Somebody

By. Misery's-Toll

Chapter 25: Prelude to a Fairy Tale or

A Fairy Tale Part One

The warmth of it splatters
We all can wring her neck
First, we gain new terrain
When we're young, we get seasick
On your seven

- "New Terrain" by Mew

---

When Sasuke gets there, he's a little too late. Not too late for her life, but for the circumstance alone because the girl is already broken and he can't protect her the same way he used to, but he tries anyway and kicks the man on top of her into the wall three yards away, cracking the brick behind him. The other men attempt to join the fight, but Sasuke has them lying unconscious in half a second.

He scoops the disengaged girl into his arms, ignoring her bare legs, but tugs the ripped dress down that was already too-short when it was whole to cover her as well as possible and he carries her away, into an abandoned park. She pulls on his sleeve a little and motions for him to put her down. He does so warily.

She stares at him through hazy eyes for a minute, and he waits for a break down, but none comes.

"Dance with me?" she requests of the man she hasn't seen in years, "I knew an angel once; he looked just like you. It's too bad I'm drunk or maybe I'd remember this in the morning. Or maybe I'd just remember a man who looked almost like an angel I knew a long time ago coming to save me. Maybe it's a good thing I'm drunk, because maybe I'll remember this a little bit, and when I wake up tomorrow I'll cry, but I won't feel crazy, because maybe I'll feel like that angel a long time ago really did exist."

Her eyes are glassy and full of forever unshed tears, her make-up smudged like maybe she did cry once, but her tears were dead and they just left dusty charcoal tracks. She hugs him and stands on her toes so that she can press her moist cheek to his cool one.

"I've never had a slow dance, you know," she says in that same cracked and broken voice, "Can we pretend we're dancing? I hear the music and the world is spinning all around us. And maybe if you just put your hand on my waist, I'll know what it's like."

"Sakura."

She lets out a little girl laugh, not at all charming, and she licks her candied lips, "You even know my name," she leans closer to his ear and murmurs with hot breath that smells of scotch, "My mother used to laugh a lot. It sounded like tiny Christmas bell or a strummed instrument. I used to practice laughing so I could sound like her…but here I am, my voice sounding like crushed glass."

She's warm and sticky and she feels like an infant, fresh from a mother's womb, slick with tear-filled eyes and an unpractised voice. And even though her voice cracks and grates in her chest, she speaks to him anyways, telling him everything she's never said to anyone that she's always wanted to.

"I want to kiss you, but you look too much like him, and I'm afraid that if I do kiss you, maybe since you look just like him you'll fly away without me once you grow your wings," her voice lowers in volume and she looks directly into his darkdarkdark eyes that look just like the ones she remembers, but maybe a little less sad, and she says, "Make me an angel, and I'll make you real."

He puts his hands on her hips to give her the dance she wants, because he can't offer her anything else.

His voice is endlessly deep and full and just how she remembers it (imagined it?), "I can't give you wings the way you gave me flight. But my name is Sasuke, and I'm here to save you."-

Then Sakura wakes up.

-=Sasuke=-

When Sasuke finds Sakura that morning (he waited in the car for a few minutes before realizing the door was open and then became worried that there had been a break-in), she's in a bundle of blankets in the middle of the living room floor, behind the sofa he had held her on the night of her birthday, and her dad is snoring on the sofa while some action film is airing.

"Hey, Sasuke," Sakura's muffled voice erupts from the entanglement of quilts, "I'm a caterpillar in a chrysalis. Shh, I'm changing into a butterfly."

Ino, who is usually already gone by this point, exits the hallway bathroom in a robe (a look he's seeing on her more often these days) looking like she just finished vomiting for the past fifteen minutes, "She's been like that since I got up. Knock some sense into her, will ya?"

"Sakura, we're running late," Sasuke hints not-so-subtly to the girl who begins to squirm in the blankets, "Need some help?"

"Nuh-uh. Butterflies cannot receive aid from outside sources, or they might die! Their cocoon must not be interfered with!"

Sakura bursts from her cocoon of blankets, and it takes Sasuke a few seconds to realize she's curled in a ball and wearing a pair of little girl's Halloween fairy wings. She wiggles them around for awhile before Sasuke gets that she's not getting up anytime soon. Suddenly, she pops up, grabs a bag by the door and runs out. He stands there for a few seconds before turning around and following the pink-haired girl outside and down to his car where she already sits in the passenger seat, the wings and the bag in the back.

He carefully and deliberately goes through each motion of getting in the car, before putting the vehicle into reverse and pulling out of the driveway, "So, what's going on?"

"I felt like being a butterfly today. Butterflies are really pretty and people always say that when they're nervous its like there are butterflies in their stomach, and I guess I'd feel like vomiting if I swallowed a bunch of butterflies, but anyway, I wanted to feel pretty for what I'm maybe going to do today," Sakura explains as she combs her fingers through her mussed pink tresses.

["If I jump, maybe my wings will sprout and I will fly."]

Somehow Sakura's explanation doesn't do much in the way of quelling his worries so he presses forward, "And what's that?"

"Umm...secret. I'll tell you later."

---

It's during second period English when a senior reminds everyone over the intercom that the Spring Fling is that Friday. Sasuke glances over at Sakura who seems to be purposefully avoiding his gaze as she laughs a little too hard at a not-funny joke that Naruto made. She, for a split second, catches his gaze, but instead of flashing him a smile as she usually would, she glances away as quickly as she can. Sasuke finds this to probably mean she doesn't want him to get any ideas, and therefore he should not ask her to the dance. He hadn't intended on it, but he had thought maybe he would ask her if she was going, and if she said yes then maybe he would show up just for no reason, like at Ino's party. And he thinks that he probably kind of was hoping she would say yes because out of every recent new urge he's had, slow-dancing with Sakura is the one thing he thought maybe wasn't so out of reach.

["I wanted to feel pretty for what I'm maybe going to do today."]

He's suddenly uncharacteristically jealous of the idea that she might be planning to ask someone to go with her. This hypothetical man holds Sakura close to him in Sasuke's mind and it's enough to make his gut churn and his hands shake. Naruto walks over to him and Sasuke notes that Sakura has turned her attention to Neji, who she rarely speaks to without purpose and the jealousy rears its ugly head. So he wipes his hands on his jeans and turns to listen to Naruto, "What do you want?"

"That announcement reminded me, I overheard this morning before school that Karin wants to humiliate Sakura at the dance! I don't know what it is, but she really hates her because she 'stole you from her' or something stupid like that. Girls are so complicated," Naruto shrugs and rolls his eyes, "But anyway, I just wanted to give you the heads up. See if you can talk to Karin or something, make her feel less abandoned and maybe she'll rethink her stupid plans."

Sasuke, not one to usually be wary of rumours waves his friend off before contemplating his words. It couldn't hurt, right? He decides to speak to Karin for the first time in what has probably been months, and he almost can't remember how he used to behave around her.

"Hello, Karin. How have you been?"

Her eyes widen as she looks up from the nails she was filing, and for a second it seems as though she can't decide between being angry and being overjoyed, but it appears as though she gives him the benefit of the doubt and smiles.

"Um. Great," she adds a hair flip for good measure and makes sure she only gives him half of her attention, so she doesn't appear too interested in whatever he has to say, Sasuke notes, quite familiar with Karin's antics that have never seemed to change, "What's up?"

"Nothing. I just realized we haven't spoken in awhile," he says, and then realizes that was probably offensive and he thinks she probably cried for weeks when he abruptly stopped noticing her and instead went for the more interesting and lonely Sakura, when they had had some form of friendship once, "And I wanted to make it up to you."

She suddenly looks genuinely intrigued and she drops her nail file, "And how's that?"f

"Just tell me if you want something from me. I'll try and be a better friend to you than I have been. You name it and I'll do it," Sasuke says, thinking of Sakura and all she went through because he had been unfair to Karin.

["Shh...I'm saving the world."]

"Um...okay. I'll tell you if I think of something," she says, and then the bell rings and Sasuke feels like maybe he's done something right.

-=Ino=-

At the mentioning of a dance, Ino suddenly becomes very self-conscious. She realizes that for the first time she may go to a dance with no date. And somehow that idea terrifies her. And beyond that, she realizes that no one for the rest of her time as a teenager will ever dance with her again, so she goes to the one other person that she knows will by no chance have a date.

"Sai, will you hang out with me on Friday night?" she asks, "We can go to a movie or something."

He doesn't look up from his drawing, an extensive and awe-inspiring doodle, for several seconds, and just as Ino is becoming impatient, he glances up at her, "That would be fine. Were you not intending on attending the school dance?"

"I'm not really feeling it this time," Ino shrugs, disliking the way Sai's disinterested stare pierces through her all the time, but still always taking refuge in his blankness, "Bring a wad of cash, 'cause you're paying for me."

-=Sasuke=-

The moment Sasuke sits down at the lunch table, Sakura thrusts the mystery-bag from that morning in front of him, "Open it."

He sets down his lunch tray slowly before cautiously opening the bag. Inside is a Styrofoam take-out box, and when he opens it, he finds a slice of carrot cake and finds a note taped to the top.

"Somebunny wants you to go to the dance with them. If you carrot all, you'll say yes," Sasuke reads aloud, and then deadpans, "I don't get it."

"I think the internet is the greatest," Sakura says, "I used it at the library yesterday and it gave me all of these amazing ideas for how to ask you, and eventually I decided on this one."

Sasuke stares at her for a few seconds, trying to figure out if she's being sarcastic or not, because after all, this is Sakura and the fact that Sakura is generally so truthful in everything she says makes this is a little confusing, because Sasuke doesn't see how this idea could be brilliant at all.

"Go to the dance with me?" she asks, suddenly wild-eyed and apprehension radiates from her, "I dreamed last night that you had flown off to heaven without me and that I forgot myself. Something bad happened to me and then you came down from heaven and saved me and I cried on you and didn't believe it was you until we danced together, because I never had a slow dance, and then I woke up. So then I remembered Hinata talking about how Kurenai told her there was a Spring Fling coming up that was sort of a rush job that the seniors were planning at the last minute to fund their end of the year trip, and I realized I didn't want my dream to come true, so I want you to dance with me. I don't want you to disappear."

Sasuke stares at her for several moments, contemplating her proposal. Sakura's behaviour has been nervous and erratic and slightly overjoyed as of late and Sasuke decides that if this will make the girl happy (and secretly calm his inner desires) then he should accept, "I'll go to the dance with you, Sakura."

Sakura smiles brightly and Sasuke feels the desire inside him swell, "Thank you!"

---

When lunch ends, Karin meets Sasuke at the locker he and Sakura now share, though Sakura has gone off somewhere for the time being.

"I've decided that I want you to be my date to the dance, Sasuke," Karin states slyly, leaning against the locker next to him, "That's not so difficult to comply with, is it?"

Sasuke freezes up and tries to process and figure how to either let her down or work her into his plans, "Karin, I can't do that."

"What? Why the hell not? We're you just messing with me when you said you wanted to be friends again?" Karin's eyes tear up, "Go out with me tonight and I'll prove to you I won't be a bad date!"

"That would be...fine. But I've already promised to take someone else to the dance. You are only a few minutes too late," he explains, "However, I can take you on a date tonight."

"Fine," Karin smiles sweetly, "Pick me up at 7:00!"

["I don't want you to disappear."]

-=Gaara=-

Gaara's head is dizzy and full of confusion. He can hear whispering in the back of his mind, and everyone around him seems to be looking at him, leering at him, wishing him dead. He's about ready to snap when he sees Sakura walking out of the girl's restroom. She will never hate me, Gaara thinks, like my mother, she loves me she will love me she will love me...

"Sakura, go to the dance with me," he says, his voice lilting and smug and he feels good and confident and he knows there's no way Sakura could ever refuse him.

"That's very sweet Gaara, but I'm already going with Sasuke," Sakura says, an apologetic smile on her face. She brushes a lock of hair away from her face and Gaara's heart twists in his chest with an estranged form of resentment. His expression crumples and he shoves her against the wall. She lets out a surprised and frightened cry and eyes him discerningly.

"Why?" he smiles, feeling delightfully malicious as he grips her wrist tightly.

Sakura's feeling and thought seems to slip from her face and suddenly its like she's still there but the lights inside have gone out, so her voice comes out toneless, "What's wrong, Gaara?"

Her deadened face registers in his mind and he pulls himself off of her, holding his head in his hands. He turns back around and hits the wall as hard as he can, letting out a roar of frustration. Sakura doesn't even jump.

"Gaara, I think it would be best if you stepped away from Ms. Haruno," Kakashi's voice seems to rekindle a flicker of light inside of Sakura for a moment before it burns out, as Gaara throws himself away from her, growling again before taking off down the hall.

He takes refuge inside a temporarily abandoned classroom, letting out another roar as he throws a desk-chair across the room, and it crashes into the teacher's desk. Knick-knacks go flying off and clatter to the floor noisily, but the sound is drowned out as Gaara flips over another desk, and then falls to the floor, pulling his hair by the roots and letting out tearless, gurgling sobs.

[Mother. Mother. MOTHER. help.]

-=Hinata=-

Seeing Kiba again after the incident is awkward and uncomfortable, especially due the fact that he won't look at her. After the mistake, Kiba seems to treat her like an ex-girlfriend that his mother made him treat kindly rather than a confusing ex-crush-still-friend thing. Shino still speaks to her regularly and treats her as though nothing has changed, not acknowledging the fact that their three-way bond is now Hinata and Shino and Shino and Kiba. However, when Hinata sees the two of them without her and the way Kiba purposefully doesn't look at her but Shino subtly tries to welcome her over to them with body language, she knows she is not forgotten.

"Hello, Shino. H-Hi, Kiba," she says almost inaudibly, "Um, I was going to, uh, go to the mall today...and I wanted to know if either of you w-wanted to come?"

Kiba looks at her, sort of ashamed and smiles a little, "You sure?"

"Uh huh," she nods and wrings her hands, "Let's g-get matching outfits for the dance."

"I thought you would be going with Naruto," Shino says, "Were you not planning on doing so?"

The mentioning of Naruto increases Kiba's shame and says, "Did you, uh, have a falling out or something?"

Hinata giggles a little, "We're still going together, b-but I didn't see why couldn't be accompanied b-by a few handsome men."

Kiba looks up at her and grins, "Well, if the lady demands it."

-=Sasuke=-

That night, Sasuke arrives at Karin's house at 7:00 pm, as promised. She's dressed prettily and possibly a bit scantily, but Sasuke doesn't notice and he never has. They go to some romantic comedy that Karin chooses that Sasuke barely pays attention to but instead glances at his watch every few minutes. Karin snuggles against his arm, claiming to be cold when he looks at her inquisitively, and because he's used to Sakura doing things like that he doesn't put anymore thought into it.

Afterwards, they go to a new 50's diner across the street from the theatre, and Sasuke thinks this will probably be the difficult part of the date. The part where he's expected to make conversation and be friendly when really he's quite unused to that.

"So...what have you been up to?" Sasuke asks, looking at the old-fashion jukebox behind her rather than at actually at her.

"I've been hanging out with Kin's group, lately. They've been really nice to me since Ami left the school, so I've been pretty good. We usually hang out at Bart's Pizza Place down on 5th Street, if you ever wanna drop by," she says giddily, practically bouncing in her seat, "Actually, there was this one time when Zaku tricked the store owner into giving us two free pizzas because he 'found a hairball' in his, which was totally gross, but he put it there himself really, and yeah. It was great. You had to be there."

Sasuke nods at the appropriate times, genuinely trying to appear interested in Karin's prattle, and occasionally gives his own input when he has something to say, but overall finds her to be quite boring and begins to realize why he hadn't notice when their communication had been cut off.

"So...who did you say you were taking to the dance?" Karin asked, finally deeming it an appropriate time to quit beating around the bush. She glances up at him from beneath her eyelashes, as if trying to use her allure to get him to admit there had been no girl and that he really did want to have her accompany him.

"Sakura. She asked me only a couple of minutes before you, actually. She brought me carrot cake."

Karin eyebrows crinkle and her expression turns into a pout, "You know, I woulda made you carrot cake, too! I just thought that you didn't like sweets!"

Sasuke considers that and decides that that is quite true and wonders if Sakura hadn't noticed or if she was just being facetious this morning with the entire "Somebunny" fiasco.

["I forgot myself."]

"I don't like sweets," he nods, "It was a nice gesture, though."

Karin lets out a huff and crosses her arms, "She's got you wrapped around her little finger. What does she have that I don't?"

"Timing," he says, but thinks tact, soul, topics of interest.

When all is done, Sasuke pays the bill and drops Karin off at her home where she makes one last attempt at wooing him, "Even if you can't take me to the dance on Friday, will you at least save the couples dance for me? I won't add any meaning to it, I swear! I've just always wanted to share that with you, Sasuke..."

Sasuke almost agrees but thinks of a lonely Sakura, standing in the gym by herself with all of her friends paired up and shakes his head, "You know I can't do that, Karin. I'm sorry, but I can't return your feelings."

"It's because of her, isn't it?" she asks, the attitude suddenly back and any semblance of pleading is gone, "God, Sasuke. If you love her just say it! Stop misleading everyone and giving them hope! And if you don't love her then you're just an all-around dick!"

Karin stomps up the hill to her house and slams the door.

---

Disclaimer: I do not own "New Terrain" by Mew or Naruto.

A/N: I realize it appears cut short, but that's because the chapter was going to be around 7,000 words if I didn't cut it, so I decided to make it into two parts for easier reading. I'm not really happy with anything I've written lately, but I mostly have the rest of the story written and I just have to fix it up a little. And if you never check my profile, I just realized that many of you don't know that I'm leaving fanfiction and therefore, this is my last story. If you want to read my original works then follow the link on my profile to my fictionpress. Love you guys!

The next chapter will be up tomorrow!

Please review, and give a thanks to my lovely beta, Ira Feye!

-MT