Somebody
By. Misery's-Toll
Chapter Seven: Tick Tock Goes the Clock
Risk something, take back what's yours
Say something you know they might attack you for
'Cause I'm sick of being treated like have before
Like I'm stupid standing for what I'm standing for
- "Hands Held High" by Linkin Park
It's Christmas
Eve.
Ino and the neighborhood children are
going caroling.
They make me nervous because
I've seen what they do
when
things don't go their way
or
when they're just plain
bored
but
I go anyways,
because my mother and father
aren't speaking to each other today.
The stress
is nearly unbearable.
We walk around the block
starting at the house furthest away.
Things start out smoothly
at first.
We carol
tunelessly and
the neighbors at least
pretend
to listen, but…
When we get to a house where
we can see the light is on and
the TV is booming,
and we ring the doorbell,
the curtain shuffles for a second.
A man peers through
and suddenly
the lights inside are all off
the television is silent.
Hide and seek.
The kids become rowdy.
Someone curses.
"That
bastard!"
A boy
probably just a little
older than I am
unzips the backpack
he wears.
He pulls out rolls of toilet paper and
cans of spray paint.
Ino laughs,
grabs a roll,
and soon the trees are white
as a winter wonderland.
I'm dreaming of a white Christmas.
I don't like what they are doing
and I
stay a few feet from the curb,
watching the dark figures that
blend into the shadows,
flickering
and laughing.
Kin's arm becomes a blur
as she sprays the words
"Fuck you, Mr. Scrooge."
The front door slams open and
I hear the cock of a shotgun.
"Get off of
my lawn,
bitches!"
Suddenly,
the children's laughs
begin to sound like the laughs of
demons,
when someone I identify as
Dosu
Kin's boyfriend,
throws a rock
at the disgruntled
overweight
man.
Flickering black shapes
a startled cry
the crack of the gun.
Ino screams
the younger kids are crying
and Dosu
is no more.
The kids remaining
begin to run.
Every man for himself.
To stay behind
would mean taking the blame
for something you did,
when you just want to forget.
Only Kin
remains behind,
crying.
No one attempts to get her to run with them.
Say goodbye, little girl.
"Where were you?" Sakura's mother asks, her hands on her hips.
Ino, who's still shaking, says wearily, "Out."
Sakura's mother narrows her eyes, "Where. Were. You."
"We went for a walk. We thought we heard a gunshot and we ran," Ino says softly, her limp hands at her side twitching.
It doesn't seem like the woman is really listening, "Sit down, you two. Your father and I have something to talk to you about."
Sakura clenches and unclenches her hands into fists. Do they know? Do they know what happened, and that it's all their fault?
RunRunAway, oh God, JustRun.
For the first time, Sakura and Ino notice their father sitting on the sofa a few feet away, his head in his hands. Sakura's mother sits beside him, and motions for the girls to sit on the loveseat across from them. She takes something from Sakura's father's lap, "Whose are these?"
Silence reigns over the room for several long seconds.
"What are they?" Ino asks, her voice shaking, her fingers fiddling with the fabric of her rumpled miniskirt.
Sakura knows what they are. She's seen the girls in the locker room showing them off, and she's seen commercials for them on television back when they had one.
"Birth control pills," Sakura says, her voice only a breath, but the whole room hears it.
"Whose are these?" Sakura's mother repeats, staring at Sakura, who's too busy trying to avoid Ino's stare.
Oh, please don't lie.
"They're Sakura's, mom," Ino blurts, "I was there when she got them…I didn't want to say anything, but…"
Sakura's father's shoulders sag and she feels her own do the same.
…How could Ino…?
"Who is he?" Sakura's father asks gruffly, his voice strained, "Who is the boy?"
Someone, look at you.
Sakura trembles, unable to say anything. Ino seems more comfortable now. When Sakura doesn't answer, her mother says, "Ino, who is the boy?"
Ino looks off to the side, trying her hardest to think of a name through the muddled panic and fleeting guilt, and clenches her fist, "His name is Uchiha Sasuke."
And suddenly Sakura can't stay in there anymore; she walks out, ignoring the protests of her parents as she climbs out of her bedroom window and runs.
RunRunAway, oh God, JustRun.
I wasn't sure
but
I thought that maybe
this had to be the
hardest
thing
that I had
ever
done.
I threw
my belongings
into a backpack
and
walked out the door
not quite bothering to
shut it behind me.
Maybe so that
there was at least
a little
proof
that I had
existed.
No matter how
temporary.
So I walked
towards an unknown destination.
Counting my steps to
drown out my thoughts,
but
I wanted to
run.
And soon
I was just a kid
with
no identity.
A child
without a name
running through the streets
of Konoha.
But
I stumbled
on a crack in the unlevel pavement.
And there
he was.
A meter away
with his
expressionless,
pretty face and his
startling
onyx eyes that said
"Turn back"
So I
do.
Wake up, dear. It's morning.
Sakura wakes up in the front yard. Her eyes are bleary and crusted shut with dried tears, and her face feels raw.
It's Christmas.
Sakura climbs sorely back through the open window. As she crawls through, she slips on something resting on the inner windowsill, and she stumbles into the side of her bed, whatever it was that was on the sill flying to her feet.
It is a small flimsy-something, wrapped in light green wrapping paper with a white piece of ribbon tied around it, a small card attached.
Sakura,
Merry Christmas,
Kakashi.
She shivers a bit, and she's not sure whether it's because her clothes are damp from the morning dew and the window is open, letting a cool breeze in, or if it's because she's giddy. But she timidly unwraps the small gift from a teacher she hardly knows, hoping that maybe it's a pair of socks because she had to spend the last of her money paying the toll for the bus to get home from the library two days ago.
It's not a pair of socks.
She smiles a little bit, but at the same time she doesn't want to because it makes her feel like her face is going to crack, and she pulls out the piece of fabric from inside.
It's the light blue speckled scarf that Kakashi had bought when they had shopped together. It feels so soft between her dirtied fingertips, but she doesn't want to touch it so that she doesn't tarnish it, and she's sosososohappy, because someone remembered her today, and she briefly wonders if he came before or after she fell asleep.
He could have been an angel.
Maybe in a past life.
Because angels don't stay on Earth long enough to give not-so-little girls Christmas presents, and they don't have pet dogs from the Free Puppies box on the street corner named Pakkun.
How would you know? Angels come in all sorts of packages.
Because maybe giving a not-so-little girl hope that someone remembers she exists, and saving a young puppy named Pakkun from the possibility of a cruel home is exactly what an angel would do.
Or maybe there are just kind people in the world.
Sakura hopes so.
She tucks the card into the folds of the beautiful silk scarf and puts it under her pillow where she hopes no one will find it.
Listen.
Sakura does listen, and she hears her father using the telephone in the hallway.
"I don't want your no-good-brother coming anywhere near my Sakura again, you hear? She's too young for that sort of thing, and I don't trust your filthy family!" there is a pause, "Meant no harm? I don't care whether or not he meant no harm. Uchiha Sasuke is never to come near my daughter again!"
Sakura hears the phone slammed into its cradle. A long silence follows afterwards.
Ino comes out of her bedroom looking divine in her black miniskirt and boots, and red tank top with the black jacket Sasuke had given her, and she gives Sakura a pleased grin before walking by Sakura's father, her expression quickly changing to that of false sadness.
Don't you see what she does to you? To this family?
Sakura shivers. Because the world feels a little different.
Sakura walks into the living room looking a little bit cleaner and a little bit less like she slept in the front yard, and she tries to avoid the stares of anger and contempt and confusion from the three people she thought she could always trust.
Sakura's mother puts on a smile that doesn't quite reach her eyes, "Who's ready to open presents?"
The Haruno family doesn't have a tree. Sakura can remember when she was younger and their tree was talltalltall, but her mother was allergic to pine and they had a assemble-it-yourself tree, and whenever they would all put it together, she would sit on her father's shoulders to put on the top branches because she was too short to even see where the small angel would rest in all her haloed glory.
Instead of a tree, the Haruno family now has a Christmas wreath hanging over the never-ignited fire place where all of the presents sit, small in number.
Sakura's mother opens her gifts first. She opens the gift Sakura has given her, wrapped in cheap tissue paper she found in the closet. The new shoe soles bring a small smile to her mother's face, and Sakura notices the crow's-feet at the corners of her mother's eyes, and the lines on her forehead and corners of her mouth for the first time.
"Thank you, Sakura, dear."
Next she opens the gift Ino has gotten for her. Her eyes seem to glitter for a moment when she pulls a charming silver necklace with a heart-shaped pendant from the box. She gives Ino a tight hug and kisses her on the forehead and Sakura's smile drops maybe just a little bit, but she makes sure it still remains, because this is the day she makes others happy, even if she can't make them as happy as Ino can.
Sakura's father hasn't given her mother a gift, and neither will look at the other.
Next Sakura's father opens his gifts. He opens Ino's gift, and he practically glows when he opens the gift-wrap to find a brand-new leather wallet. He gives her a gruff comment of appreciation before moving to the box Sakura spent a long time trying to wrap perfectly. When he finds the thermos, his lips thin and he says, "Thanks." But he doesn't look at her, and she can tell he hasn't quite forgiven her for something she hasn't done, but she might as well have done because she knows that Dosu's family has probably spent the night grieving.
Ino is very pleased by the gemstone eye shadow and glittery purple nail polish she receives, but doesn't even really look at the blouse that Sakura had to give away her favorite music box to afford.
And Sakura receives a pair of socks from her father, a red headband from her mother, and some cover-up from Ino. As soon as the small final gifts are opened, the family members each go to their own rooms, and Sakura wants to cry because Sakura's father isn't drinking hot chocolate out of his new thermos, and Sakura's mother isn't asking for Sakura's help to make the ham, because this year there wasn't enough money for a ham, and they've got spaghetti instead.
Let go.
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
A/N: Sorry about the wait. I've been taking art classes from 12:00-4:00 every day for two weeks, and it's been wearing me out. Starting Monday I'll be starting driving lessons…so this should be…interesting. I hope I don't kill any of you by hitting you with the car…
Please review! You guys have been awesome!
-MT