The next Gaurdian
Chapter 4: Alone again
Disclaimer: Funny, you actually thought I might own this crazy Naruto series! Bah!
Author notes: Hey guys
Sorry this chapter is super sluggish but I promise next chapter things are going to get awesome! I mean new teams! Bell tests! Memories! You name it! So please review me and hang in there I promise it gets better
"Ugh." Sakura complained, tenderly prodding her stinging shoulder blade.
"Well what the heck was that for Conscience? At least inner Sakura only verbally harassed me, no that isn't good enough for you though! You just had to burn me!" She grumbled, glaring inwardly at her conscience out of irritation at the extra gift of pain that she had received.
"Well I'm Sorry little miss priss, but I was helping you break your fuinjusu seal for your information! Tch." Conscience spat back, obviously fed up with the immediate accusation made by sakura.
"Hey! What are you talking about? What seal?" Sakura demanded feeling her confusion rising and her grasp on the situation slowly slipping away.
Conscience sighed, "Do I have to explain everything for you?" she whined, putting great emphasis on the 'everything'.
"Yes." The pink Kionochi said stubbornly, laughing internally at her victory over herself.
"Ugh. Each clan has a clan symbol, most choose to wear it on articles of clothing, or just mention it when inquired. While some actually brand themselves with it, either tattooing themselves, being born with it, or being branded with it one way or another." Conscience muttered impatiently, sparing sakura no time to really comprehend her words.
"So, in the ryuu clan those of pure blood are born with the symbol- like you were. But the symbol is normally covered up with a seal until the child learns of his or her true abilities and can demonstrate them." Sakura sighed, somehow finding the whole explanation considerably boring so far.
"So like a reward of initation right?" She asked, hoping that the pace would pick up because she knew someone was bound to come bursting through the doors at any moment now that Naruto had announced to the whole world she was up.
"Yes, thank you for dumbing that down. But only you decided to take your sweet time in proving your worth! Ahem! So your seal kinda bonded with you and almost became permanent, two more years and you would've never known! So naturally, the closer your seal comes to becoming permanent the harder it is to take off, the harder it is to remove, the more it will hurt." Conscience explained, her childish tone finally disappearing. Sakura was relieved that her conscience had finally finished her obnoxious rambling- or so she thought.
"And likewise, as a dragon you are also branded with the symbol of your village. In this case if you remember you sported the Konoha village symbol on your left and right shoulders, a sign of your loyalty to the village." Sakura sighed loudly, hoping that her conscience would get the message and shut up already. Suddenly the double doors that occupied her room flew open, revealing a stream of young ninja to be pouring from it in hordes all babbling and gossiping amongst each other as they swarmed around her likes mothes to a lamp (hah, shino… enough said ).
"Naruto!" Sakura hissed quietly, making a mental note to make his next bowl of ramen the most vile concoction that he would ever taste in his life, maybe even cure him of that damned addiction. But before Sakura could make any more devious plans, a pair of strong hands with wickedly sharp, purple fingernails was shaking her violently by the shoulders screaming something into her face that she couldn't quite comprehend due to the fact that her brain was bouncing around in her skull like it was some sort of bouncy house.
"DAMMIT SAKURA! Don't you ever do that again you got that! If you do I sware I will personally pluck every strand of your stupid pink hair from your head and burn it do you hear me? You had me scared to death Billboard brow!" came the clearly pissed and relieved feminine voice again. The words just rattled around in sakura's mind, her temples had begun to throb again with Ino's uncontrollable shaking.
"Wait a minute, billboard brow?- ah, Ino.' Sakura thought, allowing a somewhat unpredictable smile to find its way onto her face as she began to resist Ino's violent shaking.
"Geez Ino-pig! Your going to give me a concussion the way your shaking me around like a rag doll!" Sakura teased, letting her eyes re-adjust to a still room after Ino finally stopped rattling her body. She looked at Ino with a 'was it seriously that bad?' face, crossing her arms as she pouted toward the platinum blonde who was allowing a scarce tear of happiness to leak from her eyes.
"God Sakura! For the amount of shit you skared out of me I should send you right back into a coma!" Ino cried, slumping weakly against Sakura's unbandadged shoulder, accidentally smashing her tender clan brand that still oozed with pain. The Carnation haired shinobi couldn't help but let out a small hiss of pain before returning her distressed friends frantic hug, squeezing Ino a little (okay a lot) harder than necessary as payback for the slap to her burn.
"Ya sakura, you gave us quite the scare there." Another voice chimed in, but sakura didn't need to look to know who said it. Shikamaru was normally not one to talk so freely, or use such big sentences for that matter. which meant that even the cloud watching, lollygagging, lazy Shikamaru mustve taken some time to actually be a bit worried. Sakura felt the guilt begin to eat away at her internally, shutting down any control she had of her own emotions.
"Heck, Even Akamaru was worried. Darn dog wouldn't shut up the whole time." Kiba added, patting the head of his over-sized fighting dog Akamaru who whined with guilt in response. Akamaru slowly slunk up to the side of the bed-ridden Kionochi, nosing his way between Ino and TenTen to find a spot at the side of her bed, yearning for the girls re-assurance that even the words of his master and partner in crime couldn't seem to give.
"Aww, hey im sorry Akamaru. I promise I'll treat you after I get outta here alright boy?" She soothed while stroking Akamaru's soft fur earning a low growl of pleasure and relief from the plus sized dog.
Sakura finally looked up, realizing the pain she had put her friends through she decided to do something really stupid for the umpteenth time that week. She decided to make another promise- even though it could mean her life. "Actually, im sorry to all of you guys. You shouldn't worry about me ill be fine, you guys are the ones I always worry about. Don't worry, I promise you guys ill always be here right beside you when the time comes! I promise that on my life! And Ino, Tenten, Hinata. As long as I have a say in what happens- which I always will – we will never loose one another as best friends, no matter what happens! " She finished, a broad smile plastered on her face that now seemed to lift the entire room. Consequently making it one of the only rooms in the hospital where everyone was actually smiling.
"What the hell did you just do sakura!" I immediately flinched, reluctantly snapping my eyes open forcing myself to break the smile that beamed happiness to every inch of the room.
"Conscience stay out of this would you?" I snapped angrily, immediately groaning at the displeasure of being stuck with a 'to nosy for her own good' conscience.
"No! In case you haven't noticed, this is kind of- um- oh ya! My job! And You have to be more careful when you make these promises Sakura!" She lashed back out at me, her words causing a sudden uneasy feeling to creep up my spine.
"What do you mean? Its not like im going to die or any- Oh crap." I said, suddenly realizing the severity of what I had just done.
"Yah Dipshit! You've got the Clan symbol which basically makes it official that you are a dragon now!" She screamed, mentally waging a batlle of words with me despite the fact that technically we were the same person.
"And when A dragon makes a promise-" I started, cursing under my breath not bothering to finish the sentence because I knew that my ass of a conscience would.
"They promise it on their life! " She hissed, her voice (despite the fact that it was mine) was starting to have that nails on a chalkboard effect with me.
"Alright Alright Already! Would you just get your fat ass out of my head for like five seconds, so I can think with MY OWN mind thank you very much!" I growled, sending a menacing glare to my conscience telling her to fuck off for a moment.
"Geez okay, no need to be so bitchy with me." She replied with that 'im going to sound all hurt in side so you feel like a complete asshole now' tone, immediately making me feel guilty.
"Damn! So this is how everyone else feels when I pull this crap on them?" I asked eagerly, intent on knowing if this was the outcome because if it was- then I REALLY needed to work on it.
"Ya, it needs some work though, But I suggest now wouldn't be a good time to practice. Now go! Your friends are going to figure out that your mental soon if you don't!" She teased, I sighed before re-playing her words in my head.
"Wait a minute, I don't have-"
"Sakura? Sakura! Are you okay?" The pink haired girl allowed her eyes to flutter open, revealing startling shamrock green orbs that glistened with her own internal sunlight.
"Sakura! Thank god!" Came a desperate voice again, Sakura struggled with her groggy brain to recognize the voice. She felt like she had a REALLY bad hangover, not that a girl of 14 would know what that was like.
"T-ten Te-ten?" She whispered hoarsely, the blurry blobs that surrounded her finally coming into focus as she instantly recognized the face of the weapons master.
"How are you feeling Sakura?" kiba asked, lounging somewhat lazily in the dull, blue hospital chairs. Sakura attempted to sit up, but found a hard gasp and a sharp stab of pain shot through her body, forcing her to collapse again onto the bleached out bed.
"Wh-what happened?" The pink Kionochi croaked, feeling more dead than alive. She glanced up through one partially cracked open eye to see ino open her mouth, only to be cut off by none other than-
"Wait, Ino-pig? I fainted didn't I?" She mumbled, staring into the shocked cerulean eyes of her platinum blonde friend.
"W-Wait! But how did you know?" Ino stuttered, baffled as to how just a moment ago she had walked in to find her friend awake after a week of sleeping, and now she was babbling away like nothing ever happened.
"I took a guess genius." Sakura deadpanned causing suppressed giggles and unrestrained grunts to erupt from every corner of the room.
"Ya I figured Billboard brow-umph!" Ino found she had no time to finish her carefully planned speech before she was pulled into a tight hug with the cherry blossom. Shocked, Ino soon found herself practically sobbing into her friends embrace, ranting on about how she could've died and other stuff that sakura didn't really bother to catch.
"Troublesome.." Silence cursed the crowded hospital room as the two friends slolwly let go of each other, turning to face the ingnorant dunce with murderous grins plastered on their faces. Said dunce, was about to learn a very important lesson.
"HOLD HIM DOWN! HOLD HIM DOWN!"
"ALRIGHT I GOT HIM!"
"INO!SAKURA WHAT THE HELL?"
"I SWEAR PINEAPPLE HEAD THE NEXT TIME YOU EVEN THINK OF SOMETHING BEING TROUBLESOME YOUR GOING TO FIND THAT IT WILL DESCRIBE THE WAY I KICKED YOUR ASS ALL THE WAY TO THE MOON! YOU GOT THAT NARA!"
"HAHA! SHIKAMARU DUDE YOUR GETTING YOUR BUTT KICKED BY THE WHINY-BLONDE AND BED-RIDDEN PINKY OVER HERE! HAHAHAH!"
"INO-"
"HAH! HEY KIBA! I THINK THAT THE WHINY-BLONDE AND THE BED-RIDDEN PINKY WOULD LIKE A WORD WITH YOU! OR A FIST!"
"SHUT UP CHOOJI- AH CRAP!"
"KIBA GOD DAMMIT THIS STUFF IS NOTHING COMPARED TO THE MACHINERY YOUR SORRY ASS IS GOING TO BE HOOKED UP TO WHEN IM THROUGH WITH YOU!"
" NO WAIT, SAKURA LET ME EXPLAIN! AAHHH! HELP! HELP! AKAMARU! HELP!"
"BARK BARK!"
"AKAMARU, STAY!"
"WHINE, WHINE"
"WHAT THE HELL! AKAMARU WHOSE SIDE ARE YOU ON ANYWAY?"
Both girls 'hmphed' as they smiled satisfactorily at each other, dusting their hands together for added effect as they gazed upon their masterpiece. Boys, four very stupid boys sat in the corner of the sterilized hospital room. Bent in ways one could not imagine the body could so that those four nitwits more closely resembled a human pretzel than four shinobi.
"That, was just a warning. Don't you forget it ok!" The pink-haired girl breathed with just a hint of venom, her voice retaining that sort of dangerously playful tone that could make any man start sweating on the spot.
"SAKURA! MY YOUTHFUL BLOSSOM ARE YOU ALRIGHT!" Sakura rolled her eyes, huffing out a small breath as she instantly recognized (somewhat to her dislike) the ridiculously energetic boy with caterpillar eyebrows.
"ugh, lee this isn't very youthful of you at all!" I whispered internally waiting for conscience to pipe in with some witty remark as I watched the boy clad in a green spandex jumpsuit come bursting through the doors.
"Damn! That ninja has two caterpillars on his face!" She said with all truthfulness as I imagined her sweat-dropping anime style in my brain.
"I know right? Im amazed that he and Shino don't spend their days together with shino commenting on how he would love to add thoos furry things to his collection!" I snorted.
"S-sorry w-we are l-late." Sqeaked a tiny but familiar voice in the back of the room, causing sakura's head to immediately snap to said person.
"Hinata! Neji! You guys came to see me?" Sakura gasped, more questioning why the hell neji would come to see her instead of just dropping his cousin off and sulking back home to do whatever neji's do in their spare time.
"Hn." The byukugan prodigy grunted, earning a narrowed glare from the now dangerously strong pink Kionochi and giggles from the rest of the girls in the Konoha 11.
"S-Sakura y-your okay?" chocked the Prussian blue haired Hyuuga, looking away as she felt tears jump to her eyes. Sakura and Hinata Hyuuga had become especially close in the last few months, as she had with all of the girls but especially Hinata. The unsure, unstable, self-conscience ninja looked to her pink-haired friend for emotional support more than she realized, and the sudden realization that her friend could've DIED was not easy.
"Oh, Hinata." Sakura Coeed, instantly stretching her arms out to receive her distressed friend now feeling terribly guilty for putting that kind of emotional stress on her.
"i-im s-so-sorry" Sobbed the Kionochi who had just flung herself at Sakura, oblivious to the eight other ninja that were watching in the room.
"Hinata, there is nothing to be sorry about. None of this is your fault, but you need to be strong okay?" Sakura whispered into her fellow ninja's ear, gently pulling Hinata out to an arms length.
"We are ninja remember? Now, I don't think that means we have to be emotionless clones who could give a crap about others feelings." She teased, shooting Neji with the death glare that she had picked up from Her ex-teamate. The rest of the Konoha 11 that were present at the time only could look on in shock, what had happened to the sakura they knew? The sakura they knew would've broken down and cried with Hinata in a fit of emotions, but this new sakura stood strong and supported her friends like a true student of Kakashi would.
"T-thank y-you s-sakura." Hinata mumbled, wiping her tears away with the back of her sleeve before bowing her head respectively. Sakura smiled warmly at her friend, her green orbs filled with mutual emotion.
"Hey Hinata, I-" Sakura began, only to be interrupted by those damn double doors being practically ripped off of their hinges as a busty blonde marched into the room. Sending glares to the rest of the Konoha 11 that scattered them from her bedside like flies.
"Everyone out!" bellowed the hokage, not even bothering to look back as she heard 9 sets of feet scramble out the doors for their life. Tsunade smirked satisfactorily before embracing her student in a relieved, but quick hug.
"Hello Tsunade-seinsi" The pinkette chirped, suddenly feeling as lively as ever as she glanced to her youthfull looking teacher and her assistant.
"Oh god, ive been hanging around Gai and lee to much!" She mentally panicked, macking sure to call off training with team gai for the next couple sessions.
"Thank Kami Sakura! We thought we had lost you!" Guilt, that's what Sakura felt looking into the eyes of her relieved but angry teacher.
"What the hell were you thinking trying to take Orochimaru on like that huh?" Irritation, That's what guilt was now changing into as Sakura's left eye twitched at her sensie. But Tsunade being stubborn as she was obviously didn't take a hint.
"You know he is too strong for you! That was like suicide Sakura!" PO'd, Irritation had now reared its ugly head and changed into one pissed off Kionochi who was sick of tacking crap from everyone.
"IS THAT WHAT THIS IS ALL ABOUT HUH? Me still being too weak to fend for myself huh Tsunade? I thought that maybe four years of training with you would be enough but apparently not!" She screamed back at my sensie, Sakura thought she mustve absolutely lost it because her ass would've surley become one with the wall in a few moments had two arrogant bastards dedcided not to leave.
"Um, Sakura. There is something you need to know." Tsunade said emotionlessly, sitting down sluggishly next to the anxious pink haired girl. One look, One look was all it took for Sakura to burst out crying. No words were exchanged, nothing just one sorrowful look and bam! Tears!