Chapter Four: Her Secret Past

'Girl's don't like skimpy guys,' thought Sasuke.

Sasuke decided to change the way he acted towards her. Being too friendly and happy may throw her away again. He reminded himself to act calm and above all means he must not touch Sakura. He had never been close enough to study her features do his eyes sort of shifted. His eyes landed on her long, silky pink hair, he wished he could run his hand through it. His hand had lifted without his permission.

"Are you ok?" She asked.

Sasuke quickly grabbed his raised hand, and responded, "I'm fine. Do you think I can ask you a favour?"

"Depends." She replied clearly not wanting to.

"My mother is always busy working; will you teach me how to play the piano in return?"

"Ok." She said uninterested, what she had meant to say was, "Of course not! I have no time for that.'

'I'm allowed to sit next to her in front of a piano, I am truly the happiest man alive.' Thought Sasuke.

He must not let his inner emotions take control he must not let Sakura witness his perverted inner self. Sasuke put on a stoic expression and quickly thought of a plan. He pulled his mobile from his trouser pocket and handed it to Sakura. She took it in her hand and looked at it strangely.

"What is this?"

"It's my mobile. Can I have your number so that I know who is calling?"

"Eh, to be honest I have never used any mobile that isn't a touch screen. Can I just prank your number?"

'God, how can you show her a crap piece of shit like that? She probably thinks I'm super poor now!' He cursed.

Sasuke could not even afford an old mobile such as the one he was using. He had found it on the ground. He had been using the school's sim card, one of his student council privileges. By being the president he needed to make many calls to teachers and possibly some trouble makers.

Sakura gave his piece of junk back to him. Sasuke's skin touched hers briefly and he felt like he was electrified in a good way. His heart was beating very fast while he watched her slender fingers dial his number. If he could cry right now he would, but that would look very uncool.

"I have to head back to class." She said and thought, 'I hope I never see you again.'

"Ok."

...

The next day after school.

Today was a special day to Sakura as it was the day her brother had passed away. Usually she would go to the grave by herself but things have changed. She's got Naruto. She was so excited about having made a friend that she had forgotten that he was waiting for her at the school gates. Sakura hoped that Naruto was still there because the last school bell had rung 10 minutes ago. She ran towards the gate in a panic.

There he was standing against the brick wall with his top two buttons opened. He had a broad chest and long legs, he looked like an idol. Was it really alright to walk towards him? His spiky blonde hair flicked outwards a little past his ears. Sakura covered her eyes briefly as the afternoon sunlight had made the ring on his silver necklace flicker.

Some cute girls held out their mobiles to him, they wanted his phone number. She was surprised that he had declined straight away. He then reached inside his trousers to pull out his mobile, which greatly disappointed Sakura. It looked like he was telling the girls to type their numbers into his mobile.

'That playboy Naruto,' thought Sakura angrily.

Her gloomy presence spread a dark aura towards the girls; they quickly walked away as soon as they typed their numbers. Naruto gave a friendly smirk and shrugged, the fact that he was handsome could not be hidden. Sakura was just buying his time; it didn't mean he was her property. He's mine, death glares to any fans. He was a free spirit to like and date anyone that he pleased. She sighed.

"You're late," he remarked.

"Yeah," she replied.

"Who is it that you want to show me?"

"You'll see."

Naruto and Sakura walked next to each other in an awkward silence. Naruto walked a step ahead of Sakura because he had a longer stride. She couldn't stop staring at his hand, how she wished he would extend it out and hold hers. Sakura was deeply immersed in a love bubble before it was popped by a passerby.

Sakura noticed that some people were staring at them, some girls even giggled as they walked pass. She also felt some passerby's glaring at her as if to tell her Naruto does not belong to must be laughing inside thinking that the schools hot shot Naruto wouldn't be interested in her. One Naruto admirer purposely bumped Sakura's shoulder and stepped on her foot.

"Ow!" She cried, the sudden impact had caused her to fall backwards.

Naruto grabbed the girl by the shoulder and pushed her a little.

"Apologise and leave," he shouted angrily.

"It's her fault for not looking," the passerby stated.

"I don't usually hit girls, get out of my sight bitch," he said angrily.

Sakura had never seen Naruto so angry, her heart skipped a beat. 'If this was a dream then please don't let me wake up,' she thought. Hovering in front of her was the man of her dreams; she wanted to remain being protected by him. If only he would never leave her and stay by her side.

"Are you ok?"

"Yes."

"Don't let people step on you, ok? If you do, they will keep taking advantage of you and you will be shunned for the rest of your life. You have to learn to stand up for yourself." He lectured.

"I will try."

"Here," said Naruto extending his hand to help Sakura off the ground.

The two walked hand in hand towards the station and Sakura cherished every minute of it. His hand felt so warm, her ice heart was melting more and more. Her heart felt like it was pierced by a cupid's arrow. She didn't want to take a gamble in love, she was afraid that her heart would crumble the moment she opens it.

"Which station shall we go?"

"XXXX station, it's quite far. It's borderline near the countryside."

"That far.." he groaned.

...

It was 3:30pm when they got on the train; the two of them sat closely together but remained quiet. Sakura was lost in her thoughts; she was thinking that there was no way that he could love her. They could hardly pass mere sentences let alone a whole conversation. It was impossible for someone like him to love someone who could not even ask questions. She really wanted to know more about him, in fact she wanted to know everything there was to him, but she couldn't bring herself to ask.

Naruto had a busy day and the long train ride was making him very tired. His eyelids continued to droop and it wasn't long until his eyes closed. His head fell on top of Sakura's shoulder and she could smell the nice shampoo of his hair. She felt really tired too so she lifted his head to place her head on his shoulders, she gently positioned his head on top of hers. She closed her eyes and cherished this moment.

She was really happy it felt like they were an official couple.

'Please stay like this.' She thought.

They were mere stops away from an interchange station that would lead them to the country link trains but her brief happiness was interrupted by Naruto's phone ringing. Naruto looked at the caller and answered it quickly. He had a very worried expression on his face; it looked like it was from someone important.

"Hi Neji," he answered.

"Naruto, it's me. Can you come to the hospital straight away? It's Hinata; she's woken up from her coma."

"Hinata's awake? I think I can get there within 30 minutes, wait for me."

Naruto looked at Sakura apologetically and said, "I'm really sorry but I need to go see someone very important. Please say sorry to your friend for me."

The train doors opened for people to get off at the interchange station. He let go of her hand slowly and reluctantly. Sadly, Sakura and Naruto would be separated to two different platforms. Their paths were intertwined but now it seemed they were both heading towards different directions. The two existed in two totally different worlds, how could she have possibly thought that she could enter his?

A gush of wind blew as his train arrived, when the train disappeared so did he. She felt as if her world was crumbling and she found herself slipping back into her dark oblivion. Once again she was alone, without any family that she could trust, without any friends to comfort her and even the boy she thought she could love had let her down.

...

It was 4pm when Sakura set an alarm on her phone to 4:30pm in case she missed her stop. Her world felt really claustrophobic, her head began to spin and her body continued shivering on its own. Once again, she would be visiting the grave on her own; she wished she hadn't had put her hopes up this year because it made her more miserable than ever. Her eyelids dropped and she fell into a very unpleasant slumber.

Sakura and her brother Deidara loved each other dearly. The two of them had been through many hardships in life and their bond was near unbreakable. Her brother was actually a very depressed individual as a consequence of a miserable childhood. Her brother was like her knight in shining armour, he would always protect her no matter how bad he was treated or so she had thought.

She hated living in the mansion of empty rooms and unapproachable maids. The thing Sakura hated the most in this world was her step mother Kurenai Yuuhi. If there was an award for the world's most nastiest and senile woman, she would win it dead on. Kurenai was indeed a cruel woman who ruined any good memories of a childhood she would have had.

Deidara alone would not be able to conquer the dark infinities of this world. He had Aoi, his childhood friend and source of strength and light. If he was a plant then she would be like his water and light, because without it he would shrivel up and die.

When Sakura was 12, she and her brother were allowed to move into a three storey house. It was the happiest year of her life, but it's ironic that happy things in life never last long. Her brief period of bliss was soon engulfed with pain and sorrow that she could never forget.

If only she could lose her memory then perhaps she would be a livelier individual.

...

Sakura's Flashback

It was a thundering cold night, the clouds were building up and any moment water would begin to fall from the sky. It was also on this unfriendly night that Sakura received news from the hospital that her brother had gotten into a fatal accident. The cold voice informed her that, her brother may pass away any minute from now.

Sakura dropped the phone and ran outside without hesitation. The clouds have given up causing a heavy downfall of rain. She couldn't care less about getting wet; she also didn't want to waste her time looking for an umbrella. Her brother was dying and she wanted to be able to at least tell him goodbye before he moved on.

"Taxi, I want you to drive to XXX hospital fast, I will pay you good."

She found a taxi quickly and hopped on, when the taxi pulled into the driveway of the hospital Sakura chucked all the money in her wallet to the taxi driver and ran off. The lucky taxi driver would be able to finish work early tonight, as Sakura had just given him $1000US for a short 20 minute drive.

When Sakura had arrived, Deidara had just gotten out of the theatre room. The doctors have done all that they could it was very unfortunate that a big shard of glass had pierced into his face. Deidara's broken body was placed on top of a little bed inside a small clogged up room. 'She hated public hospitals.' His head as well as every other part of his body was covered in bandages, only his right eye, mouth and hands was uncovered.

As soon as Sakura saw her brother she cried, "Brother it's me Sakura! Please don't leave me. Please don't ever leave me. I need you. I can't live without you!"

"I promise to grow up and never make you worry about me." She vowed.

"I promise that I would be a good girl and never make you angry." Her eyes became teary.

"Please, I would do anything for you to smile again." She pleaded.

"Can you just wake up and tell me this is a really bad nightmare like how you always do?" She begged,

"I cannot fight her alone... Who would protect me if you are gone?" She questioned.

"Why are you so mean? Talk to me! Tell me when I open my eyes everything will be fine again." She demanded.

There was only silence.

Sakura cried and cried to the faintly breathing unconscious body. It felt like a whole eternity had passed, she continued whaling and screaming. She couldn't control the shaking of her entire body; she just could not stop herself from trembling. For about 3-4 hours, Sakura had been staring at the bandaged body with teary red eyes. At one stage, she tried banging and punching the wall until her knuckles became red. She had to stop this behaviour as some staff warned her that she may have to leave if she continued like this.

Suddenly at 4am in the darkest hour of the morning, her brother's fingers flinched. Sakura quickly grabbed his cold icy hand. She was really excited that her brother had moved, she really wanted to hear his voice for the one last time. She would always be able to fall straight asleep after her brother read her a bed time story. His brother had such a gentle soft voice.

But the voice she was hearing was very cold and distant.

"I'm sorry Sakura, Aoi is calling."

The machine monitoring his heart rate suddenly made a very loud-

Beeeeeeeeeep...

...

Beep Beep Beep Beep

Sakura's mobile rang loudly and it was nearing her stop to get off the train. This particular train station was only a mere 15 minutes walk to the cemetery where Sakura's brother lies. Ironically God likes to play games with Sakura. Like the day before, the thundering started and very soon the rain would start to pour.

Poor Sakura she had forgotten to bring an umbrella.

TBC

Revised version of Ch 4.

Ch 5: The Cemetery Care Taker