A/N: Dear readers, here is the next chapter I have promised. I hope you find it to your liking. We're finally moving on to the more serious stuff. I'm starting to write the actual story now, so there might be some confusions about some details so you could ask me. I actually haven't thought reeaaalllyy much about the stuff about their pasts since I just go and make stuff up when the need arises and hope it doesn't mess up with the whole plot. XD

Please don't be shy to ask questions, I would truly love to hear comments and inquiries.

I give muffins and choco fudge to my awesome reviewers:

Maskedgirl3

~Mokimoki-chan

~ Mokimoki-chan

~ easily1994addicted

~ IceMaidenOfLegend

(My reviewers increased by one. Well, I guess that was better than nothing. Or worse, get lesser. :o But it would really lift my hopes up if you send me some lovin'!)

PREVIOUS CHAPTER RECAP:

Sakura figured getting lost in a mansion was a hell of a lot better than getting lost in the rocky mountains. Shrugging to herself, she continued to walk forward. A few paces on, she was met by the corridor's dead end. With nowhere else to go, she turned back and almost continued forward before she noticed a thin gap on the wall by her left. Walking to it, she felt through the wall and found a leverage by which she could grasp at one side of the wall. Sticking her fingers through the half-inch gap, she pulled. And just as she suspected, it was a hidden sliding door. Looking around her for a moment and seeing nobody around, she slid the door fully open.

Not entirely prepared for what she'd see inside.

The room in front of her was some sort of gallery that was a library at the same time. It was not as well-lighted as the others, with its tinted glass windows, adding some sort of enigma to the room. Occupying the west side of the room, were shelves after shelves of tomes in all kinds; leather-bound, velvet-bound, spiral-bound, even unbound ones with frail-looking and yellowing paper. There were books of different sizes and thickness, the letterings on the spines varying from old engravings of gold to the latest printed ones. The books were arranged in a way that the most ancient and antiquated ones with musty yellow pages and leather covers were at the far end, while the newest ones were the closest to Sakura. Before she could browse through the yellowed pages to read, she was distracted by the objects on the other side of the room. She turned away from the books towards the eastern portion of the room.

The east side looked like some kind of historical museum. There were paintings of different sizes; some barely the size of a usual painting while others were almost twice the size of the door she had just gone through. There were also what she figured must be artifacts. There were various assortments of objects displayed. There were lavish jewelries, antique-looking clothes, old scrolls, and a diverse collection of weapons; swords, axes, bows and arrows, spears, daggers, and some she couldn't even name by herself.

The sparkling jewelries; rings, bracelets, necklaces, earrings, and the like, were placed on velvet cushions, with a sort of spotlight trained on them, making the facets of diamonds, rubies, sapphires, opals, and amethysts glitter. They were encased inside glass cubes, just like priceless jewelries in a well-guarded museum. There were six raised glass cube platforms lined in a single row. Walking over, she looked at the one nearest to her.

Much to her surprise, not all the items in the illuminated glass cubes were jewelries. The one before her was a hairbrush. The antique hairbrush had a thin-stemmed handle made from exquisitely crafted metal that also surrounded the oval-shaped perimeter of the head of the brush. Its surface was smooth white marble, with a sort of medallion on the center. It was lovely. She wondered how it would feel to have it smoothing through her pink locks.

Moving on, the next one was an earring. It was a sapphire dangling earring. Despite the tarnish on the piece of jewelry because of time, it was undoubtedly classic in its elegance. This was what she imagined how jewelries looked like from centuries ago, worn by a woman with porcelain white skin and rose-colored cheeks with artfully curled hair bunched up high at the crown of her head. Smiling, she realized she really did like watching old-era movies.

Inside the next glass cube was a ring. It was a ring with a huge opal gem shaped in a square surrounded by small diamonds on its perimeter. The band of the ring was thin gold. With the illumination, the diamonds glittered while the opal itself refracted small sections of blue, green, pink, yellow, and orange. It was undoubtedly gorgeous. She imagined herself again being in an old-era movie being proposed to by her tall, dark-haired, and handsome lover with this ring. She giggled at herself.

At the space where the following raised platform should be, there was a larger glass case, this time rectangular-shaped and standing upright to encase the dress inside it. It was a coal black and scarlet-crimson Victorian-era dress, with its long flowing sleeves, square neckline framed with black lace, and equally flowing bodice. Her imagination acting up again, she saw herself wearing the same dress in a spacious and magisterial ballroom, clutching an ostrich-feathered red and black mask that perfectly complimented her dress in her right hand, while her left arm was hooked on to a tall gentleman's arm. She saw in her mind's eye that the man had long flowing black hair and equally black mask with raven feathers.

Dragging her gaze from the dress that invoked such a strong image from her mind, she saw the next item in the glass cube. It was a pretty bracelet. It had six ruby gems, the size of the nail of her thumb each, in succession while the chain holding them together was gold. Elegant was definitely the best word to describe it. Sakura thought the rubies would complement her slightly pale skin and her bubblegum pink hair.

The last glass case was holding a necklace. It was an amethyst necklace with a ornately-detailed filigreed platinum frame. It was the loveliest and most exquisite necklace she had ever seen. By the length of the filigreed chain, Sakura speculated that the huge amethyst stone would fall right in the décolletage perfectly. Could all this jewelry be Hyuuga heirlooms? Sakura thought.

Walking over to the other side of the room, she spotted the massive collection of scrolls. They were separated from the outside world by a thick glass panel from the low ceiling to the floor. Sakura cannot see how someone could go through the other side to retrieve or read the scrolls without having to break the glass.

Then, Sakura trudged over the paintings. The paintings were a curious collection, some were sketches, using what she figured was charcoal, with colors in varying shades of black and white; while the others were fully painted ones, the colors blending in perfectly that they almost looked realistic. She tried to find some sort of pattern or special significance with the collection, but it seemed random. To her anyway. She saw some abstract paintings with swirling colors that seemed almost dizzying in its beauty. While there were still life, there was also real life, and landscape paintings that depicted different scenes.

The first she saw was about twice as wide as the glass windows by the room's west side. It was a landscape painting in shades of black, gray, and white of some kind of abandoned stone cottage surrounded by plenty of soaring pine, maple, and oak trees. In the painting, it seemed dark, signifying it was evening, and in the silvery glow of moonlight, she could make out a cobblestone path leading to the front door, cracks and fissures on the stone facade of the shabby little building, tangles of vines creeping into the window shutters, and a dozen clay pots full of wilted flowers that must've been taken care of very well previously.

With a start, she recognized the withered flowers to be pink primroses, yellow freesias, orange blossoms, and another one she couldn't recognize. She wondered briefly how she knew all the flowers, much less their names and colors. She knew she was no green-thumbed Ino, she didn't particularly have any sort of attachments to flowers, or anything plant-related, for that matter. She stepped closer, trying to see if she could recognize the last one. In a burst, she could see the color blue behind her eyelids, the shade of a cloudless sky, but before she could pull out the name from her consciousness, a throb at the side of her head brings her up short from her trance.

A/N: How was it? What do you guys think was the reason for Sakura's sudden epiphany-ish flashes in her mind? And what was that room really? Please tell me watcha think in your reviews. :)

Till next time, WatashiNoTenshi07 is up and away!