Hello readers! Sorry I didn't put this up as quickly as I could: I got sick :( But here it is : ) this chapter is going to be all about Sari and Ittetsu: WARNING: this story gets a little bloody
Disclaimer: As many times as I have to write this the odds are it will never change: I don't own Naruto
Chapter 6
Scarlett Tears and a Dagger
She lounged in a small tree that bore healing plants. She was in the empty green house for medical plants in the sand.
Her pretty brown eyes were on the thin needles on the silver tray. Sari knew what her skills were and found that they were appropriate for her attitude. The thin needles would never compare to senbon, the deathly acupuncture. But she had a target, and all there was left to do was find her.
…K~S
Ittetsu fell back onto the dusty ground of his backyard. Sari was shaky on her feet, tired and sweaty from helping him perfect the jutsu. Now that the morning sun was in the sky, the desert grew hot instead of cold.
The sandy haired genin groaned as he sat up, his stomach muscles sore and overworked. "One more go," he managed through labored breaths of hot air.
Sari smiled beautifully. She was inspired by his will to perfect his common, but useful jutsu. She walked up to him and punched halfheartedly at him. The chakra shield shot out from his body and her punch hit solid chakra.
Sari smiled through the pain in her hand. She hadn't the heart to tell him about her bloody knuckles or fatigued and swollen fingers.
She hadn't breathed a word about the way her calves burned or how her knees ached. Her spine feeling wry and beaten or her ribs uncomfortable and overlarge from the heaviness of her breathing as she attacked him over and over.
The pretty, yet exhausted ninja looked on as Ittetsu wavered and fell to his knees. He smiled weakly at the dirt, knowing he'd accomplished something.
Sari was glad to see him happy, but she was tired beyond belief. Her chakra was almost gone and she knew if she pressed herself she'd suffer far worse than just being a little tired.
She walked up to her friend and bent to her knees gratefully. "I'm going to go home now to rest. You should too. Hayate Sensei will want to see that new jutsu of yours around afternoon today. You need to gather more…" she blinked, "Ittetsu? Are you listening to me?"
She touched his shoulder and jumped back as he fell over on his side, eyes closed and definitely asleep.
Sari smiled softly and with as much strength as she could conjure up, pulled him back into his house and rested him in his family room on a thin bamboo mat.
"Sweet dreams, little ninja," she said kindly, not even grossed out by the small trail of drool that had flowed from the boys' mouth.
Sari left his home, making sure to close the doors completely behind her, and headed down the road to her home. Her whole body ached. Still she was happy she helped in. Sari didn't know what she'd do if he were placed back at the academy.
Sari's feelings were unsteady about Ittetsu. She knew she really liked him, but still, how far was she ready to go?
"SARI!" Matsuri yelled, racing up to her. The young teen stopped in front of her friend with bright eyes. "Guess what!"
Sari smiled. She was practically dead on her feet, but she tried to summon enough energy to go along with Matsuri's out-of-character overjoyed mood.
"What is it, Matsuri?" Sari asked.
"I'm going to Konoha with Gaara and Temari!" she exclaimed.
"Really?" Sari said, hugging her best friend tight. "That's awesome. For how long?"
"Well, it'll take 6 days traveling there and back, and then the 4 days and nights in between, so… wow, 10 days without you, Sari!" Matsuri realized, glumming a little at the thought of leaving her friend to fend for herself.
Sari smiled smally. "Think of it this way: 10 whole days with Gaara," she reminded. Matsuri blushed, her eyes shining with a passion.
"You rock, Sari." Matsuri said, mock-punching Sari's shoulder.
Sari smiled. "You too, Matsuri."
…K~S
Sari tilted her head against the relaxing spray of the hot water. She knew she'd been showering long enough to run her house, and perhaps the neighboring homes as well, out of hot water. The problem was she was too stiff to care. The sound of her family talking about in the kitchen reminded her of food.
Sighing she let the soothing spray relax her before turning the water off. She took a towel from on top of the hamper and wrapped it around her body. Her other clothes were filthy, and she wanted only the best.
In the bedroom she saw random outfits laid out. She went to a small dresser and picked out a nice outfit that complimented her nicely.
Sari brushed out her long hair and hummed to an old lullaby.
She heard the footsteps, labored and heavy, and threw the brush on the thin bed. She ducked, judging the crawl space between the bed and the floor, and decided she could fit.
Squeezing under she waited until she saw the bare feet in the room, padding tiredly around. The bed dipped down at that moment, the springs protesting lightly as the girl laid down. Sari smiled, tapping her nails on the floor. She could wait as long as it took until her lovely cousin woke up. Her target: Sari.
…K~S
The little girl smiled up at him as they ran through the sandy streets. She giggled, her laugh like chimes. He laughed with her.
"Catch me if you can!" the girl challenged suddenly, running away in the opposite direction of him. Ittetsu ran after her. He wouldn't let her escape. He'd made a friend, so he couldn't let her escape. He'd catch up to her. It was the universe telling him he could get her one day, capture her heart, have long conversations without speaking, and see her everyday and feel good even in bad times.
Then it was the universe telling him he couldn't catch up by making him trip and fall. Yet she kept running. The impact of the fall split his vision, and there were two girls running away. Two Saris. They were identical, except one was light, and one was dark. He tried to find his Sari between the pair before he fainted, before it was too late. It was too late: the Saris, one light and one dark, and merged together, and he wasn't sure which one he loved, or if to love his true love, he'd have to love both of them.
Ittetsu woke up slowly. His muscles were worn but his chakra felt almost replenished.
Then he realized he was on the floor in his family room. He wasn't so sure about how and why but he shrugged off the paranoia about it and got to his feet.
In his kitchen, which was one of the biggest rooms in his whole house – since his parents were more like chefs than ninja – he found his breakfast on the island.
He ate quickly, knowing one of the best ways to replenish lost chakra was to eat.
"Ittetsu?" he heard and jumped. His mother, who'd walked in very quietly on him, in his defense, was considered a very pretty lady. Even though people knew she was happily married with a kid, men still gazed after her and flaunted around her.
Fortunately she didn't return the interest.
"I saw you outside earlier with that girl, uh, Sari, Kashike's daughter." His mother, Nae, said in a voice that was motherly and sweet. "Was she helping you practice?"
Ittetsu ate a big bite out of his breakfast, hoping his mother wouldn't try and look for any possible signs of a relationship.
Finally he finished chewing and nodded lamely.
Nae smiled. "I feel proud and pity for that girl. She worked so hard, and I think she really scratched herself up."
Ittetsu frowned. "What? Really?" he asked as guilt crept over him. His mother nodded in answer.
"You should go see if she'd okay, oh," she turned and shuffled through her massive kitchen before returning to him with a medium sized bundle wrapped over a few times. "Do you mind giving this to Kashike while you're at it?"
Ittetsu, out of teenage rage at the thought of doing his mothers chores, almost said 'no' but caught himself and nodded.
Nae smiled. "Thank you, Ittetsu." She kissed his forehead and walked out, most likely to pick up ingredients from the market, or go talk about gossip with some of her 'Woman friends'. Ittetsu wasn't all that interested.
The boy shoveled his meal up, cleaned the dish and put it away quickly. He grabbed the bundle under his arm and fled his house. He needed to know if Sari was okay.
…K~S
She waited, her fingers twitching and her heart beating. She could tell by how the mattress had stopped moving that the girl was asleep. Sari smiled, sliding herself from under the bed.
Her sleeping cousin snored softly, managing to look like an angel, and cuddled up next to her pillow.
Sari smiled. Her job would be easy.
She pulled a needle from a pouch on her hip and slid it close to the girls' neck. Sari smiled and with a flick of her wrist, punctured the skin there.
Her cousins' body somehow went even limper than it was in sleep. She paled, her lips loosing color and her skin rapidly going cold.
Sari stroked her cousins' hair, but there was no love in the gesture.
"Thank you, dear Sari," she whispered. "For being so easy to kill."
…K~S
Ittetsu walked down the streets of Suna with a loose (but still there) scowl on his face.
He wished that Sari had told him she was getting hurt. He felt incredibly guilty, being that the love of his life was injured at his hand… or chakra.
Sari, he thought. She's always digging daggers in me. He stopped walking, his scowl angrier. No, he thought stubbornly. I love Sari, so I shouldn't be thinking that she's hurting me in any way.
He walked forward, his thoughts taut, and headed the rest of the way to Sari's abode.
The home Sari lived in always seemed to have a warm glow to it, like a tree decorated and lit for Christmas. He felt that her life was like a holiday, warm and fun and together.
Ittetsu's home state was more strained: his father working whenever he got the chance, his mother always slightly troubled by the number of her admirers, and him, grumpy, slightly unwilling, and lost on where his love life stood.
He knocked on the door of Sari's home, waiting as he heard light footsteps dance across the floor and to the door.
It slid open to Kashike, who was armored with an apron, thin gloves, and a bandana.
"Uh, is Sari home?" he asked, shifting uncomfortably.
Kashike nodded, turning around and padding farther inside the house. "Sari!" she called. Turning to him she said, "You can come in if you like."
"My mom sent this with me," Ittetsu said, giving her the bundle as he walked into the warm house. It was nice and cozy, the sandy walls familiar and but the scenery new.
Sari walked into the room, her presence brightening Ittetsu instantly.
"Mom," she smiled yawning. "You woke me up!"
Kashike pointed to Ittetsu wordlessly, and Sari brightened, her eyes shining. She didn't often look at anyone like that, not since Abiru. Seeing her looking at him like that now made Ittetsu both confused but tremendously happy.
"Ittetsu," Sari practically squealed, throwing herself at him.
Kashike watched on for a moment in confusion, but smiled warmly and walked into another room to give them privacy.
"I came to see if you were alright. My mom said she noticed that you'd gotten a little hurt while we practiced earlier."
Sari blushed, averting her eyes shyly. "I guess I might be a little bruised, but they haven't come up yet."
Ittetsu frowned. "But my mom said you got scratched up."
She blushed harder. "I did… uh, around my legs," she said, pointing to her thigh, which was covered.
Ittetsu shrugged. "I'm really sorry, Sari."
She shook her head, "I don't mind." She bit her lip lightly, bringing the soft pink of her lips to Ittetsu's attention.
Swallowing he leaned back a little, realizing just how close she was to him.
"Listen… I kind of wanted to talk to you. Can we go somewhere?" Sari started, looking hopefully up at him.
"Um, but we have to meet up with the Sensei soon." Ittetsu reminded her.
Sari sighed. "Alright."
Together they left to go see Hayate at the practice fields.
…K~S
Ittetsu was wary of Hayate's critical gaze watching him. The sun seemed to bare down on him hard and his clothes seemed heavy on him. This was it, the difference between ninja and academy student, pride and ridicule, Sari and some other chick in the near future with no other real options.
He tried concentrating his chakra, feeling it within his body.
Sari watched on, waiting with a patient gaze, like a cats' almost.
Ittetsu flexed his chakra out to cover and surround him.
"Throw something at me!" he shouted.
Hayate, always stocked with something to throw, chucked a hardcopy of Twilight at the boy, and watched with interest as it bounced off the chakra shield.
"Very unoriginal, Ittetsu," Hayate chastised.
"Did you expect anything more?" he asked coolly, his nerves set on edge.
Hayate rolled his eyes. "I'm easy to please, I guess. I wont send you back to the academy."
Ittetsu smiled. "Sari, I'm not going back to-" he stopped when she tackled him again, wrapping her slender arms around his waist. She pecked him on the cheek, close to the edge of his mouth.
Ittetsu tried to smile back but, realizing his 'smile' was probably wry and stupid looking, blushed bright red. Well, he blushed because of the kiss too.
"Aw, young love. I remember those days," Hayate sighed.
Ittetsu cringed out of habit and stepped out of Sari's embrace. "No, we're not-" Sari stepped up to him and stopped his words with her lips.
Hayate sighed again, and walked away, leaving them alone, and reminiscing about his own love life.
…K~S
Sari was running. She still felt drowsy, but was recovering each second from the fear of her with Ittetsu.
She could remembered suddenly feeling sharp nails pressing into her skin, cold hands holding her down to the bed. Then she saw a blurry flash of the girl's face. The other Sari was back, and, from the nice note the girl'd left her, she was after Ittetsu.
Sari felt tears coming to her eyes when she thought about it. If only she knew why the other Sari was after her Ittetsu.
She had a hunch they'd be at the training field close to the ninja academy.
She was already close to the sandy training grounds. She'd make it, she'd find Ittetsu and tell him of her cousins' treachery.
The training grounds were in sight before she knew it. And so were a couple, kissing like there was no tomorrow, under the sun.
Watching that Sari and her Ittetsu kiss was like watching a movie, not a romantic one, however, but instead a horror film.
Sari fell to her knees, watching them, and feeling as if she'd lost. So that was her cousins' motive: take Ittetsu for her own, and leave none for her.
Sari bit back the tears, anger and frustration building in her stomach. Her heartbeat hard in her chest, an unfamiliar, foreign adrenalin rush built up in her slender frame.
"SARI!" she screamed. Ittetsu and her cousin froze. Her cousin whipped her head around, wide eyes taking in Sari.
The other Sari backed off of Ittetsu, who was gap mouthed and immensely confused.
"Oh, hello again, my dear cousin," the other Sari gushed mockingly, holding her hands over her heart.
Sari roared, grabbing a kunai from her weapons holster. She sped to her cousin, energy and rage fueling her.
The other Sari rolled her brown eyes and pulled a kunai slowly from her holster as well.
When Sari collided with her double, the knife and the blocked knife set off sparks. Sari glared at her cousin, grinding her teeth to dust. The other Sari smiled, the muscles of her arm tight and shaking slightly to hold her off with only one arm and a kunai.
"Are we really doing this, Sari?" her cousin asked, pushing hard against her so Sari fell back.
Her cousin smiled as formed a few hand seals with ease. "Summoning scroll: Kissaki!"
Sari shuffled back and to her feet when her cousin summoned a long, sharp sword that caught the shine of the sun on its' clean blade. Her cousin positioned the blade in front of her body, putting all her power to the sword.
Sari swallowed hard, realizing that her single kunai wouldn't be enough to cut it.
She opened the pouch with the poison needles on her hip, directing her chakra through her fingertips and into the pouch where the energy licked the poison needles and worked to get a hold. "Saboten Hari," she breathed, directing the cactus needles into the air.
Her cousin glanced up warily at the waiting volley of poison. "That's very much like my senbon abilities. The same ability that helped me to knock you out earlier, do you remember?" she laughed, swinging her sword up to the waiting needles. "Rain down and try to stick me. I dare you to try."
Sari ground her teeth together, widening her fingers so the needles spread out in the air, all of them trained on her enemy.
"Scared?" the other Sari asked, and then started running.
She was fast, her sword balanced above her head. Sari focused on not dropping the needles as she jumped back from the down swing of the sword.
When she was out of reach Sari sent down a volley of needles.
Her cousin looked up with wide eyes and quickly deflected them with her sword. Sari flipped back to avoid the needles that had aimed at her from the deflect.
The other Sari cursed, glaring at her Kissaki, which was decorated in the liquid poison that bled down the long sword towards the hilt. She flung it aside, precariously close to Ittetsu, who was still there, watching on in awe and confusion.
"You poisoned my sword!" Sari hissed, pointing to the discarded weapon.
"You kissed my love." Sari argued.
The other Sari frowned. "He loved me first. I was the first person to show him such kindness. He fell in love with me, and thought he was in love with you," she crossed her arms over her chest. "But was in love with me all the while."
"That makes no sense!" Sari seethed, glancing at Ittetsu, who's gone pale. His eyes, staring at her with a sudden emptiness made her heart skip a beat. "This is stupid. I've loved him ever since the ninja academy when I was younger."
The other Sari laughed. "Well I loved him even before that." She turned back to Ittetsu. "It's that right, hon'?"
Ittetsu looked up at her, shaking his head. "That was you, wasn't it! You were that girl the day Abiru-"
"The jerk…" the other Sari glanced at the girl, smiling mockingly, "That this one all so willingly dated. Yes, love, it was. Tragically, a day later my dreaded parents took me away, leaving you with this oblivious, stupid girl."
Ittetsu seemed to break out of his spell. "No, she isn't a stupid girl. She might be oblivious sometimes, but Sari is very smart."
The other Sari smiled, "Yes, I am very intelligent, aren't I?"
Ittetsu frowned. "I meant her," he said, pointing to Sari. His eyes were still confused and his frown ever existent.
"But, Ittetsu, you love me!" the other Sari cooed, smiling.
"I did." Ittetsu whispered. "But I also fell in love with Sari. I've been growing up with Sari, spending time with her, training, going on missions! What have I ever done with you, besides run around and play on the swing?"
The other Sari became red with anger and disbelief at his remark, balling up her fists. "You're lying!" she accused.
"I'm not." Ittetsu whispered, looking at Sari who was gazing back at him.
Then the other Sari started screaming. It was a high-pitched sound that went to the throat towards the end.
"SHE ALWAYS GETS EVERYTHING!" She screamed, pulling at her hair. "SHE GETS THE FAMILY, THE LIFESTYLE, THE GUY! SHE THINKS SHE'S BETTER!"
"I don't think that, and it's not my fault you were born into a non-ninja family!" Sari shot back.
The other Sari screamed louder. "I HATE YOU! DIE!" she launched herself in the air, spinning around and dropping with her foot over Sari's head.
Sari fell to the ground, the impact of the kick creating a crater in the ground.
She gasped at the pain, and looked up to see her cousin standing over her, smiling. "You aren't the only one with chakra threads," she hissed, dragging the poisoned Kissaki back to her hands with her chakra.
The poison glistened on the blade, and Sari breathed hard, trying to get away from the weapon and it's wielder.
Then the other Sari stabbed down.
…K~S
Ittetsu loved them both, the light that lit his day, and the dark that soothed him to sleep. But he'd never loved them as one person. The light Sari he loved in subtle ways, smiling at her and no one else, and making sure to tell her 'hi' before anyone else could.
With the dark Sari, he loved her with a passion, tangible and complicated, with kisses that left him confused afterwards.
They were totally different people, and he loved them both, but when he jumped over Sari to take the damage of the blade sliding through his back and his stomach, he'd singled all his love to the light, and turned his back on the dark.
He remembered faintly thinking that Sari was a dagger that kept on stabbing. It was ironic, in a way, being that his body was then penetrated by the Kissaki blade.
Sari also got stabbed, since the long sword had slid effectively through him, and then a little bit into Sari, but her damage wasn't nearly as horrid.
He laughed softly in Sari's shocked face. "I love you, Sari. I always have." He finally said, falling to his side with the blade still lodged inside him.
The other Sari stared in horror at the catastrophe. She screamed into her hands, tears in her eyes. She slunk away slowly, her eyes trained on Ittetsu's bleeding form, before she ran away, fleeing like the vicious animal she was.
Sari sat up, ignoring the pain in her stomach. The muscle felt torn and the flesh was cut deeply open.
She put her hands on Ittetsu's shoulder, trying to stomach her nausea and fear. She grasped the handle of the sword and carefully pulled it out. Ittetsu wretched as she pulled it out, his spine and limbs curving in a broken way.
Sari felt tears come to her eyes. Closing her eyes she pressed her hand to Ittetsu's wound.
"HEEEELLLP!" she screamed. "HEEEEEELLLLP!"
"Sari," Ittetsu moaned, his fingers twitching in the sand.
She bent over him, holding his hands in one of hers, the other pressed to the wound. She tried not to concentrate on the hot crimson blood seeping through her fingers.
"I'm here," she breathed, kissing his fingers. They were cold and pale. His whole body was loosing color, and his lips were looking blue. Sari called out help again, hoping someone could hear her. It was too dangerous moving him now.
"I love you," he whispered again, half in and half out of consciousness.
"I love you," she breathed out shakily, gasps catching in her breath. "Stay with me."
"I will," Ittetsu breathed as a few chunin jumped into sight. They all wore similar expressions of shock.
One of them picked Ittetsu up and was gone in the next minute. Sari looked after him in horror. "Where'd he go?" she panicked.
A woman with gray eyes put her hands on Sari's shoulders, steadying her. "My friend took him to the hospital. He has to be treated quickly." The woman glanced down at Sari's bloody hands. "They'll do everything they can."
The third chunin came into sight, his eyes hard. "Can you tell us what happened?"
Sari breathed out hard. "My… my cousin was going to s-stab me," she stammered, realizing late that she was shaking. "B-but…" she shuddered, tears bursting from her eyes. She sobbed, holding herself. All of her anger towards Sari, and her left over strength for helping Ittetsu vanished. "It-tetsu… he stopped her."
The chunin exchanged looks. "Are you saying a Sand ninja did this?" the woman asked.
"S-she lives in one of the villages in the Wind at a nearb-by oasis, but it isn't a n-ninja village," she explained, placing her face in her hands.
"And yet she did so much damage!" the man whispered, but Sari heard.
"T-that's the only thing she's good at." Sari hissed, hating her cousin, and hating herself for not being able to take her down.
…K~S
She raced down the streets, fear and regret suffocating her like a coiling rattle snake, deaths kiss in the form of venomous fangs at her throat.
She remembered the feel of the Kissaki traveling through him as she pushed down. Granted, her blade had hungered for different blood at the time.
Sari cursed, tears in her eyes. The only way she'd be okay with it all was if perhaps her annoying cousin really did get sliced, and perhaps if the poison on the blade infected her, and killed her.
She tried to focus on that: her cousin dying, her gravestone being set, and ran into a boy walking out of a shop.
"Sorry," she grumbled.
"No, it's-" he stopped. "Oh, it's you!" he muttered. The boy was fairly tall with strong shoulders and curly brown hair. He had a nice enough face, but the annoyance in his gaze ruined the view.
"Huh? Oh. You must be Abiru." She said stiffly. A thought crossed her mind then. Glancing up at him, she smiled weekly. "Um, Abiru. I've been meaning to tell you something. Something I should have said long ago."
…K~S
DRAMATIC ENDING! First off, sorry if this story was a little gory. I'm kind of sensitive about cuts and stuff like that, so I got a little queasy writing this, but I'm keeping it that way. If you don't remember who Abiru is, I strongly recommend you reread the first few chapters, because I'm bringing him back, and I don't feel like setting up his character again (sorry, I'm just lazy like that). ALSO!: when that Sari stabs Sari with the needle while she sleeps it was temporary death, not real death(Zabuza Haku arc anyone?) Was this story worth the wait? Was it confusing around the parts with the 'Sari' and the 'other Sari, cousin, other girl, that Sari and… what else?' I'm going to construct a nickname for the next chapter so the two will be more distinguishable. WAIT! THEY AREN'T GOING TO BE IN THE NEXT CHAPTER! The next chapter is all about Gaara and Matsuri in Konoha enjoying each other. I need suggestions on something they could do while there: I'm going to try to make these chapters a lot longer, so any suggestions I get, unless they're real nasty, will be put in. Please review and read and Yup – Keomi~Sage