are you sure you aren't trying to escape from that huge pile of paperwork in your office? Kazekage-sama." Temari teased.
Gaara didn't answer just scowled at his sister.
"Uh Gaara? We got a problem." Kankuro said pointing to the card in Amaya's hand.
Gaara raised a nonexistent eyebrow.
Temari explained about the cards and what happened to Amaya's.
"Take it to the village elders." Gaara told them. And with that he left in another burst of sand.
"He seemed different yesterday." Amaya said flatly.
"He always seems different when he's doing his job as the village Kazekage. And I slipped sake into his water at the bar yesterday and he always gets talkative when he has alcohol in his system." Temari commented.
'They have a weird family' Amaya thought to herself.
"Come on lets go the village elders." Kankuro said eager to get the elders to explain and hopefully say that he was right about his theory.
Kankuro and Temari led Amaya to the village elders: Chiyo-baa-sama, and Ebizo-jii-sama. Then Temari showed them the black card and explained what happened. They thought on it for a moment and then Kankuro mentioned his theory.
"That's idiotic. It would have turned to ash." Chiyo-baa-sama said.
The word 'idiotic' in Japanese kanji fell on top of Kankuro's head anime style. Then he huddled in the corner in depression.
"Please ignore my brother. He has been acting a little weird this morning." Temari said to Chiyo-baa-sama.
"I'm not sure about what this card means." Chiyo-baa-sama said obviously giving it a lot of thought.
"Is it possible that her chakra leans towards shadows? I once meant a guy that could control shadows." Temari said.
"Hmm… I don't think so." Chiyo-baa-sama said, "Amaya-san was it? Could you please gather some chakra in your hand and try to make it visible."
Amaya gather her chakra in her palm. It was black. Then she released the chakra and it was no longer visible.
"Weird." Kankuro said from beside Temari no longer in anime depression.
"What's your surname?" Chiyo-baa-sama asked.
"Kaage." Amaya answered.
"See. Her last name does mean shadow." Temari pointed.
"Hmm…I don't know anything about that clan. Is there any special techniques your clan can do?" Chiyo-baa-sama asked.
Amaya thought about the Haruno curse. Maybe this had something to do with it. But in Suna, she is Amaya Kaage not Sakura Haruno so she couldn't tell them. So she just shook her head no.
"… I really don't know. The only thing I can think of is that your charka might be darkness natured, but I've never heard of that. I say you should try and do training on nature manipulation with your charka and see what happens. Because I've never seen this before." Chiyo-baa-sama suggested.
Temari, Kankuro, and Amaya nodded and left.
When they got back to the training fields it was dark so they just decided to call it a day.
When Amaya got back to her apartment she looked at the book explaining the curse.
Upon close inspection she noticed that quite a few of the pages were missing. She also noticed a small open where the book cover meet the book's hard cover.
When she pulled the pocket open a small folded up piece of paper fell out of it.
She read it-
In hatred and anger she found power. Shunned by all she once knew, for who she now was.
The darkness of her heart showed in her charka.
Her power was over the dark, the black air.
She didn't know how to train when she discovered her charka's nature, but it all came to her. Almost literally, the black air flocked around her.
The empty void in her soul that the curse-
It cut off there because the page was torn in half. Amaya stuffed the page back in the book and closed it.
The book seemed to be talking about her. Maybe she had power over the 'dark' or 'black air'. She decided to find out the next day. For now she needed to sleep.
(The Next Day at the Training Grounds)
Temari and Kankuro were practicing their techniques and sparing while Amaya was sitting off by herself on a rock.
"Is she being lazy? She needs to train! I'm going over there and telling her to start training!" Temari said as she began to walk away from Kankuro and towards Amaya.
But then darkness began gathering around Amaya. Temari paled in fear and began walking away.
"Kankuro, do you consider this to be something suspicious?" Temari asked.
Kankuro nodded.
"I'm going to go tell Gaara about this. You keep an eye on her." Temari said before running off to the Kazekage's office.
Amaya looked around her. It was odd. All she had to do was will the darkness to come and flocked around her like a shield. Just like that paper said.
She gathered the black air in her hand. She was always good at charka control so she was practicing controlling the black air before she used it to see what it could do.
(At the Kazekage's office)
"Gaara, I saw Amaya at the training grounds. The air around her was becoming darkness. I've never heard of a shinobi having a power like that!" Temari told him.
"Is there a point to what your saying?" Gaara asked.
"You told me to report anything suspicious about that girl, so I am. I think it was an act of insanity for you to let her in this village!"
"The girl was a rare power, it doesn't mean that she is evil." Gaara said flatly.
"You don't know that! Actually you don't know anything about that girl! She could be evil!-" Temari continued to yell in frustration until Gaara held up a hand to silence her.
"Or she could help the village with her power. Do you have any proof of her being evil? Has she done anything wrong?" Gaara said trying to end the conversation because his sister was getting on his nerves.
Temari opened her mouth to answer but then she realized that she didn't have any proof. She hadn't done anything wrong. She almost hadn't done anything at all, because she was so quiet and mysterious.
Temari head out the door without another word. But before she closed the door she said, "If this girl becomes a danger to the village, it will all be on your head."
Gaara sighed in relief when Temari finally closed the door and left. But he thought about her last words.
(Back At the Training Grounds When Temari finally got back)
"How did it go?" Kankuro asked Temari.
She shook her head in frustration, "Gaara just never listens to me."
The days and weeks passed as Amaya trained by herself with her new power and Kankuro and Temari trained with each other.
Amaya had never really started her job at the hospital. They told her to start after the Chuunin exams were over so she could have time to train.
Finally the month before the Chuunin exams was over and the exams were finally here.
A/N: I finally updated! Sorry it took so long. Blame writer's block and the start of school. I found out something interesting when doing research for this story. Kishimoto Masashi said that he made Sakura initially unlikable by design. So I guess everyone that hates the real Sakura, not the one in my story weren't even supposed to like her.
Well, Please Review!