Asgjkl. I am now licensed to teach swimming (WIN), and my mommy just bought me a pair of really expensive headphones (EPIC WIN). LIFE IS SO GOOD TO MEH.
Disclaimer: Hiss.
Dedication: To my Eleni. ILY forever.
P.S.: Stars is a really good band… So kyoot, but sad… And I love Metric. Canadian electro-pop indie FOR THE FREAKING WIN.
---
Sakura had to escape the Court. She had to.
Sasuke - no wonder he had been so irritatingly familiar. Why had she not recognized him?
Sakura smiled bitterly to herself. Well, her body had recognized him; the revolting sense of association had been enough to tell her that he was not a good being for her. She whipped around a corner, her dress flaring angrily, and headed straight to the North Tower, to be alone.
But, of course, she nearly collided with Hinata. Sakura looked at her friend, relief washing over her features. "Hinata-!" she managed, but Hinata hushed her.
"C'mon, Mi'lady, we're almost safe, and then you can vent all you want."
Sakura shut her mouth; her lips thinned into a single, angry red slash across her face. Hinata was right. There were better places to have an emotional breakdown; the long stone hallways of the castle, -dark, now-, were not one of such places.
The two girls whisked themselves into the North Tower, and Sakura slammed the door hard enough to make the wooden frame rattle.
"He- he- Hinata, he just-!" the rosette princess began, but was simply too annoyed with the entire situation to completely get the sentence out of her mouth.
"Sakura, that was Uchiha Sasuke. You do know that, right?"
Sakura seethed. "Yes, he told me after we'd danced."
Hinata stared at her pointedly. "And you didn't believe me when I said you two would end up married, even when you were engaged. You were drooling. "
Sakura's face was a mottled shade of pink, as she choose to ignore Hinata's last statement for both of their sanities. The colour drained out of her face, as did her anger. "Hinata, he said he was going to be husband."
Hinata studied her nails. Hm, they still rather needed some manicuring… "Well, it was what your mother wanted, correct?"
"Yes," Sakura muttered. "But I was so young, and he was so-"
Hinata fixed her friend with a glare. "Sakura, don't start. We both know you have to marry for the good of the kingdom. Love doesn't figure into that equation. You know it, and I know it."
Sakura sighed, and deflated a little. She did know that; she was a Lady and a Princess; of course she knew that.
The North Tower was quiet, while the Lady Sakura tried to calm herself. She was a princess. She had to be fit for polite society; it was expected of her, nothing more, and nothing less.
"Now," Hinata said; her voice was gentle. "Are you ready to go back downstairs, and show that man that you are not his, anymore?"
Sakura darkly muttered something inaudible, but that Hinata was sure went something along the lines of "I was never his in the first place…"
Hinata simply laughed, and led her friend out of the North Tower door. They were not surprised to find Temari coming up the stairs with Tenten; the group of them had always been much attuned to each other's emotions.
Temari said "Ino and Karin couldn't get away. What happened?"
Sakura continued to mutter darkly under her breath, and Hinata simply rolled her eyes. She kind-of grinned at the other two, and said "Sakura got a little grumpy at one of her suitors, that's all."
"Oh, so nothing new?" Tenten said, and mimicked Hinata's eye-roll.
"No, not really."
Lady Sakura looked annoyed, as her friends bantered back and forth; her being the prime subject of their ridicule. But it was all in good fun, and the four girls descended the stone staircase back to the rest of the main castle.
The orchestra had livened up; no one had noticed the absence of the Princess and three of her Ladies. Ino and Karin were more then making up for the lack of royalty; they shone like sparks of star-glow on the dance floor, surrounded by Lords and Ladies, drawing people to them like moth to frozen flame.
Sakura drew a breath of the familiarly-scented air, and allowed the smiling-Princess façade to slip into place.
She was among her Court; she could not speak her mind, could not sway to the music of the orchestra alone, could not simply forget etiquette and manners, could not be as she would be.
Sometimes, Sakura thought, it was really a pain being a Princess.
But the night went on, and so did the never-ending fountain of drinks. Yummy drinks, fizzy with bubbles up her nose, and sweet, so sweet - almost sinfully sweet, almost poisonously sweet…
The people in the room began to distort together as Sakura's eyes grew tired; sunny-blonde-blue-eyes-not-Ino and dark-dark-dark-reminders-of-yesterday and pale-white-reckless-smirk-purple-eyes and goofy-grin-red-tattoos and dark-hair-lazy-smile and quiet-quiet-pale-eyes-not-Hinata all smeared and blurred, the vague outlines of her Court hazing into each other, like wisps of smoke.
And Sakura didn't really think, anymore.
She thought she might have been dancing with someone much too old and much too ugly, but she didn't really know; she was too tired to know.
---
She was never to know that Hinata and Karin dragged her back to the North Tower late that night. She was not to know that her friends sighed, and wondered who had tried to poison their princess, this time.
She was never to know, as they all -the others (except Ino; she was still dancing) found their way back to the Tower, as always- curled up comfortably in their various areas, and fell asleep.
---
It was still dark when Sakura opened her eyes, a splitting headache pounding through her head.
But it was not the pain that had woken her - it was the ragged breathing in her ear. It was a breath pattern she knew, and when she carefully turned her head, she saw Ino staring fearfully at her, her eyes wide.
"Ino-?"
"Your mother wants to see you," the blonde girls said, her voice very, very low, and much unlike herself.
"Wha-?"
"Please, Sak, she looks bad. She's right outside."
Sakura was still waking up, but that sentence woke her enough to worry her. Her mother never came up to this part of the castle - privacy was sacred, to the Queen. And the North Tower was private, for the Princess and her Ladies.
The Queen would never intrude on something so sacred, not unless it was of the absolute importance.
So Lady Sakura -hair skewed, rough, and unladylike around the edges- pulled herself, and, without even trying to make herself presentable, went straight to the door. She pushed it open; years of practice had made the action entirely silent, and she backed out of the North Tower.
The last thing she saw before the door closed was Ino's big blue eyes, staring fearfully back at her.
---
The Queen was standing on the landing, her back facing towards the North Tower door. The moonlight that was filtering in through the small window atop the North Tower landing trailed along the strands of Sakura's mother's white hair, and lit her with an ethereal glow. This was nothing new, to Sakura. What was new, however, was simple.
The Queen was fidgeting.
Sakura was astounded; she had never seen her mother fidget before; it had always seemed too undignified for Sakura's lovely-lovely mother, to do something as childish as fidget.
"Mother?" Sakura asked.
The Queen turned towards her, a silent gasp on her lips. "Sakura, my love, my darling child, you're alright. Thank god-"
Sakura tilted her head, confused. "Of course I'm fine, mother. I'm always fine."
The Queen shook her head wildly, long white hair spilling everywhere. It was then that Sakura knew something was truly wrong.
Her Lady mother would never allow such an unkemptness to her, if nothing was wrong.
Sakura almost began to fidget, as well, and looked down at the ground. Had she done something wrong? No, it can't have been, her mother would have been happy that she'd danced with the Lord Uchiha…
Then she felt her mother's arms closing around her, and Sakura confusion level took a jump into twilit territory. This was unheard of.
"Oh, child… I love you, so very, very much. Your father and I, we love you, so."
"Mother?" Sakura whispered. What on earth was her mother on about? She knew they both adored her; she adored them, too.
The Queen pulled away, and Sakura was dazed to see tears shining around the rims of her mother's eyes. The glow from the moonlight made it all the more unreal, and for a moment, a flicker of fear whispered through Sakura.
Either this was a poison-induced dream, or her mother really was standing in the moonlight in front of her, crying.
"Sakura… I was - so wrong. It was such a - a huge mistake. We should have listened to you."
"What? Mother-!"
"Shush, child, and listen," the Queen said softly, and Sakura immediately quieted. "You're not safe here, anymore. You need to - you need to run. Please, my darling daughter, you must run. Run as far as you can, and do not come back. Please."
Sakura stared at her, so utterly befuddled that she could only gape.
Her mother, apparently, had expected this, and held out something for Sakura to take. Sakura didn't even look at it; it was small and heavy in her palm, and eerily cold.
The Queen smiled sadly, the moonlight curling along the tear tracks on her cheeks. Sakura swallowed, a hard lump in her throat. "It is to keep you safe. Temari will understand."
And then the Queen turned, and began to slowly, regally, walk down the steps of the North Tower.
Sakura could not restrain herself. She called after her mother, in a desperate voice "Mother, wait! I don't understand! Please, I-!"
The Queen stopped, turned, and smiled at her daughter. The girl was clutching that special, special item close, and looking terrified. "You will be fine, child. Go back into the Tower, and quietly wake your friends. Pack your clothes, and all your jewels. And then run. And do not look back."
The Queen paused, and then said, in a softer voice. "Never look back."
"But Mother-!"
The Queen's voice turned steely. "Now, Sakura. I command it."
Sakura gulped. Her mother never commanded her to do anything, ever. Ever. But her mother was standing before her, breaking into many, many shattered, jagged shards of something - it was something that Sakura did not understand.
So she gulped again, closed her green-green eyes, and nodded. She whispered "Yes, mother."
A moment later, the barest brush of lips against her forehead told Sakura that her mother had moved. "I love you, my beautiful daughter. Never forget that," the Queen murmured.
Sakura's eyes shot open, desperation terrifying her.
Her mother was already gone.
---
Sakura flew back into the Tower. Her head was a disorder of confusion, terror, and worry, fear coursing through her blood. She slammed the door behind her; that, on its own, woke the other inhabitants of the Tower.
The Princess hadn't even realized she had been crying; she did not feel the horrified, frozen droplets on her cheeks, did not notice the salted liquid clinging to her lashes.
She simply looked at Ino, sitting by the fire, and then at the others, in the room. Tenten and Hinata were groggily waking, and Karin was still dead to the world, but Temari was awake, entirely, staring at the thing in Sakura's hand, a strange, sad understanding flitting across her face.
Sakura walked over to her, and sat down next to her. She extended her fist, and let her genius friend take the thick gold disc from her. "Temari-"
"So they're sending us away? Why?" the girl asked, and gently pressed a clasp that Sakura had not previously noticed.
"My mother - said she, she made a- a mistake. She didn't - didn't explain," Sakura whispered brokenly.
The gold disc split in two, and suddenly became a thick, golden pocket-watch. Sakura watched Temari stare down at it, the sad smile fixed on her lips. "Did she say to run?"
"Yes."
"Then let's not disappoint Her Majesty," Temari said quietly, and helped her friend off of the bed. She held up the golden pocket-watch. "Sakura, do you know what this is?"
"No," Sakura whispered again. She was so tired, and she didn't understand. She wanted her mother - nothing more, nothing less.
"This, my Lady, is a Whorld-Chronometer," Temari told her quietly.
Of course, the entire room was listening intently; the only other noise besides Temari's honey-gravel voice was the crackling of the fire.
Temari continued, sensing that Sakura did not want to ask the obvious question; the girl was still far too hurt at what her mother had said, but if what Temari was thinking was correct, then they did not have the time to waste.
"It's only a prototype; my father built it. It - well, I think it gives you the power to change worlds. I think."
"What?!" Tenten said. The silence of the room was broken by her shock. "It does what?!"
Temari shrugged. "I've never used it, but father said that it works; I don't doubt him. I also kind of-; well, I helped him build it. I know how it works."
"How?!"
Temari's eyes lit up; for once, she had a willing audience, she could explain her brain processes; they would get it for once-.
"Ladies, please remember why we're here," Karin said, deadpan. She had moved to Sakura's side, her arms currently locked around her cousin's shaking frame. "Auntie said we had to leave, right?!"
Sakura shook her head, and clung to Karin. "She said- she said I had to get my jewels packed, and clothes, and to get you guys to come, and-"
Temari calmed. "Yes, she may have-; I forgot. I'm sorry, Sakura, but-… Well, there's a photogram, on here. It's probably your mother."
Temari pressed something else on the inside of the split golden disc, on the clear glass covering, and gently put the little thing down.
A pale blue image flickered up from the discs; merging until the Queen appeared. She looked ghostly, and when her voice filled the room, it echoed eerily throughout the normally-warm stone walls.
"Hello, girls. If you're listening to this, then Sakura did as she was told, for once."
The voice stopped, as the Queen's voice took a silent gulp of air. The echo-y voice continued "This world is no longer safe for you; the kingdom is no longer ours. I do not know if I will live out this night. Danzou will not allow it - he will rule, and we stood in his way. The King and I will be dead by morning."
"I do not want the same to happen to you. You must run. Run through worlds and worlds, until you are so far away from here that you have no memory of this place. We want you to be safe, and as long as you remain in our beautiful, beautiful world, you're not very safe at all."
"I love you, children. And I trust you to protect my Sakura; keep her safe. But run! Don't look back! Go, now! Take what you need, and don't stop running."
"I am… truly sorry."
The room went silent, and the recording tapered off. The girls all stared at each other in horror (excusing Sakura; this had simply confirmed something she had not wanted to believe, in the first place.)
Hinata, too, moved to the Princesses' side. She said "It's okay, Sakura. We'll figure this out, as we go along, I guess. C'mon, get up, we need to pack. Her Majesty wouldn't say it, not if she didn't mean it."
Sakura nodded. She was shocked, and tired, and scared. There was nothing about this night that was right - everything hurt. Was it a dream? It had to be a dream - Sakura pinched herself, winced, and waited for the world to change, as it always did, in dreams.
When it didn't, Sakura's heart froze in place.
This was no dream.
But her mother had been very clear - get away from here. It rung painfully in Sakura's ears, as she went about collecting her things; she had nothing left.
But where were they to go? What Temari was talking about was preposterous - crossing worlds like they were fields was entirely impossible! And it was ridiculous! And it was-
It was all they had to go on.
Sakura didn't even notice the flurry of movement around her as she numbly pulled on a pair of breeches, another loose, white shift, and, out of habit, tied her sword to her hip.
Every jewel she (or any one of them, for that matter) owned had been slipped into a bag, and given to Hinata for safekeeping; travel clothes -Ino regretfully packed only three lovely-lovely dresses-; Tenten had stuffed weapons upon weapons into her bags-…
And then time was up, and they were ready to go.
It was entirely surreal, to Sakura; they stood around the Tower, looking at each other, wearing brown cloaks over mute-coloured clothing.
Temari took out the Whorld-Chronometer. The dirty-blonde genius-girl hit the clasp, and it opened, again. This time, though, she hit something else on the glass that covered the thing's innards, and a low, strangely comforting humming slid through the air.
The six girls sighed in unison; it was so soothing, so quiet-
The humming grew slower, the cadence rising and falling, and a warm blue light poured out of the glass insides of the Whorld-Chronometer; an unearthly wind sprung up out of nowhere, and the blue light got warmer, and more intense, and-
And then they were gone.