Never Forgotten
Chapter 8: Getting To Know Everyone
Thank you to Geanie-chan101, XxMiyakaxX, and Kurai Raiku-Kurai Kisaki for reviewing.
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Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of the characters.
.X. Recap .X.
The later decided to go outside and eat under the shady trees and talk for a bit. It started it started out a bit quiet, but then Naruto began to ramble on about his dreams of ramen taking over the world. Sakura giggled a bit about the thought of food taking over the world.
"Hey, Sakura-chan. Why don't you tell us a bit about yourself? Like your likes, dislikes, hobbies and stuff like that. So we can get to know each other better and we do the same so you can get to know us." Naruto suggested.
"Dobe. That might have been the smartest thing you have ever said in your whole entire life." Sasuke said smiling faintly.
"Urusai, teme. Why don't I start off first then? I'm Uzumaki Naruto…"
"I'm Uzumaki Naruto and my mom's name is Uzumaki Kushina and my dad is Namikaze Minato. He's basically the mayor or the president of Konoha and my mom is fashion designer for women's clothing. I like – no, I mean I LOVE ramen…a lot! I eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner. And I want to prove myself to everyone that I can become the pres. Of this town just like my father! Believe it! And Hinata-chan is my girlfriend." Naruto said in one big breath.
Sakura sweat dropped at his long rant and smiled when he was done.
'This boy, he is… really weird…' Inner Sakura said with a disgusted face.
Sakura laughed at her inners face and her smile got wider.
"Okay! Me next! I'm Yamanaka, Ino. My family owns a big chain of flower arranging stores around the world and I love to shop and hanging out with my friends. And Forehead girl's my best friend!" Ino said giggling at the last part.
Sakura had a twitching smile plastered on her face and her forehead had a vein throbbing violently. She slowly counted to 10 and she began to calm down.
"Okay, who's next?" Ino asked laughing at Sakura's expression. "How about you Ten-Ten?"
"Alrighty! Well my name is Yoshida Ten-Ten. My family owns Kunai Weaponry, a chain of stores that reside all across the world. And I love playing around with sharp and pointy objects like pencils, or knives – insert giggle – and Neji's my boyfriend. Oh yeah…and I'm kind of a tomboy and I hate dresses or anything frilly. Come near me with those and I'll hurt you." Ten-Ten said laughing a bit.
Sakura's eyes widen at the last part.
'What an odd girl…and kind of scary…remind me never to get on her bad side…'
'You're telling me…she likes pointy and SHARP things…things that can poke someone's eyes out…'
'No wonder she was poking Shikamaru with a pencil today…'
"Okay…Hinata-chaaaannn! You're next!"
"Hai. I'm Hyuuga Hinata, heiress to the Byakugan Corporation that manufactures designer clothing and I have a younger sister Hanabi and Neji is my cousin. Naruto-kun is my boyfriend, and I use to stutter around people but now I don't. Hmm…I also like the colour lavender. I guess it's your turn Neji-nii-chan."
The said boy looked bored and sighed. "Okay, Hinata-sama. I'm Hyuuga Neji, and Hinata's cousin. I like sports, and Ten-chan. And I'm one of the top students in our class next to Uchiha and I don't like to talk a lot. Your turn Shikamaru."
"This is so troublesome. I'm Nara Shikamaru. My family works as deer raisers and we also work alongside with the police force in Konoha. I am a lazy person and I like to cloud watch when the weathers nice. Ino's my troublesome girlfriend – HEY‼ You're gonna regret saying that about me! – And I'm top of our class because I have a troublesome IQ of 200. Man…why do I even bother with these things? – Sigh – Your turn I guess Sasuke."
'Wow. He really likes the word troublesome doesn't he? I wonder if that's all he can say. I seriously think whoever did his IQ test mixed his with someone else's.'
'Shush! I want to know something about everyone. So keep your mouth shut!'
"Hn. Uchiha Sasuke. Family owns Konoha Police Force and Uchiha Industries for clothing. One of top students in our class. Like martial arts. Mother's name is Mikoto and father's Fugaku. Your turn Sakura."
Sakura had a huge sweat drop at Sasuke's introduction…if you even call that one. "Okay…My name's Haruno Sakura and my family is deceased. Tsunade and Shizune are now my family. I like the arts and I have a weak body, but I want to change that so I can be strong like everyone around me. I was top of my class from my other school and I was horrible at sports. Um…yeah…and that's it I guess…OH! Temari and Kankuro and Gaara are my siblings whom I met when kaa-san adopted me." She said quietly.
After the introductions, everyone began to chat amongst each other and taking in the new information they had learned about each other. Sakura was sitting quietly under the tree a
few feet from the rest of the group watching them joke around with each other while humming quietly to herself. She was thinking about how blessed she was to have such good friends that are there for her. She felt close to them already and they just met the day before. The rose-hair coloured girl began to quietly ponder what to do for her art project that was due tomorrow.
'Just go with the flow and draw what just comes to your mind. Your best pieces are always drawn that way. I think that's awesome since I helped with some of them! To lose yourself in something you enjoy so much… - sigh – makes me feel so happy and bubbly.'
Sakura mentally sighed at her inner's mindless chatter about non-important things in life. All of her works of art were about her past…the constant reminder of her past will never let her fully heal emotionally or mentally. Her sweet and bold character was wrongly ripped from her being and affected everyone who had known that Sakura. The self-confidence and voice she once held, the one thing that could brighten anyone's day was stripped from the young girl and caused her to become isolated from everyone. Her once happy thoughts slowly turned to dark ones, and she became oblivious to her surroundings and the confused stares of her friends they directed at her when they felt a saddened and greatly depressed aura from Sakura's direction. Her thoughts suddenly went into a series of flashbacks.
--x-- Flashbacks --x--
Dark metallic red puddles
--Flash!--
Painful agonizing screams rang through the cold night
--Flash!--
Maniacal cackling
--Flash!--
Ruby coloured eyes with black blades piercing her own soft emerald eyes with malice and dark intent
--Flash!--
A shiny silver dagger gleaming in the moonlight at a small shadowed figure a few feet away
--Flash!--
Lots of pain through her whole being
--x-- End of Flashbacks --x--
Sakura visibly began to tremble from head to toe from the intensity of the memories that haunt her every day. Everyone who was watching go through this unexpected change in her demeanour was suddenly alarmed at her new actions and they grew concerned at their new friend and tried to grasp the sudden tense and fearful atmosphere. Ino began to approach the small girl with extreme caution knowing one wrong move can cause an even more disastrous situation. Sakura was still in her trance state, when a hand gently placed itself on her shoulder, and Sakura was immediately shaken out of her trance. Her silver-green eyes traced the owner's hand back to their face, Ino's. Ino's eyes were filled with concern, fear and confusion, but most of all care for her best friend. The blossom head's composure snapped when she saw a friendly and recognizable face, and launched her form at Ino, sobbing uncontrollably into the blonde's shoulder. Sakura's voice was muffled by her school uniform, but she could still make out some of the incoherent mumbling streaming from the hysterical girl's mouth.
"…Sai… - sniff - …nii-chan,…I'm sorry… - sniff –there's so much blood… - those eyes…eyes with black blades – sniff – swirling around…the way he looked at me… - sniff – I'm sorry nii-chan…I couldn't stop them…- sniff – sorry I couldn't stop them from touching me…I'm sorry…"
Ino's sapphire eyes widened as she pieced the sentences together, now fully aware of made her surrogate sister this upset. Ino bowed her head to hide her face from everyone and began to cry thinking of her surrogate brother, Sai. She was furious at herself because she didn't know about his death until yesterday and couldn't be there for Sakura when she needed her the most. She spun around showing everyone her red puffy eyes filled with fresh tears running down her pale face and locked her eyes with the sand siblings. A secret message was silently passed through all of their eyes, arguing with each other but finally reached a conclusion. The four of them nodded to each other and Kankuro stiffly stood up and ran to get Tsunade and Shizune. Shikamaru watched as this scene unfold and when he saw his girlfriend break down he was frightened. Of all the years he had known Ino, he has never seen her cry; she didn't even shed a tear when she broke her leg chasing him down for making fun of her. Shikamaru was honest to God scared out of his mind. He watched as Ino cried her eyes out as she stroke Sakura's pink mane with a motherly affection.
Gaara and Temari looked a bit unnerved at their crying sister with a sadden expression etched on their face. They knew Sakura would never cry when she's with a group of friends. She never wants to burden anyone with her problems and her past and would always cry when she was alone. But the only reason she would cry in public was if something had triggered that memory. The memory that constantly haunted her very soul and weighed down her heart everyday with the pain and guilt she feels. The siblings knew that Sakura blames herself for her brother's death and punishes herself everyday by isolating herself from everyone and mentally belittling herself for being happy when Sai wasn't.
The others who were watching their new friend's predicament had seen her throw herself at Ino and clutched onto her like she was going away forever. Sasuke being close enough to hear Sakura's terrified rambling hear something about red eyes and had jumped to the conclusion that Sakura knows his bastard brother, tried to convince himself that it was someone else with red eyes. It could be Kurenai-sensei for all he cared. He mentally
prayed that it wasn't his 'dear' brother, Uchiha Itachi, the prodigy and traitor to his family's name. A twig snapping caused everyone to whip their heads to the sound's location just to see dark figured emerging from the shadows of the school. Kankuro had returned with a pale and worried mother and elder sister both wringing their hands in despair. They saw the two girls crouching forms and began to panic. They both appeared by the girl's sides and began to coax the two muttering endearments of comforts in their ears trying to sooth them, but failed miserably. Gaara and Shikamaru decided to take action and went over to their respected female and scooped them up and tried bringing them to the infirmary. But the both of them tried to escape the male's grips.
—x—Ino's Struggle —x—
Shikamaru tried to calm his girlfriend down, fearing for her mental well-being. He was scared that he was going to drop the girl so he settled down on the ground settling her in his lap, stroking her waist length hair lovingly whispering words of comfort in her ear and occasionally placing kisses on her forehead. Ino began to slowly calm down and buried her face into his chest placing her ear over his heart listening to the soothing beat of his heart and began to mumble words that he couldn't hear, but one word caught his attention, 'Sai-kun'. His eyes glinted dangerously as he heard the affectionate honorific on another guy's name, but decided that it was better to bring it up at a later time. As Ino's sobs died down she shifted her head to face everyone who stared back at her with concerned eyes. She shook her head and reburied her face into Shikamaru's chest and fell asleep soon afterwards. Her boyfriend looked down at her with a relieved look on his face knowing that she was going to be okay.
—x—Sakura's Struggle —x—
Sakura began to struggle against the gentle yet firm grip on her, thinking it was a predator. Gaara tried to calm his sister but was having little success. Sakura's arms began to flail about trying to free herself from her so-thought attacker catching Gaara's face once or twice leaving red scratches on his pale cheek. Gaara just stood still with her still in his arms murmuring words of comfort in her ears. She began to calm down when she recognized his soothing tenor voice and ceased her movements. She looked up at him with red-rimmed eyes, stray tears flowing down her face, her eyes filled with unknown grief and threw her arms around his neck burying her face into chest and began to sob uncontrollably into his school uniform. He buried his face into her long hair, whispering to her, reinsuring her that no one would ever hurt her or take her away ever again. Her sobs began to die to down to minimal sniffs and hiccups here and there until she fell into a pitiful sleep, where nightmares plague her soul. She was still trembling and occasionally and repeatedly whispering sorry to a person. Gaara slowly made his way into the school with a sleeping Sakura in his pale arms, clutching at his uniform. Tsunade followed with Shizune trailing behind her with a pale and sadden expression adorned on her face. Shikamaru slowly stood up from his spot on the ground and followed the two doctors into the building with everyone watching them go with a tense atmosphere surrounding them. Naruto was the first to snap out of this and tried to make something out of this sudden problem.
To Be Continued :) Please Review! X.x.SakuraUchiha.x.X