A/N Happy New Year, everyone!
Thank you to TheFeyRa for reviewing! Really appreciate it! :D
Everything's turning turning turning…
I'm still burning in these flames…
But when you come with that bucket of water
I know everything will be okay.
Sakura
Sakura is surprised when Temari comes up to her during lunch.
A nice, cool November day, leaves fluttering, almost all gone from their usual spot in the trees. They are a palette of paint for nature to draw on.
Of course, people can draw on it too. Like right now. Some of the members from Akatsuki- Sasori, Deihara, Hidan- are stacking the leaves into a big pile and burning it, laughing as it goes up into flames. Sakura doesn't understand why one would find that enjoyable, but ignores it. Everyone else seems to be doing the same, since no teacher comes out to scold them.
Art is fun, in the simplest way to put it. Fun. Naruto and Kiba and Hinata are all there, so it's good. Fun for all.
Asuma-sensei liked her report she did on the Civil War. Biology is good, as long as she gets out of the classroom before Jiraya starts to give a lecture about frogs, or before Gaara starts packing his stuff. But she can't help but saying; it is a bit boring now.
When she confided this to Sasuke (He is a nice person, he really is) he laughed and called her spoiled, in a good way.
Temari swoops down on her like a bat, and starts gawking at her.
"What the hell did you say to Gaara to make him come to school again? I mean, even his therapist couldn't- how could you-"
The younger girl shrugged, poking at her hair. Temari stared at her in awe. "You know, I think you should come to our house more often- just to help Gaara… He's not the most social person out there, barely has any friends except for that Naruto kid who's a bit whacko, so it would be nice if you could…"
"…I thought we talked about this, Temari." A quiet voice said, obviously displeased.
Both of them were totally unaware that Gaara had snuck up behind them. His piercing teal eyes were now glaring at his older sister. His icy voice stopping the atmosphere completely. Sakura could swear she saw beads of sweat coming down Temari's face.
"But, she's helping you get better-"
The small boy cut her off with a glare.
The awkwardness between siblings made her nervous, so she was about to slip away when Temari grabbed her shoulders.
"She's going to help you, whether you like it or not!" The blond's voice became usually high-pitched, but she stood her ground firmly, not averting from her younger brother's gaze.
He glared at her, and then at Sakura, and left.
"W-Wait, I can't- You told me to avoid-"
"You know what, forget what I said before. He didn't attack you, which is a first. That means you're a miracle worker." Temari's words were coming fast and strong.
"Bu-But he's crazy!"
"Everyone's a little bit crazy. Hell, I bet you're pretty crazy yourself,"
Sakura wants to scream and shout. She didn't want to get dragged into this.
(Then why were you worried about that Subaku boy?)
"Please Sakura, just.. I want to make his life enjoyable before… I haven't been a very good sister, I admit. I know he won't forgive me that easily, so-"
The bell rings, cutting her off. Temari clears her throat and says to her, "Good luck," and dashes inside, wanting to catch the bell. Sakura is still standing there, frozen, dumbfounded.
A few days before, she would've said yes right away. But now, she wasn't sure.
A burning rage flares up when Sakura realizes what Temari meant by those last words.
(She doesn't care, hon. Not about him, anyways.
No one does.)
Orochimaru-sensei is lounging at his desk, as he always does before the bell rings. Sakura is observing Gaara, who is sitting in the corner, immobile, as Lee (in his green jumpsuit) flocks around him like a bunch of birds. He twitters to the other boy and the latter is trying his best to ignore him. Sometimes he glares with jade eyes, but Lee pretends not to notice.
Sakura smiles at the weird acquaintanceship they have. The pink haired girl bounces up to Lee and pulls him away. She sees a faint blush on his cheeks.
"Ah, Sakura-chan! Beautiful and young as ever, I see!"
Now she can feel her cheeks becoming red too. "Thank you Lee. What would you think of Gaara?"
Lee frowns. "I can't say. He rarely talks, and he sometimes comes to school with these awful scars. I've heard rumors about him killing his own brother and uncle, but you know about rumors," He shrugs. "Unreal most of the time,"
"Why do you try and talk to him?" She presses. A glance at the clock tells her there's one more minute until the bell rings.
"As long as you try hard, you can accomplish anything!" He grins and gives her a thumbs up while winking. "I don't believe that Gaara-san is dangerous. Just misunderstood,"
"Classsss, get into your sseatss," Orochimaru hisses. Sakura turns to thank Lee for his time, but realizes he's already in his seat.
He's fast…
There's a tiny ball of wrinkled paper heading towards her. She scrambles in her seat to catch it, and there is a tiny bust of giggles as the other students see her little 'show'. Luckily, the teacher doesn't notice.
In hasty writing it says,
"Sakura, why are you trying to get information about Gaara? He's dangerous, stay away.
He kills a lot Sakura. And talks to himself. Pick fights for no reason. I thought Naruto explained this to you? –Sasuke"
Sasuke? He cares?
(He does, doesn't he? The question is, do you?)
"Hey Sakura!" Naruto shouts, grinning. It's Japanese, and Gai-sensei is at the front making a loud speech. A speech loud enough to cover even Naruto's shout, luckily.
"You don't have to shout, Naruto!"
"Sorry, sorry!" He waves it off. "So, whadda ya need from me?"
"I wanted to.. Well, Temari asked me to try to talk with Gaara… So I wanted to know a bit more about him…"
Naruto cracks a smile and laughs. A bit too loudly. "Gaara? He's a good kid,"
"You were telling me to avoid him earlier."
"Well, he's a bit crazy, but that's why I'm friends with him, right? But seriously, there's no need to talk with him or anything, he's just fine, a bit quiet, that's all. But that makes him a good listener!"
Sakura still thinks his tone is a bit forced. "But I want to. Temari's worried."
"She's just like a mother hen! Always flapping around the kid," Naruto shakes his head. "Way too overprotective. Don't Sakura. Don't get involved with him."
"But-"
"Pardon me to interrupt your talks of youth," Gai-sensei has heard them. He gives them a grin. "But pay attention!"
"Yes sensei…" Naruto mumbles, before whispering to Sakura, "Meet me outside after class."
Sakura sees a trace of a blush around his cheeks, but it fades away as quickly as it had come. But even Naruto can't help the fact that stars and swirling around him.
And Sakura is watching every one of them.
Naruto and Sakura are walking side-by-side at a slow pace, close together, arms touching. In fact, they are so close that people are whispering as they walk by and the pink-haired girl can feel her face heating up. Naruto doesn't notice.
He slows to a stop before turning and asking, "Does Hinata like me?"
Sakura is thrown off momentarily at his question. She had been expecting something about Gaara (You really care, don't you?) or school. Kiba. Sasuke. Anything but Hinata.
"I think-"
"I get it," He sighs without letting her finish the sentence. "She hates me. She blames herself for that birthday thing. I'm…"
"Actually, I think she likes you very much."
Naruto brightens. "Really? You mean it?"
Sakura nods. "I'm sure. Positive."
"God Sakura. Thanks…"
The words fade from Naruto's mouth as his eyes widen in horror.
"Hinata!"
The said girl is back to back against the lockers, whimpering in fear as Karen screams something at her. The rest of Akatsuki right behind her, sneering. But the worst thing is that Neiji is standing in the corner, watching all this without even twitching an eyebrow.
Sakura can feel Naruto's rage come off him as he storms toward the group of people.
"You bastards! What the hell are you doing to Hinata-chan?"
He starts punching and kicking wildly, desperately trying to get to the place where Karin is, only to be blocked by endless Akatsuki members.
That's when Sakura sees a bomb in Deihara's hand. But she's too petrified (Coward. You've always been one.) so she screams. An ear-piercing scream.
The dark, lean figure of Sasuke rockets down the hallway; closely followed by Lee ('I'll save you my Sakura!') and both of them drive most of the Akatsuki away, except Deihara and Sasori.
The former is still clutching the bomb, frowning in consideration. But after the red-haired boy whispers something in his ear, he leaves as well. Only Karin is left. And Neiji.
But Karin isn't stupid, so she runs too, glaring back at Sakura and Hinata, her eyes fill up with an apologetic look when she sees Sasuke, and she leaves.
"Hinata? Are you okay? Hinata?"
Naruto is grabbing Hinata by the shoulders and shaking her, but the girl is giving no reaction. The bell rings.
"Damn it, Hinata-"
The blond slings her limp form over his shoulder and begins to carry her to the nurse's office. Lee whirls around, meeting Neiji's gaze directly.
"Why didn't you help her, Neiji-san? Isn't she your cousin?"
The Hyuuga scoffs, and replies, "She's too shameful to be considered as my 'cousin'."
Sakura feels that familiar rage bubbling inside her, waiting to burst. It's rising, rising, rising…
Her fist acts on impulse, cutting through the air with force to slam into Neiji's head…
But another beats her there, and Neiji falls back on the ground with a sickening thud. When he raises his head, his face is smeared with blood.
This time, it's Kiba. His fake scars on his cheeks combined with the crazy gleam in his eyes makes him look like a wild animal, tensed and ready to fight.
"Y-You dare," He lunges at his face once again, before Sasuke or Lee has a chance to hold him back. Kiba's eyes are red and bulging, and he looks like he will rip Neiji's throat out…
But the familiar, silver-haired Kakashi-sensei walks in, inspecting them. Kiba falters, and takes a step back from the bleeding boy that is Neiji. But he doesn't look helpless; far from it.
"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" He questions, his calm gaze scanning around them all. "I just happened to meet Uzumaki Naruto on the stairs, dragging Hinata. Considering Neiji is her cousin, and he is wounded as well, I think it's safe to say that this is also involved with what happened to Hinata. In fact, Karin and Hidan was at the principal's, bleeding. Karin was crying."
When none of them respond, he beckons. "All of you, come with me."
Sakura is the first one to protest, but her voice is as quiet as the winter snow. "B-But, we'll miss class… And I have art next…"
Kakashi-sensei's eyebrow twitches in amusement. "If art is more important than this, you have my permission to leave."
She shakes her head.
The Hokage was nice enough
I guess
No one got in trouble
I guess
And we all got of scott-free
I guess
And we left without any trouble
I guess
And I still haven't found out much about Gaara
I guess.
But I'm going today.
To his house, I mean.
Because…
I just…
I want to heal him.
I want to become a medic someday
But if I can't heal a heart
Just one, simple heart
How will I ever become one?
…
Sasuke's pretty nice.
But every girl chases him.
Naruto is cheerful
But Hinata is my friend, and I don't want to…
….
Confused.
Lost.
That's what I am.
What am I saying?
I didn't want to do this in the first place!
I should've said no right there and then…
…
Kiba hasn't come to art yet.
It's almost the end of the period.
Naruto and Hinata haven't shown up yet too.
It's lonely without them.
(But you're used to it, aren't you?)
I'm half way out
As soon as the bell rings.
I run into Tsunade-sensei
Hokage
Who frowns at me and motions for me
To
Stop.
(I would like to stop.)
"Haruno Sakura,
You have caused a lot of trouble
For the school."
I bow my head and nod.
She walks away.
I wonder what the point of that was
Since it only told me
Things I wanted to avoid.
(All the wrong signs.
Run.
Run.)
I got out of school a bit later than usual
But I hurry
To the big, frightening house
That says 'GO AWAY' without words.
But I can't go.
Temari asked me.
(She's just too afraid to do it herself.)
Gaara needs me.
(You're afraid.)
Naruto's told my boss
That I won't be at work today
But I didn't tell him where
Or why
But Naruto knew it was… private.
And I thank him.
(If he did know, he would stop you.)
I'm at the doorstep now.
The world is about to blow up.
(5)
Take a step
(4)
Take another step
(3)
You're at the door
(2)
Ring the doorbell.
(1)
"Who are you?"
The voice is harsh, cold
I meet gazes
(0)
And the world explodes.
Poll:
Which pariring (out of the choices below) do you like best?
KibaHina
NaruHina
KibaIno
ShikaIno