Hello! Tora Shoki here! I just wanted to thank all the people out there who viewed chapter one of Hope! I am truly grateful! Please comment! I would love to have some constructive criticism! Just no mental damage please!
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto! Masashi Kishimoto does! If I did, Sasuke and Sakura would be together already!
The black shingles of the temple grew closer. Over this hill lay the Akatsuki. Sasuke. My dreams.
Slowly, my hand came to my backpack. Discreetly, I slip my hand into the flap and extracted the so called "sacred scroll"... If they wanted it to be sacred, at least tell the people handling it what it is...
"Naruto... Ready?" We are just skidding to a halt on the cracked and disturbed ground. Just in time to see a rather scraped, battered and bruised temple guard be thrown through the wall of the building in front of us.
Naruto, unfazed by this sudden act of violence on a holy-man, looked strait at me. Blue on green. Bijuu on kunoichi.
"Sakura..." He paused, I knew he was going to change his original words, "I will get Sasuke back. Dattebayo!" After these words of supposed encouragement, he dashed off, through the dusty clearing towards the hole the now unconscious monk was hurled through. That will definitely hurt in the morning...
As for me, I unraveled the scroll that was tightly gripped by my fists. Whatever it was, the thing was powerful. Just unrolling it brought me chills. As if I knew what would happen...
Creepy...
'Sakura! What are you waiting for!' My inner self snapped. I could hear the metallic crash of metal upon metal. If the whole Akatsuki was in there, chances were Naruto was getting his ass kicked... He could be such an idiot sometimes. Good thing I'm here, about to hopefully save him with the unanimous scroll rolled out in my palms.
I've used a scroll before, but then, why am I scared? Why am I so nervous? Seems pretty stupid from a shinobi's point of view. We come in contact with scrolls every day! What the hell is so different!
Suddenly making up my mind, even with a quickly growing pit in my stomach, I bit my thumb, a now steady stream of blood running down my finger. With what could be my last glimpse of anything in the mortal world I traced the intricate seal of the "Forbidden scroll".
I tentatively placed my hand on the seal, gasping as it glowed a bright gold, then faded.
"What? What! What just happened? Forbidden scroll?"
My inner was flexing her fists, "Forbidden? Forbidden? FORBIDDEN SCROLL MY ASS!"
Within less than a second, the seal glowed gold again, this time beaming with light.
Reflexes told me to cover my eyes, but when I try to remove my hand, it doesn't budge...
Like it was connected.
Another hole came crashing through the shrine, a streak of orange, black and yellow told me it was Naruto. Damn, why do I have to be right all the time... He rose to his feet, wobbling, but then steadying himself until the smoke cleared. Already out of the shelter, the remaining Akatsuki members circled Naruto.
Said shinobi scanned over the wreckage of the building and set his eyes upon me.
I'm sure to any ninja my position would have been hilarious; Squatting in front of what seemed to be a magical scroll, the paper glowing and spreading a golden haze over my body.
Slowly, Naruto dropped his arms, cocking his head to the side, squinting at me as if I was some awkward looking monster. (just to be sure, I glanced at my body... Good, no scales or unnecessary hair, but still a mystical shimmer to my skin along with a invisible restraint on my hand.)
Of course, the Akatsuki themselves began to wonder what their prize could find so important as to stop the battle. They all swiveled their heads in my direction. Every last one winding up on me. And as they all looked me up and down, except for Sasuke, I realized just how much of pervs the group was. That, or they hadn't had a woman in their presence in a LONG time... Most likely both.
With more force, I tried to yank my hand away from the blinding scroll, only to find the golden script that once covered it entirely, had molded together forming multiple ribbon-like strands of gold silk.
"Nani!" I shrieked, the strands crawling up my arm, only to continue past my shoulder and across my body.
"Sakura!" Naruto called out to me as all of my vision was clouded with a shimmering fog that was not entirely yellow, as much as every color known to man sparking and flashing collectively.
xx
Sakura's eyes grew twice the size as usual as she stared down at the intertwining braids of gold.
Naruto pushed past the flabbergasted Akatsuki, to his surprise, even Sasuke seemed rigid, and ran to his friend in need of assistance.
As soon as he grew closer to her, the light completely enveloped her figure in flashes of green, purple, red, orange, yellow and more he didn't exactly know the names to. Maybe he should have listened to Ino when she gave him a whole hour's criticizing on matching...
Suddenly the light flashed once more before it was confined within the girl before him.
"Sakura!" Naruto yelled as he swiftly sprinted and slid on his knees to catch the falling cherry blossom.
He looked around, no scroll. Whatever was in there had some sort of amazing power, the young bijuu had never seen anything like the previous display of lights. It was beautiful, yet, he knew something wasn't right with the girl in his arms.
"Wha- Naruto!" A shrill voice rang throughout the clearing before a rather frazzled Ino ran up to him, "What? Naruto... What happened?" Ino poked and prodded at the girl in his grasp, her skin was about as pail as snow, heck, it even had the same glow and sparkle snow had when it was under the sun's rays.
"How troublesome..." Shikamaru stated in an almost mundane voice. "What happened?" The pineapple haired boy asked, stretching both arms behind his head and walking over in his Oh-So-Famous walk.
As far as the Konoha shinobi were concerned, the Akatsuki might as well have not existed... Even Sasuke was becoming rather pissed with a mixture of confusion, curiosity and anticipation. Since when had anything excited happened to him? Not for a really long time...
xx
"Uh!" I groaned as I opened my almost weighted eyes.
Peering around at the surrounding area, I slowly realized that I must have not been awake, but unconscious. That, or I was dying. Honestly, I enjoy the first choice. After a moment, I stood up to take a look.
So, this was my conscious... my mind... I expected it to look more like a stereotypical office, one with filing cabinets and drawers and bad lighting that was either too bright or too dark, and a reception desk with pens and pencils in a container followed by coffee mug after coffee mug on each and every desk, that I could only presume would make one hell of a mess if it spilled on the multiple piles of color coated or plain white paperwork, little me's sitting at each and every desk doing something different, one throwing balls of paper at the one directly behind her, hitting me on the head while I kept writing some document about issuing fines to rebel-rousers like the one currently in front of me... Wait... What? Did I seriously just ramble on about a figment of my imagination... Did I SERIOUSLY just spend like five minutes of my life creating an office!
That is so unlike me, I never blabber, E-V-E-R! What is going on?
Slowly, I noticed my surroundings, it was dark, with no walls floors, whatever you could call it... The space around me was a swirling misty cloud, it's color swapping from black to purple to red to orange to yellow to green to blue than back to black... Damn mumbling.
I could feel as I continued to plunge into a deeper unconsciousness. Maybe as I get deeper and further from reality my mind began to fade too, soon I realized I might not be able to back up int the real world if I keep letting myself side like this.
Almost as soon as the thought came into my head I stopped dropping, I was more of… stuck... I could tell this wasn't waking me up, but really wasn't sending me farther from my body.
"Sakura..." A new voice called out to me. It was soft, meaning I couldn't decide whether it was familiar or not, honestly, I think that being unconscious was messing with my mind, I could tell, I was so drugged up on self-imagination, it was becoming hard to even identify the gender or tone...
Cautiously, I called back, "Yes?"
A giggle, this time the voice seemed more closer, "Hello..." It softly purred, the voice was definitely female!
"What am I doing here? Where am I? Where are you? Who are you? Where is Naruto? Is he okay? Is Ino with him-"
"Stop... God, what is up with you? Oh... Wait!-" A cloud in front of me parted from the others, condensing into a... ferret? You have got to be kidding me, a ferret? Just a plain old brown and white ferret?"
"Hello..." That voice... no... NO... It didn't just come from the ferret, it couldn't have anyways, right?
"Sakura... Down here..." Yep... the ferret just talked... great, "Hi! I am Kofuku! Nice to know I'm in somebody so interesting!" The small being seemed to smile a toothy grin.
"B-but! You- YOU! Are an animal! How are you in me? What are you doing IN me!" I started to grab my head, it was kind of hurting because of the whole You-Have-A-Ferret-In-You-But-That's-Okay.
"Sakura! Don't worry! You unlocked me inside of the scroll! Remember? You set me free from the confines of that paper! I am now a part of you!"
"NANI! I have a ferret in me? How? I mean- Why? Are you a jinchurriki? Huh?" This time I wanted answers.
"Oh! No, Sakura!" She chuckled, scampering over to my shoes and clawing up my metaphorical legs, "Of course I'm not a jinchurriki! I'm a girl! Plus- I'm not not a complete bastard! Unlike that Nine-Tailed pain in the ass!" Kofuku gripped my usual vest tightly as she spoke of Naruto's demon.
"Yeah, but what happened? Why am I unconscious? Did something go wrong?" I glared at her with my neon green eyes. She slowly picked up on this and gave me a death stare that could match my own.
"Nothing has gone wrong! You just need to wake up! No big deal!" Kofuku nuzzled my cheek before jumping from my into the now maroon mist. Wow... I have a... Demon... No, she's too nice to be a demon... She's a-a Onkei!"
Thank you! Please tell me what you think! I have HUGE hopes- Haha- for this fanfic! Please give me your opinion!
Onkei= blessing
Kofuku= Happiness
Don't worry! Kofuku is a 'good guy', more like girl, but whenever I see the Jinchurriki I immediately think they are boys. NO! Iam not being sexist! -cries in self pity- Sorry if it sounds like it, I was just trying to be creative...
Once again! Please review! ;D