The Moon That Embraces The Sun
Chapter 8:
I Yearned For You For 100 Years...
Title: The Moon That Embraces The Sunn (Previously 'Guilty Pleasure)
Rated: T
Pairing: Multi x Sakura
Plot:
The "thorn bird" of the title refers to Sakura's character, who only brings out her best at the cost of great pain. A thorn bird is a mythical bird who searches for a thorn tree from the day it is born. When it finds it, the bird impales itself upon the sharpest thorn, and rises above the agony to sing the most beautiful song ever heard.
Flashbacks
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LLuNarEcLiPsE
Yuuki-Hime 2097
withloveagain
Guilty Pleasure Lover
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Bell Princess
ITACHI LOVER
APink
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Her Majesty's Dog
"Experience is a brutal teacher, but you learn. My God, do you learn." C.S. Lewis
I yearned for you for 100 years...
The small bundle of nerves wriggled nervously, trying to snuggled away from lumps of blanket that was suffocating him. He let out a cry as cold hand touched him and soon melted to the touch but being a child- a creature of naivety and innocence can hardly know a sense of danger. Nervous breath escaped my lip, my fingers twitch as it grasped the child's fragile arm, other hand gripped his neck, squeezing it delightfully. Sasuke's mouth gaped open as it let out shrill of cries as the air was cut off from his lung.
If...
If I...-
SLIDE
I quickly jumped away to reasonable distance and turned around to face whoever walked in.
Young Uchiha heir opened the bamboo door with a small smile at the excitement to see her and his brother but his smile slowly dissolves away as he took in the scenery.
"Itachi-kun...what are you doing here?" I asked, coming out hoarse whisper.
"Mother...wish to see you" I hurriedly stood up and walked out from the room. More like running.
His eyes landed on the small, now giggling child as his brother recognised his presence in the room. He waved his hands in the air to grasp his elder brother's hand and Itachi sat beside him. Almost protective. And frightened.
He knew what it was.
No one, even if they were not a ninja or shinobi would not recognise this.
This suffocating, malicious and malign atmosphere that filled the room. No one can mistaken this. And he, the approved prodigy the Uchiha clan had after many years could not know this.
It was killing intent.
And the woman he was attracted to tried to kill this child.
His own brother.
Now he sat, in his room in the gloomy dark, he rested his chin in his hand as he pulled all his forgotten and blurry memories and thoughts to the surface. All that involved her.
One unusual thing about her, he noticed, was her personality.
She never stopped surprising him.
She was cheerful one moment before becoming gloomy, severe mood swing seemed to posses her almost entirely. She was child like- innocent and naive as if she "still had a bit of child in her" but she used her naivety to hurt others. Jabbing and poking a closed wounds she would poke them until it drew blood and used her sharp tongue to spread the wound open again. She struck an arrow in their wounds and waited for it grew, and watched in delight. However, one thing he didn't know was these personality was conveyed by the insanity she suffered.
But he never thought she would use it against him.
Few weeks past and he could see she still acted same as before. He cautiously watched as she ran and hugged Hana before biting her on the hand. He knew she bit people she liked and the level of her favour in that person was judged by how much power she put on the bite. He once nearly bled from her biting and he could still see the faint bite mark made by her on his hand. His mother thought it was cute for a twenty five year old woman. Like a child. It was weird, she can be mature as respectable adult but she can be childish like a child.
He had already graduated from the academy by the mere age of seven at the top of his class after only one year, mastered his Sharingan at eight.
He was now nine soon ten; already competed in the Chunin exam. He could see a gleam in Sakura-san's eyes as she stare wonder at Kushina-san's bloated stomach. She too was pregnant and it was all over again. He heard the red haired woman asking his mother if it hurt and how she felt after and his mother answered back in as much as detail as she could. He shivered.
The shocking news came when he was ten by his parent when they announced his fiancée personally hand picked by his parent in front of his elders who agreed. In front of his upper-class men, his superiors...in front of her.
He found himself glancing to the direction of her, it was weird how he want to examine her reaction but he was surprised and scared when he was unable to read her emotions like he usually could. He was good at that. He was exceedingly sharp and observant to any situation at hand, as he was rarely surprised or caught off guard. He also displayed great intuition, as he was almost never deceived and even then almost instantly realised the truth but he for once could not read her. He could only watch as she lazily leaned against the wall, almost half lying down but even for doing something like that, she looked elegant.
He saw she was staring at him unwavering almost as if the news didn't bothered her and was expecting this but he knew he had no right to her envy nor her affection. Not when he is still a mere child.
"Itachi, are you listening to what we are saying?" His father asked almost forcibly with his arms crossed in his chest and back straightened to highlight his strictness.
"Yes father" Then they went back to discussing the marriage, to themselves. And he felt angry at them. This was his life. His own rights. Yet they are deciding his paths as if he was unable to do so. He knew his parent was an arrange marriage then it sort of turned into a love match, according to his mother. She said he will come to love his now "lover" that it will change when she gives birth to his child but he didn't feel like that.
"I'm afraid we'll need to prepare for the worst...we'll set a place up outside the village and erect a barrier to protect it. Only Minato, my wife Biwako, Taji from the ANBU and Sakura will be inside. It will be top secret" The Third Hokage explained. The two wedded couple's eyes widened as Hiruzen explained my true identity almost not believing this woman was the team-mate of their future son.
"We must relocate from the original plan. Uchiha Madara will take advantage of your pregnancy to wait for the seal to brake and control the Nine Tail fox." They both stayed quiet as I explained what had happened in my time and Kushina went to grip onto her husband's hand tightly while other soothe her unborn son.
"So...you were friend with Naruto?" Kushina asked after I had finished.
"Yes. And he was my most beloved friend who never let me down and like Jiraiya-sama's novel, he grows up to be a great ninja. He is very special to everyone. To the whole and other villages. Everyone who has become involved with him, has somehow gained an emotion they had once lost" A smile appeared as I remembered all the stupid things he done to attract attentions.
They looked at me, then to each other then to the swollen stomach where her son lie, "He sounds..wonderful" She said, breathless.
"Please don't ever forget we love you son" Minato whispered.
"Ah! Sakura-san, Kushina-san!" Mikoto called out, waving her arm in the air while holding sleeping Sasuke in her other arm. I couldn't bring my eyes to face after what I tried to do. Not again. Not another child. It wasn't Orochimaru, no I don't regret it. Why? Because somewhere I know he was still alive. Lurking in the darkness of the grass, waiting for a person to turn around to open its venomous fangs and devour them slowly. Hana told when she began to notice rising numbers of missing people. I blame myself for not finishing my work carefully as I usually do. I must be getting senile, I thought.
"He and Sasuke-kun will be in the same grade, I hope they become friends!" Flashbacks occurred in my mind, all the time I have been with them, there was only few times when they seemed to smile and laugh like a true friend but most of the time, they were competing against each other on almost everything then...-then those friendship seemed to have just flown away when the darkness devoured Sasuke and he let them.
"By the way, does it hurt?" I heard Kushina-san asking almost curious and afraid.
At that, Mikoto chuckled, "Well, well, even you're afraid of something. I'll be."
Biwako getting impatient soon grabbed onto her hand and pulled her along, "Come on already!"
"Oh sorry" She hastily said goodbye to Mikoto before catching up with the pair.
"See you soon!"
"Remember, we need to keep your birth classified. Try not to talk to anyone while we're on the move, even your friends." Biwako advised.
Kushina scratched her head, "Right, sorry about that" I could never get used to how Naruto was more like his mother than his father.
"The fact that we're leaving the village for this is classified as well! Don't go screaming your head off, even when the contractions starts."
"R..Right.." Kushina answered before heading toward the village's gate. The few walks was full of silence until Kushina decide to break it by asking, "..So..I heard you and the Nine Tail are...friends?"
I looked at her, ignoring few curious glare from Biwako.
"Yes. When I needed help, he was there for me and it is because of him I am here today. I searched for something that might allow me to be here and he was that."
"Oh...even the time I spoke to him, he was very...hateful."
"He is only treating you as you humans treat him. They treated him like a mass energy with no to little intelligence. Do you know what homo sapiens sapiens mean in literal translation? Men wise wise. Think about that. We named ourselves double wise. We are twice as wise as every other creatures on the planet. The hubris. The arragoance. Humans are blight. I knew I was looking at the residue of pure evil and that I would never again feel completely safe around another human being. Like you, I know exactly what human beings are capable of." Kushina realised she was pointing out the war but she felt so sorry and apologetic at what other did. What others did to her.
She was only twenty five even if she roamed the Earth for hundreds of years, it was still unfair.
She sounded so..dead.
"But you should know, Kurama is still important to me. He saved me"
The messed up me who was clingy to that thin string of life, the devil proposed that if he let my broken wing and shattered memory to go on, will I give him my soul; I replied without hesitation, I have no soul to give you
"OH GOD, IT HURRRRRRRRRRRTS! KHRAAAAAAA!" Kushina never felt such pain in her life and all she could do was to scream as loud as she can and grasp the wooden leverage to try and soothe the pain of child birth. Minato was obviously worried than keeping the seal shut. Even if Kurama was to stay tamed by my command, they still wanted to take the caution just in case Madara manage to find our hiding place. The hiding place was far from the cave where it would have taken place but I couldn't allow such risk when she was in there. Sleeping until she is needed.
"I, uh...I've never heard Kushina in so much pain. Are...are you sure she's all right?"
"SHE'S FINE! JUST KEEP YOUR EYES ON THE SEAL!" Biwako was getting frustrated at the constant question from the Hokage's mouth and the moment she saw his hand trembling she could not help but shout at the poor man.
"But...she's-" Before he could say any further, Biwako interrupted.
"You're the Fourth Hokage, so stop being so terrified! If she were a man, she'd have long died from the pain! At least women are strong!"
With one final push, strong cries seemed to fill the Earth and announcing it's glorious birth. Tears gathered up my eyes as Biwako washed the blood off Naruto's tiny body and wrapped him around white satin sheet. Biwako handed it back to her.
"Congratulations, it's a healthy baby boy!" The medic announced. Flows of tears ran down from Minato's cheek as big, wide grin appeared and dabbed his tears of happiness.
"Haha! Look at me, I'm the father!"
"Naruto..I finally get to meet you..." Even on her tired face, tender beam appeared on her lip and she couldn't take her eyes off the child she already came to love. While they embraced each other as their happy family was complete, I seemed to be stuck onto the spot.
Then, those feelings and emotions I gulped down for over hundreds of years burst out and I let out everything I kept hidden. Sorrow, happiness, longings, desperation...Those feelings seemed so heightened that it was overwhelming. Kushina handed her child to me and for the first time, I finally got to see my friend.
My dear friend.
"It's good to be alive, ne Sakura-chan!"
"You have no idea how long I waited for you...I yearned for your for hundreds years...oh yes... one of my friends once said, that it's good to be alive... I'm glad I met you. Hello. Thank you for smiling. Thank you for talking to me... Thank you for being so kind. You ... taught me me so many feelings that I didn't know until then. Thank you"
It was almost unreal that this kind of peace continued but this was reality. Reality wasn't like this because as the groups looked at us in almost sympathetic and happiness the pair of us was finally united after being separated for many lifetimes; Minato's eyes widened as he suddenly felt the surge of the power from the Nine Tail and everyone heard what he had said.
He is coming..
This set my eyes to widened and instinctively held the child close to my chest. And like an alarm that went off on that moment, Biwako and the medic let out a gasping scream before falling down onto the cold, rock floor revealing my hidden figure to those one holed mask.
"One move. And this woman dies" He held up a kunai against Kushina's neck as her breathing becomes rough and sharp. It wasn't until he looked up, his sharingan held eyes expanded in bewilder.
"Sakura?"
No..
"Hope is the worst of evils, for it prolongs the torments of man." Friedrich Nietzsche
Here's the eighth chapter you guys! Please review :)
