Disclaimer: Not mine.
Ghost of Love: Chapter Sixteen
Sakura wandered tiredly through countless uniform, grey halls until she finally came upon her small and uninviting room. She stopped outside the door for a moment, wishing she could be back in Konoha, coming home from a mission with Naruto and Kakashi, or from an exhausting day at the small-yet-busy Leaf Village hospital. She tried to push these thoughts away, well aware that they didn't lead to anything but misery, and slipped through the door to collapse on her bed with a groan of relief.
She blinked dazedly, trying to focus her thoughts but they refused to be corralled into anything resembling coherence. The young kunoichi felt empty, drained of energy, thought, and emotion. Hunger clawed distantly at her stomach but exhaustion won out in the end and she gave in to the heavy weight that tugged at her drooping eyelids. Her mind drifted weightlessly through the thought that she must be getting stronger, getting closer to escaping and that, though she had been too overwhelmed to notice at the time, Orochimaru had glowed fiercely, brightly, when he knelt before her to absorb her chakra. She frowned distantly as she tried to recall how he had looked afterwards, but found that she couldn't remember him glowing as she stared at his silver-marked wrist. Weird…
Sleep landed gently on Sakura's wandering mind, a warm hazy blanket that stilled the aching in her belly and the tired, unfocused confusion in her head.
Sakura awoke early the next morning, feeling refreshed and remarkably light. Triumph over her victory yesterday buoyed her mood and the lack of overbearing Matsumori chakra lent her step a bounce that it hadn't had for a very long time. She wolfed down her breakfast, carefully selecting enough protein, carbohydrates and energy to make up for her lack of food the previous day, and made her way to the training room with half an hour to spare before Orochimaru's scheduled arrival.
Restless and full of energy, Sakura paced the room, wondering what today's training would entail. Chakra control was unlikely- she was easily in full command of it at its current level. That left sparring, weapons training, or maybe even jutsu! Anticipation bubbled in her chest and the young kunoichi couldn't suppress a grin. Say what you will about Orochimaru's methods and lack of morality, he still has probably the most comprehensive knowledge of jutsu of any ninja alive.
Just as Sakura finished running through one of the simpler Konoha katas - her favorite way to warm up and kill boredom -, the door swung open, admitting a smirking snake sannin. He brushed his hair away from his golden eyes with unconscious grace and arched a dark eyebrow.
"Eager to begin, are we little one?" He drawled, honeyed voice dripping with amusement.
Sakura stilled, coming out of the stance she had adopted and blushing faintly, mildly embarrassed to have been caught unawares.
Orochimaru's lips curled into a lukewarm grin, satisfied with his ability to discomfit his new student. "You are much more fun than Sasuke ever was."
The coral-maned girl frowned at the mention of her old crush, and straightened her spine, the last vestiges of embarrassment fading from her fair skin. "So glad I amuse you," she muttered sardonically.
"So am I," the dark-haired rogue agreed mildly.
Sakura waited for the lesson to commence, watching Orochimaru with growing trepidation as he remained motionless. He didn't appear to be in any hurry to begin her training; he was very still, eyeing her with a considering gaze. It wasn't designed to make her uncomfortable, or at least she didn't think it was, nor was he waiting for her to do something, say something. He was just observing and, evidently, thinking.
Sakura let out an unconscious sigh and blinked. In that instant, as her guard completely abandoned her, Orochimaru struck, sending the young kunoichi flying through the air and into the wall.
The breath burst from her lungs as she collided with unyielding concrete and slid to the floor. Sakura could just feel a huge bruise spreading across her back as she leaped to her feet, wincing. She stood there, struggling to catch her breath, hair in disarray and flushed with utter fury, both at herself for letting her guard down and at Orochimaru for being an opportunistic bastard.
"You bast- ugh!" Sakura found herself abruptly pinned to the very wall that had just stolen all her oxygen, the hand of a chuckling snake sannin pressed lightly against her throat.
"You are wasting time and energy being angry, little Sakura," he purred, leaning close enough for his lips to brush against her ear as he spoke.
Sakura tensed, frozen to the spot as a shiver spread through her, breath locked in her chest.
Orochimaru pulled back a little, just far enough to study her face, considering. After a moment golden eyes widened with wicked delight and he hovered over her with a burning, amused smirk.
"Definitely more fun than Sasuke."
Sakura's body awoke from its Orochimaru induced haze with a jolt and the girl glared at him as another blush coloured her cheeks. Her eyes dropped from his, seeking something, anything, else to focus on. Her mind scrambled for something to say to distract the snake sannin from his discovery.
"You're not glowing today."
A/N: Sorry for the enormously long wait guys! I got busy and totally lost inspiration for this chapter- it's been rewritten so many times, on different computers and with entirely different concepts... ugh. Anyway, this one is not one of my favorite chapters. I'm not sure what I think of it, exactly.
Anyway, thankyou to:
LittleRetard
Yuchi1994
Echo Uchiha
Ziggo001
ReginaSlytherin
Corrina
Chelseam2
You are all awesome and wonderful!
Corrina: I'm so glad you managed to find the rest of this story here on fanfic . net. I started posting it on the other site, but it got very tedious changing the formatting for every chapter, so I decided to stick with posting it here on ff only. Thankyou for your awesome review, it gave me so much inspiration when this chapter was kicking my ass.
Chelseam2: I'm so happy you're enjoying the story and thankyou for letting me know you like the way I'm writing Orochimaru so far. He's not so easy sometimes (as evidenced in this particular chapter) and I'm often afraid I'm not doing his character justice. It's good to know I'm not doing too badly :)