.
THE BEAUTIFUL AND THE DAMNED
stfuSPARKS
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or the song Hate Me by Blue October :)
.
.
.
II.
Hate Me
"So hate me today,
Hate me tomorrow,
Hate me for all the things I didn't do for you."
.
.
.
Asuma angrily slammed his fist onto his desk, causing his papers to fly everywhere. He narrowed his eyes, before saying, "Detention again, this afternoon!"
The newest addition to the classroom let out a sheepish grin. "Aw c'mon Asuma-sensei! You know I'm not going to go to detention anyways, so what's the point?" The girl said with a laugh, her voice almost melodic. It was almost mesmerizing. "Plus, I swear I have a valid reason today! I had a doctor's appointment." Her viridian eyes twinkled mirthfully.
"I'm not going to let you off so easy next time." Asume grumbled, crushing his cigarette into the ashtray on his desk. "Hurry up and take a seat you brat, can't you see I'm in the middle of an announcement?"
Sasuke quietly observed her as she walked by them, the heels of her shoes clicking loudly against the floor as she made her way towards her seat.
She was short, Sasuke noted. Granted that the majority of girls were all short under his towering height of 182cm, this girl was especially short. She looked like she was no taller than 160cm- if he looked dead-on straight, he doubted that he would have been able to see her. She looked no different than in the picture they had been given- perhaps a little bit livelier, but that was a given considering that he was seeing her in person for the first time.
She was so delicate- he briefly wondered why Kabuto thought that it would be difficult to eliminate her. The school uniform, which consisted of a clean white shirt and a plaid skirt made her look even more vulnerable- she was nothng more than a simple high school student.
Their eyes briefly met for a moment.
Something momentarily jolted through him, but it was gone as fast as it had come.
She squeezed her way through the little space that was left; the classroom wasn't that spacious, and the fact that there were six fully grown men standing at the front of the room wasn't helping much. Her petite figure tried to avoid contact with them as she made her way towards her desk, but couldn't stop herself from bumping into Gaara's shoulder. Even Gaara, who was the shortest among the six of them, towered over her pink head.
The atmosphere immediately changed. Sasuke didn't need Kiba's heightened senses to see how Gaara's dark green eyes flashed dangerously as soon as her skin came into contact with his. His whole body immediately tensed up, recognition briefly flickering through his face. The pink haired girl, however, showed no signs of knowing him as she finally sat down at her desk in the far corner of the classroom.
Sasuke didn't miss the way the redhead's hand slightly twitched upwards, as if he wanted to reach out and wrap his rough hands around her thin pale neck.
"Anyways," Asuma cleared his throat, grabbing everyone's attention again. "Why don't you introduce yourselves to the rest of us?"
Neji immediately stepped up. Maybe it was the force of habit that compelled him to take charge, just like old times. "I am Hyuuga Neji." He introduced himself in a deep voice. "They are Uchiha Sasuke, Uzumaki Naruto, Inuzuka Kiba, Sabaku no Gaara and Nara Shikamaru. We hope to spend a good final year with the rest of you."
Their classmates stared at them in awe. There was something incredibly powerful about their presence- and not to mention the girls were extremely taken by their physical looks. The silence in the room was broken by various whispers and murmurs among the students, compliments and insults mixed in together.
"Well isn't that lovely." One particular voice was louder than the rest. "Just what this class needed. More arrogant pretty boys."
"Be nice Sai," Another voice chided, her words dripping with sarcasm. "You'll hurt their feelings and they might start crying."
Sasuke turned his sharp onyx eyes to observe the two students who were blatantly having a conversation about him and his partners. He observed the person who had spoken first- and the Uchiha found himself staring at a slim boy who looked eerily much like himself. The boy's skin was a pale shade of sickly white, heavily contrasting with his sleek, jet black hair that hauntingly hung over his eccentric eyes. His eyes were onyx; a similar shade to the Uchiha's, but there was something extremely off about them. Sasuke couldn't quite place it, but maybe it had to do with the fact that his eyes seemed absolutely dead.
It was as if he was staring at a corpse.
The boy, supposedly named Sai, immediately snapped his gaze towards Sasuke, staring back. The corners of his lips turned slightly upwards into a polite smile, almost mocking him. Something about the smile highly irritated Sasuke.
A lot.
Their gaze was broken when the second participant of the conversation poked Sai in the ribs. It was the pink haired girl, their one and only target. Judging by the familiarity in her voice, they were probably close friends, Sasuke noted.
"No one asked for your opinion, Dumb and Dumber." Asuma growled, his eyes narrowing down. Sakura rolled her eyes, muttering something that sounded a lot like 'old man' before she leaned back into the chair, looking out the window. "You six! Take a free seat and make sure not to interrupt the rest of my lesson." The bearded man barked, and the six boys obediently took a seat among the rest of the students.
Sasuke didn't miss the way Gaara's gaze never left the pink haired girl.
.
.
.
.
"I don't like her." Kiba flatly stated, crossing his arms as they waited in line for their lunch. "She's a typical teenage spoiled brat. She probably bullies other students all the time." It was ironic and quite poetic too, really, how a person with a career such as his could have such a strong sense of justice, even when it came to small things like bullying. None of the other boys paid attention to his words, except for Naruto.
"I dunno," Naruto said thoughtfully, scratching his cheek. "She seems to be alright, she's probably just being a girl. I doubt that a girl that cute can be completely terrible." His sky blue eyes sparkled before cautiously looking towards Gaara. "Is it just me, or did Gaara seem a little bit strange back there?" He whispered to Kiba- but his voice was loud enough for all of them to hear.
Shikamaru let out an exasperated sigh at his friend's obvious gossiping. "We can all hear you, you know." He told them, and Naruto jumped, looking extremely sheepish. "But Naruto's right. Is there something you're not telling us Gaara?"
Shikamaru was either a complete idiot or genius. Naruto hoped for the latter.
Gaara's eyes momentarily left the ground to observe the brunette boy who had spoken to him. "It is amusing to see you converse about this girl as if you're not going to kill her in cold blood." He finally spoke, his voice barely audible over the loud chatter that filled the cafeteria. It was typical of Gaara to steer the conversation away from himself and onto something Naruto was clearly uncomfortable with.
All of them knew that Naruto was the one who was the least adapted to their lifestyle, no matter how many years it had been. He was too pure of heart- and sometimes, Sasuke secretly envied that, because his own heart had been lost years ago.
However, no matter how lazy Shikamaru was, the genius wasn't one to back down from a challenge when he saw one. He was a male after all. "Your body language indicates that you already know this girl on a personal level. The way you reacted before was an obvious sign that this isn't the first time you meet her." He didn't dare add that the hatred that had flashed through the redhead's eyes could not possibly be superficial.
"It has nothing to do with you." Gaara's reply was steely. Naruto and Kiba both nervously glanced back and forth between the two boys, sensing a storm coming along soon.
"On the contrary; we are here to observe the target, to find out more about her. Every single detail could be crucial." Shikamaru pointed out. It was a battle of the wits. "If you won't tell us, it'll only take me a day to find out. Don't forget that I have connections."
Neji's pearly white eyes turned towards the redhead as well. "Is there something you're hiding from us?" The Hyuuga asked, his voice steady and firm.
"I am not hiding anything. I simply withheld certain information that I considered to be useless for our mission."
Naruto was positive that he had never heard Gaara speak so much in his life.
"Gaara, I probably won't be able to stop Shikamaru from digging into your life if you don't tell us yourself." Neji told him. Gaara's face didn't betray anything, but his emerald eyes briefly flashed with anger.
"We were personally involved in the past." Gaara told them, and Sasuke knew that it was all he would reveal to them.
Naruto's eyes widened in surprise, and he couldn't stop himself in time. "Does that mean you dated her?" He shrieked, his voice sounding extremely shrilly. Sasuke rolled his eyes at his so-called best friend's density. "You had a girlfriend Gaara?" The blonde asked disbelievingly, his face contorted into a mixture of confusion and shock. "Why have I never heard of this before?"
Despite finding Naruto's outburts completely ridiculous, Sasuke couldn't help but be mildly surprised himself. It was true that Gaara had always kept to himself, not bothering to get much closer to them even during their time spent together in the past- but solely based on his closed off personality, the Uchiha never would have guessed that the redhead could be romantically interested in anyone. Though Gaara's looks were fairly above average, it was his lack of emotions that would probably prevent him from having a romantic partner at all. He couldn't picture Gaara being all lovey-dovey with someone of the opposite sex.
"It was all in the past." Gaara said curtly. They all understood that the conversion was now over.
Before any of them could start up the conversation once again, a blur of pink flashed before their eyes. They all turned around to observe their target as she cheerfully carried her homemade bento in her hands, walking beside the taller pale boy they had seen before. She was having an inaudible conversation with him- it was impossible to hear what they were saying from that distance, but from what Sasuke could see, she was doing all the talking while Sai merely listened and occasionally nodded.
"Look who it is." A girl with flaming red hair next to the boys sneered. "The pink haired freak and the piss poor artist."
"Karin!" The girl next to her slapped her friend's arm. "Not so loud, they'll hear us!"
"It's impossible for them to hear us you idiot, look at how far away they are." The girl named Karin snapped at her friend. Sasuke quietly agreed- it had been barely loud enough for him to hear, and he was barely standing a meter away from her. It wasn't physically possible for the pink haired girl or her friend to hear them- they were standing at least seven meters away.
It might have been a coincidence- but in that moment, even among the crowded cafeteria, Sasuke saw Haruno Sakura's face snap towards their direction, her vivid orbs piercing into Karin's face. Karin immediately shuddered at the intensity of the other girl's glare; but as fast as it had come, it was gone. Sakura carried on casually conversing with her friend, as if nothing had happened.
His onyx eyes silently followed her figure as she walked out towards the direction of the rooftop.
"So..." Naruto awkwardly spoke again, scratching the back of his head. "Shouldn't we go follow her or something? Try to befriend her? Isn't that what Kabuto told us to do? Gain her trust or something... right?"
"We would probably overwhelm her if all six of us approached her at the same time." Neji spoke up. "Judging by how she spoke to us before, I doubt that she's very friendly. It would be best if Naruto or Kiba talked to her first."
Sasuke felt a pang of disappointment in his chest. He wanted to find out more about the mysterious girl- she intrigued him. But the Hyuuga was probably right- Sasuke wasn't very good at making friends, while there was a certain warmth about Naruto that seemed to pull everyone in.
"Leave it to me!" Naruto enthusiastically exclaimed, leaving the lunch line to follow after the girl. His partners merely watched as he slightly stumbled, before regaining his composure and running towards the rooftop.
The rooftop wasn't far from the cafeteria- it only took him two flights of stairs and two more minutes to get to the top. Just as he had expected, the door was unlocked.
As soon as he stepped out, he shivered, wishing he had brought his coat with him as he felt the chilly autumn breeze tickle his skin. His plain beige trousers and white shirt (part of the school uniform that Kabuto had provided them with) did nothing to warm him up. Naruto had never been good with the cold- he was more of a summer person, really. He was surprised to see that the pink haired girl sitting against the wall didn't seem affected at all, despite the fact that her legs were bare, courtesy of the short plaid skirt she was wearing.
He looked at her in wonder as she distractedly munched on the corner of her sandwich, staring off into the sky. She looked so fragile; he was sure that she would definitely break as soon as he touched her. He had never seen a girl so intruigingly beautiful as she was. To be honest, the conditions of his life had prevented him from ever being around many females in general- but she was definitely the most striking one he had ever seen.
"Hey," The blonde greeted her, using one hand to flatten down his wild hair and the other to wave at her. "Mind if I join you? It can get really noisy downstairs. I think I like it better up here."
Of course this wasn't true. Naruto loved to be in noisy places, being the loudest one himself- he had always considered himself the life of the party. But this was a mission, and he needed to adapt himself to her surroundings if he wanted to reach out to her.
He hesitated, before taking a seat next to her on the cold ground. He received no answer from her- only a slight glance before she returned to glaring at her half-eaten sandwich. He briefly wondered how in the world he was going to become friends with her if she was so difficult to approach. How had the raven-haired boy named Sai done it? Their interaction level was close to zero right now.
His eyes widened as his stomach let out a loud rumble. His cheeks flushed red in embarrassment, remembering that he had been too excited to follow after her to actually remember to pick up his lunch beforehand. He watched her from the corner of his eye as she glanced at him one more time. He would never get a girlfriend at this rate.
Naruto squeezed his eyes shut, wishing that the ground would just swallow him whole right then and there. He felt her move next to him, and decided to slightly open one eye to peek at what she was doing. To his surprise, the remaining half of her sandwich was shoved towards his face.
"I don't want it." She muttered, facing away from him. "You can just have it. It would be a waste to throw away food."
His face split into a wide grin, showing off a set of shiny white teeth. "Thanks!" He exclaimed, before proceeding to wolf down the food that had been given to him. She didn't even turn to look in his direction, but he could tell that this was her form of an apology for this morning. "You're a nice person," He commented, making sure to swallow his food before speaking. "I knew you'd be nice! Cute girls can't be mean."
He expected her to blush, or even smile, but she did neither. She simply turned to the left to finally face him.
"I'm not."
He looked at her in surprise at her honest answer.
"I'm not a nice person." She repeated, her viridian eyes turning dull. "Deep down inside I'm horrible."
Naruto was overcome by a sudden urge to hug her. For a second, she looked like she was nothing more than a lost little girl, begging to be comforted. He wanted to wrap his arms around her tiny frame and hug her tightly until she smiled, but then he realized that it would probably just drive her away. He resorted to putting a hand on her shoulder.
"I've seen my fair share of horrible people in my life before, but you don't seem like one." When she didn't answer once again, Naruto decided that it was finally time to pull the big guns out and mention Gaara. Hopefully, she would tell him something about their past relationship. "I mean I have a friend named Gaara. He's always mean and doesn't treat everyone that nicely, but I know that he's a good person deep inside as well." He said tentatively.
Her face showed no signs of recognition.
"I think Gaara knows you," He continued casually, eyeing her face. "The redhead from before, one of the new guys who transferred with me."
Her face scrunched up as she tried to recall him from that morning. "I know who you're talking about," She finally said. "But today is the first time I've ever seen him in my life. I'm sure he's just confusing me with someone else."
"Well it's hard for anyone to confuse you with someone else." Naruto pointed out. "You have pink hair and green eyes. Where else are you going to find someone who even remotely looks like you?"
She looked at him carefully, as if she was analyzing him. "I was in a car accident three years ago." She finally confessed. "I damaged my brain and I got amnesia. The doctors said they weren't sure when I'd get my memory back... but it's been years and I still can't remember anything." She sounded frustrated. "Did this Gaara guy say he knows me?"
"Kind of." Naruto admitted. "He doesn't really talk about his private matters, so I'm not sure."
"Talking behind people's backs? Didn't think you were capable of that, Naruto."
The blonde froze as Gaara's icy cold voice cut through their conversation. The pink haired girl cast a curious look towards the red haired boy who had joined them on the rooftop. She momentarily recognized him as the boy Naruto had been talking about- but she was frustrated to see that despite everything, she still had no idea of who he was to her. In her eyes, he was a mere stranger- if he had somehow been a part of her life before the incident, it was all gone.
Within a second, Naruto saw Sakura's frustrated face disappear as her face morphed right before his eyes. The tough front she had used that morning to disguise her flaws was back, and he saw a sneer overcome her face at the new addition. The lost little girl was gone, leaving no traces behind. Instead, the same girl who had mocked them alongside Sai stood in her place.
"Long time no see, Sakura."
Naruto had no time to react. Before the pink haired girl could even answer, he shielded his eyes as the silver object in Gaara's hand momentarily glinted in the sunlight. His heart dropped as he recognized the familiar object- it was a gun.
He shot.
.
.
.
.
Kiba's ears twitched.
The cafeteria was nearly empty now that lunch time was nearing its end. Students were now mostly back in their own classrooms or outside on the grounds, enjoying the sunny autumn weather. It made it much easier for Kiba's sensitive ears to pick up distinct sounds.
"Our hearing isn't nearly as good as yours," Shikamaru had to remind him, poking around at his untouched potato mash lying coldly on his plate.
"Oh yeah," Kiba said, scratching his ear. Sometimes it was hard for him to remember that not everyone was like the Inuzuka clan. His heightened senses were certainly an advantage when it came to missions. "I don't know, I swear I just heard a gunshot coming from somewhere above us." His sharp almond eyes glanced at the stairs.
Realization hit Sasuke first. They were all professional assassins- how had they not noticed?
"Gaara's gone." The Uchiha stated flatly, abruptly standing up. He didn't wait for his other companions to understand what he said before he ran towards the stairs, leaving his tray untouched in the cafeteria. The sound of numerous footsteps right behind him let him know that his partners were following him, equally as anxious.
He burst through the door, dreading for the worst.
One sure fact was that Uchiha Sasuke was not an easily impressed man. He had seen many things during his short life, and he had reached the point in which things hardly surprised him anymore. From the insanity of people to talent and skill, he had almost seen it all. Living with five other men who were equally as unique as himself, he thought he had experienced it all. Sure, Kiba's extremely keen senses were intriguing, and Shikamaru's extreme intelligence was admirable. Naruto's endless energy and Neji's all-knowing eyes were quite interesting as well, but-
But this was entirely new to him.
Gaara still had his gun drawn out, his position indicating that it had been used merely seconds ago. Naruto was sitting in the corner, his eyes squeezed shut as he didn't dare to look at the scene before him.
The pink haired girl. The bullets were lying on the floor, almost flat as if they had been shot into a cement wall. This was the kind of thing that was in the movies and comic books- like Superman stopping bullets with his bare hands, and other things of the sort. But this didn't happen in real life. She furiously glared at her aggressor, a frenzied mixture of anger and fear swimming in her eyes.
Sasuke could swear that the last time he had seen her, her eyes had been green. A vivid shade of green; he was positive that there was no mistake. It was hard for anyone to forget that unique shade of beautiful, mesmerizing green. But something had to be wrong, because her eyes were no longer that same color- they were a color of furious ruby red, a shade that was too fake to be natural.
An inhuman growl escaped her lips as she jumped higher than Sasuke had ever seen a human jump- but at this point, he was putting her humanity into question. Gaara furiously pointed his gun towards her as she gracefully landed on the opposite side of where she had previously been. Now that they were a lot closer, the gunshots were deafening- Kiba could feel his head split apart at the loud noise.
The rest of them could only watch in awe as a transparent red barrier surrounded her, effectively stopping the bullets from reaching her. The three bullets hovered in the air for a second, caught in the protective barrier that had automatically surrounded her petite body. They slowly flattened, before dropping to the floor with a quiet clink.
"Who the hell are you?" She snarled suspiciously, putting up a defensive stance.
"The person who's going to kill you."
She froze, and Sasuke saw the aggressive look on her face falter for a second at Gaara's cold response.
"I bet you're in on this too!" She accusingly shouted at Naruto, who vigorously shook his head. He had to admit though- her eyes were incredibly creepy. Despite his willingness to accept most things in the world, he had never been a big fan of the supernatural- demons, fairies, or even color changing humans, it was all absurd. But the proof that some things in the world actually did exist was standing right before him now, and he wasn't quite sure of how to accept it. "I'm getting out of here." She quickly said, and before anyone could stop her, she jumped off of the roof.
Naruto let out a frightened gasp as he ran over to the edge, just in time to see her gracefully land five floors beneath them. They could only watch as she ran away at an amazing speed.
When she whirled around to look at them one last time, her eyes were emerald green.
The six boys stood in silence for a full minute.
"Well I guess Kabuto wasn't kidding when he said a direct kill wasn't going to work." Kiba finally spoke up, his tone a mixture of awe and shock. He shot a curious glance at the rest of his partners; Naruto was still standing at the edge, his eyes fixated on the direction in which their target had disappeared. He wasn't surprised to see that Neji, Sasuke and Gaara mostly looked unaffected on the exterior. Shikamaru, on the other hand, looked extremely intrigued for once- an expression that Kiba had never seen on him before.
"We're going to have to work hard to accomplish this mission." Neji finally stated, straightening up from his position at the doorway. "As Kabuto told us before, a direct kill is going to be impossible with that barrier we saw a few seconds ago. We're going to have to earn back her trust and find out her weaknesses over time."
"Yeah well, good luck on that." Naruto retorted, frowning. "It was hard enough to get her to talk to me at all- imagine how it's going to be now that Gaara tried to shoot her."
Gaara looked indifferent. "That had to happen in order for us to find out about her defense mechanisms." He simply said, turning away as he pocketed the gun out of sight.
"Yeah but there's always a better time and place." Naruto shot back, clearly irritated now. "It's all about circumstances, Gaara. We'll be lucky if she doesn't report you to the police- actually, I wouldn't be surprised if cops were crawling around this place by tomorrow morning."
"I'm sure Orochimaru will take care of any legal issues if we get involved with the police." Kiba butted in, sighing. "But that doesn't mean we can do it over and over again. He can't always clean up after our mess- there's a reason we're professionals after all."
Shikamaru busily jotted down a couple of things onto his spare notepad. "We're going to have to spend tonight re-organizing everything." He thoughtfully said. "We're going to have to find a way to earn back her trust and everything else. We should head back to class and return to headquarters as quickly as possible. Something tells me that Sakura won't be coming back to school for the rest of the day."
The bell rung from within the building, as if it was signaling the end of their discussion. Neji started to head back towards the stairs, but stopped to shoot a cold glance over his shoulders towards his temporary comrades.
"This doesn't mean I forgive you."
And deep down, they all knew it- they would never be forgiven.
.
.
.
.
He always had nightmares when he slept- it was just another common Uchiha Sasuke fact.
Naruto had woken him up countless times, years ago when they were still a team. He would scream and thrash around in his sleep, until the blonde successfully managed to wake him up. No matter how much time passed, he would forever be plagued by the events of the fateful night that had turned him into who he was now. Sleep was simply a form of torture for him- whenever he would try to close his eyes to find some peace, he would only find memories of a night he never wanted to remember again.
He would live it all over again as soon as his lids closed- the dead bodies, the bloodstained walls, those cold, cold eyes...
And then nothing.
Complete emptiness.
He would never be the same again. He could never go back to being the innocent little boy who loved his mother and idolized his brother. He would never go back to being the little kid who constantly sought approval from his father, wanting to prove that he could be equally as good, even if he was the second-born child of the family.
And that was because they were all dead, save for his brother who had murdered them all.
By the age of thirteen, Sasuke was nothing but an abandoned soul, left alone to survive in the cruel world that his family had always sheltered him from. He could no longer feel anything save for the anger and hatred inside of him, fueling his need for vengeance. The love and warmth he had once held for his parents was long gone now, overwhelmed by the fury. He found pleasure in hurting other people, especially if it ensured his survival in the outside world.
After all, he had to survive to carry out his revenge. What good would he be as a cold and unmoving corpse?
The first time he killed an actual man, he felt none of the guilt or remorse that he thought he would. Instead, he was simply consumed by the delightful feeling of being powerful- the power of taking someone else's life was truly frightening. It was as if he was god- with one simple movement, he had the power to give life or take it.
He had never felt so exhilarated before.
How would it feel when he would be holding his brother's life in his hands?
He didn't know yet, but when his sleep permitted it, they were his best dreams.
Sasuke woke up once again, sweating heavily as the images burned into his head vividly replayed themselves over and over again in his now conscious mind. His onyx eyes frantically looked around at his surroundings as he realized he was no longer in the Uchiha compound- he was now safely back in reality, laying down in the bed inside his temporary room in the headquarters.
Wiping away the beads of perspiration that had gathered on his forehead, he abruptly got out of the bed, tugging on a navy t-shirt and a pair of black trousers before quickly exiting the house. There was no way he would be getting any more sleep now, not after those nightmares. He would have to take a nighttime walk around the city in order to calm himself down- the streets enveloped in darkness would soothe his mind.
Tonight was different.
He had almost reached the now locked gates of his new school, when a familiar figure caught his eyes.
He took in her appearance.
The girl seemed unaware of his presence, something he highly disapproved of. It was a sign of weakness to leave your back unprotected, especially when you were alone. The cloudy midnight sky made it barely possible for him to distinguish her pale pink locks, tied into a messy bun at the top of her head, indicating that she had been in a hurry to leave her house, just as much as he had been. The heavy bags under her eyes were clearly distinguishable, contrasting heavily with her pale milky skin. She looked like she hadn't been able to sleep either- her eyes were blank and tired, looking almost longingly towards the school as she leaned her forehead onto the cold metal gates.
He could have struck her right then, but even he knew that it would be of no use. Her barrier would just activate once again, blocking out any damage that could potentially be done to her body. In a way, he didn't want to eliminate her yet. She was fascinating, making him want to know more.
It took her a couple of seconds to realize that he was standing close to her. The sound of a branch cracking under the pressure of his weight gave him away, as her head snapped towards him.
"You!" She exclaimed accusingly, quickly backing away. "You were there this morning, with that red haired guy!" Her tone of voice was harsh, and her eyes suspicious. She regarded him with a mixture of anger and fear mixed up together, something that he had expected out of her. "If you're here to kill me, I'm telling you it's not going to be easy. You're just going to end up getting hurt." She warned him, hoping that he would back away.
"My name is Uchiha Sasuke."
His sudden abstract statement surprised her, catching her off-guard. It was an answer she had not been expecting from him, not after the things she had just said. His voice was deadpanned and his face gave away no emotions at all, as he calmly gazed at her.
She took this moment to finally take a good look at him- it was hard to do so with only the help of the moonlight. From what she could see, he was almost as pale as Sai; his raven hair was rebellious- she wasn't sure if it was because of the moonlight, but his hair reflected off a mysterious blue shade, matching his deep onyx eyes. And damn, he was tall. If he had been standing right in front of her, she would have had to strain her neck in order to look at him in the face.
"I'm not here to harm you." He simply stated, actually looking quite bored with the conversation. "You can stop sounding so pathetic now."
Her eyes widened at his statement. Judging by the way his t-shirt was wrinkled and his shoelaces were untied, she could tell that he had probably been in a hurry as well. Despite his calm composure, his forehead still shined with cold sweat, indicating that up until a few minutes ago, he had been highly disturbed at something as well.
"Who are you calling pathetic?" She snarled at him, as her fear slowly ebbed away.
"Why do your eyes turn red?" He bluntly asked her, ignoring her statement once again.
"Huh?" She blinked, taken aback by his question. When her head finally processed what he was asking, she wrinkled her nose. "Oh that. I don't really know either- not that it's any of your business." Her eyes narrowed once again, but they stayed green. "Are you guys trying to kill me because of what I am?" This time her voice was quiet, a mere murmur. Her eyes didn't look up to meet his own.
"Be more careful when you wander around at night. You never know what kind of people are wandering around in the shadows." He muttered, looking up towards the sky.
She rolled her eyes. "Right, that's rich coming from you." She retorted, and for a second she reminded him of Naruto. "How ironic- one of the guys who tried to kill me this morning is telling me to be careful at night. What are you planning?"
He sighed at her stubborness. "Must I remind you that I wasn't even there when Gaara pulled the trigger this morning?"
"You're lucky I didn't report you and your friends to the police." Her eyes narrowed. "You could get into so much trouble for that. It's just all way too suspicious- the six of you transferring into the same classroom in one day? And then on your first day, one of you tries to kill me! I know you're all in this together, you're not fooling anyone."
It was his turn to roll his eyes. "We were forced to transfer here for personal reasons. And as for Gaara's actions, I will not apologize for him, but I will only say that he has his own reasons for whatever he did as well."
The pink haired girl briefly recalled what Naruto had said that morning- something about Gaara knowing the past her before she had lost her memory.
That still didn't mean she trusted him.
She made an indignant noise at the back of her throat and turned away from him, marching towards the opposite direction. She paused for a second.
"My name is Haruno Sakura."
He had heard her name numerous times, and he had read over her profile more than once- but it felt like it was the first time he was actually meeting her. His eyes briefly glanced at the back of her figure as she started to walk again.
"You look better when your eyes are green." He told her quietly.
Sakura couldn't stop the smile that ghosted her lips.
.
.
.
.
Hate me in ways,
Yeah ways hard to swallow,
Hate me so you can finally see
What's good for you.
A/N: Thanks for all your kind reviews; I really appreciate it:)