Reviewers;
Czar Joseph: Naruto will return...just not in the way that some would think he would imagine.
Ghost Poet: A tycoon game? Not even close, but I believe it was based on the actual company. Spazz does write stories...full of lemony goodness! And it was a InoSaku moment, not NaruIno.
RedFaction: I am appreciative of your review Red, and it does mean a lot when you are cautious on reviewing. I know that I rarely review for others unless they have really outdone themselves, so I know how much it takes to get a review from you. I appreciate the compliments as if they were spoken directly to me, and I thank you again. Also, Correct!
Duh Bomb: You caught Sakura's mood right on! She wants to be alone, but has responsibilities to accomplish to do instead. Ah, the need of government, huh? Oh, a conspiracy? Oh, you might say that...hehehehe...and in the real Narutoverse...Naruto never moves on, but he tries...
JKay24: Naruto is training and on standby for the moment. I won;t be touching on him for a little while. He is off...somewhere I think...killing bandits and such.
AN: Hey you guys! Finals are kicking my butt with 15 page papers and what not, and yet...I am...writing to the lot of you? Wow, trade one topic for the next huh? Anyways, I hope to kick things up to the next level! And that means...time skip! Just imagine what could happen? Well...a lot of things, so let me show you my setting and the world events, shall I? Okay.
PS: Winner goes to RedFaction, for guessing the East India Trading Company from Pirates of the Carribean, and an actual Company way back when! There will be another question at the end, more personal this time around.
Fire & Ice
Arc 1: Conceal It
Chapter 10: Leaving in your Charge
(Six Months Later)
"Hello?...Anybody here?...Hello?" Sakura's voice rang around the empty room. At least, Sakura thought it was an empty room. All around her was darkness and her eyes could see nothing as she stumbled forward blindly.
Sakura groaned and whimpered as she felt pain in her stomach, and lifted her hand to see drops of dark red flowing between her fingers. Was she stabbed? Sakura looked forward and gasped at the feeling of a rope on her neck, pulling upwards as it choked her feet rose higher and higher until she was choking and balancing on her toes.
"Sakura?..." A voice called out and Sakura's rope disappeared and she fell to the ground, but the ground was no longer black, but nice and pristine stone. Funny, Sakura thought as she looked around herself. This looks just like the-…..ballroom?
"Sakura-Chan?" The voice called out again and Sakura whipped her head forward to see someone before her, aged sixteen years, with blue eyes like that of the ocean. "N-Naru-Kun?"
"It's me, Saku-Chan." Naruto smiled brightly and Sakura jumped forward, locking her fingers in his deep locks of hair as he laughed into her own hair and caressed her back lovingly.
"I missed you so much, Saku."
"I miss you."
"Saku?"
"Yes?" Sakura asked as she looked up only to moan as Naruto kissed her, his tongue slipping inside. It was just like the last kiss they shared like the last kiss they shared together. Sakura blinked, and then suddenly everything shifted.
"S-S-Saku?" Naruto breath heavily as Saku leaned back as Naruto stumbled away. Inside him, were poles of sharp ice, and he looked to her in despair and utter hopelessness. "Why?"
Sakura cried as she shook her head and moved closer. "I didn't mean to! Here! I'll get them out." Sakura spoke as she touched his chest and suddenly Naruto screamed as the scene changed and suddenly Sakura looked down to see her fist, inside Naruto's stomach. Sakura pulled out and there it was, her hand, encased in silver armor and golden claws of fire.
"Why, Sakura-Chan?" Naruto asked as he fell to the ground, blood building all around him.
"NO!"
"No!" Sakura screamed as her eyes opened and again she was somewhere cold…and dark. Sakura looked around herself at the dark watery stones and cold dirt, before seeing the bars and a single torch at the far end of the room.
I'm in the dungeon? Sakura thought and tried to move, but couldn't. Sakura blindly struggled for a bit before she looked up to see her hands in chains raised above her to the top of her reach. Sakura tried to lift herself, but her legs, at her ankles and thighs, were chained to the floor. Her clothes were in tatters and her body lay exposed for any to see. Near her stomach, the cloth had been ripped away and a slit lay in her skin, but she saw that her wound was closing, and thanked her healing powers.
"My my, how I used to love you."
Sakura turned to see Naruto before her and smiled happily. "Naruto! Thank goodness. Help me!"
"Why?" Naruto chuckled darkly, his laughter echoing all around her, and Sakura breathed deeper.
"Why not?"
"Why should help a witch like you?"
"P-please Naruto. I-I love you."
"So you sent me away to rot."
"I didn't! It was to save you from harm!"
"Save me?! My heart died that day! Now, I have someone better in my life now."
Sakura's eyes focused as another girl came into the picture. This girl looked just like Sakura, like a twin, but her bust was bigger, her ass was better defined, and her smile matched Naruto's old smile. And in her hands, waddled in cloth was a pink haired baby. Sakura looked to the girl and saw her glaring at her, and felt…ashamed.
"Naru, kill this witch already, she has already killed enough of our people."
"I-I haven't killed anyone!"
"Really? You don't remember killing Father? Mother? Princess Ino? None of them?"
"I-I…I don't know."
A black hilted sword was taken out and Sakura looked up to see Naruto holding the sword she gave him, as the point pressed against her throat. "Maybe stabbing her here will kill her once and for all."
"Please! Naruto! I love you!"
"I have you already, Sakura. This is what you could have had, and this is your new reward!" Naruto smiled madly and pushed the sword through Sakura's throat.
"Naruto!"
"Sakura! Sakura!" Ino screamed and Sakura bolted up in bed, her hands gripping the sheets as Ino held her shoulders as tears stung her eyes. "You're okay, Sakura."
"It…was…" Sakura struggled to calm down, slick sweat falling in rivets all over her face and body.
"Another nightmare?"
"…Yeah…" Sakura's voice shivered as she laid back down and brought her hands to her face, covering her eyes with the back of her pale hands. "Ino, m-my gloves please."
"Right." Ino spoke as she leaned over and as she did, blood hit Sakura's forehead and she looked to see Ino's nightie in tatters and a slash, like an ice bladed weapon, Sakura's new manifestation, had sliced the side of her skin.
"Ino." Sakura's voice called out called out and Ino looked before her to see Sakura's tears reforming in her eyes as she traced her eyes' direction to the tear and the wound. Ino looked away to search for her gloves again.
"It's nothing." She dismissed as green hands touched the wound as it slowly closed.
Sakura's training had gotten harder now that she had graduated to her fourth pair of gloves. She could see her magic after she used it. Her magic stayed on people like a radioactive half life, growing dimmer constantly, but still there.
Sakura saw it all over her parents, her mother's burns as well as her father's close encounters. And now, Sakura's eyes shimmered with magic to see Ino covered in her twenty sixth injury…and all because of these nightmares she kept randomly having. Sakura's hands shook in fear as Ino touched Sakura's hands, making her touch Ino's cheek and mouth and then placing the glove on her hand.
"Sakura, open your eyes."
"N-no, I'll have another nightmare."
"I've never been in your nightmares yet. I'm sure you'll be fine."
Sakura opened them and Ino smiled at her. Sakura cried harder as tears flowed more freely, and Ino hugged her as Sakura hugged her best friend harder. After Ino had been burned, Sakura had pleaded with her to understand. And then the unthinkable happened; Ino walked away. The next day, all was normal, and the next day, and the week after that. Ino didn't treat her differently, and now, they truly were best friends, like Ino had wanted.
Ino understood Sakura's pain, and now understood why Sakura had to send Naruto away. Ino figured that Sakura's emotions for Naruto were like an ever changing and growing fire, which flared up and down, but that her friends and parents were mainly constant. Sakura had smiled at the thought and then after that, they were inseparable, like true high school sisters.
Ino released her hug, but pet Sakura's hair as Sakura refused to let go so soon. Ino sighed. Sakura was having these nightmares so sporadically, that Ino took over Naruto's old bedroom, so that she could help Sakura in these nightmares. And Sakura was lucky to have a whole hallway cleared of life. Not every princess was that lucky.
"Sakura, come on. Get up," Ino gestured as she slid off the bed, pulling Sakura up with her. Sakura felt a tug on her leg and looked back to groan in shame. In the center of her sheets was a burned cutout of where Sakura had been sleeping.
"I did it again."
"Huh?" Ino asked as she followed the princess's gaze towards the bed. "It's okay. I'll ask for some new sheets."
"I need to ask mother."
"I'll ask her."
"Thanks…it's so embarrassing."
"Sakura, I'm sure it happens to a lot of…um…witches."
"Ino, it's like I'm wetting the bed like a child!"
"You can't help your nightmares when you're asleep. What was it this time anyways?"
"A nice dream…turning into a dark abyss."
"Well, we have an hour before court."
Sakura looked up to see the sun rising, and sighed. "I guess I got enough sleep."
"Well, don't fall back asleep. We need to get ready, and that takes forty minutes."
"That's because you insist on washing my back!" Sakura blushed, still uncomfortable with sharing baths with her friend.
Ino just shrugged. "It's what my sisters did for me. And you're my sister now."
"Oh Boy." Sakura groaned.
"Oh Girl you mean."
Sakura sighed happily and nodded. "Okay. Let's get ready."
The sun rose from the edge of the horizon to the zenith of the sky while inside the castle, the royal court was having their usual daily duty of hearing the people out and trying to help them in their worries. For most however, they looked to see the smile that had once again come upon the princess's face, and tried to remember when she didn't have such a smile.
Sakura smiled because it was day time, and her nightmares only rattled her, but her magical powers flowed within her very blood, and it was calm and serene. She had nothing to fear but when she closed her eyes at night, and even in her nightmares, Sakura still got the desired amount of sleep she required.
All around her were the guards that knew of her powers and had seen her practice for her parents, and then there was Ino who was ready to attend to her at a moment's notice, now a mixture of servant-retainer, but she liked the menial tasks, so Sakura let her do it. And finally, there were her parents next to her, and so Sakura was surrounded by those who knew her best, and she loved it, so she smiled, and just wanted to count the amount of days and perhaps a year longer until she could call Naruto back to her.
Outside, the people were getting close to celebrating for their seventeen year old princess. Sakura was no longer the heir to the throne. She was the chosen heir, or the heir apparent, and so the line of the royalty and that of the city was safe once again. Now, whoever Sakura chose to wed would be lesser than her, but they would have the power of the Haruno Influence, which consisted of the head of the alliance and of city states in their portion of the world.
Most of all though, Sakura was a true beauty, balanced perfectly between beauty itself, intellect, and kindness. These three traits were apparent in Yuki Haruno, the Queen, when she was pronounced to be wed to the Haruno Maki, the prince of Port Haruno. No one knew or remembered Yuki's old family, because she gave everything for the city, and Sakura hoped to do that, just like her mother.
It was now three hours after Ino had washed her back and they had come into court, and it was after all of these things that Sakura's mother and father rose suddenly and everyone rushed to bow to them, while they smiled and called for a short break. The King and Queen walked out of sight for a bit and Ino leaned over to Sakura's shoulder.
"What's going on, Sakura?"
"I don't know. My parents don't suddenly get up. Usually, they call out or raise their hand to signal that they are done for the day or something like that. I just don't know."
"That's okay. I'm sure everything is alright anyways." Ino spoke before the Queen came into their view and stepped in front of her daughter.
"Sakura? Your father and I have something to discuss with you."
"Huh?" Sakura tilted her head, but nodded to Ino who walked off and Sakura followed her mother down the hallway to where a sitting room was for resting one's feet after a long day of work. Sakura walked in to see her father smiling nervously to her and felt the unease in the room as she sat down on the side opposite her father as her mother sat beside him.
"So? What was so urgent that you broke tradition to speak to me?" Sakura asked, pointing out the fact about not giving warning to a pause in the court proceedings.
"Well, you're mother and I have something to talk to you about." Maki explained as he smiled at Yuki, and Sakura saw her mother's hand pause at her stomach.
"Are you pregnant?"
"What?" Yuki breathed out, breathed out and chuckled. "No dear."
"But your hand-"
"I was just thinking about when you were little, Saku-Chan." Yuki teased as her daughter smiled at her mother's nickname for her. "You were so cute and fearless, but so worried for everyone who frowned. That's why you liked hanging around Naruto, because he smiled all the time."
Sakura blushed and smiled as she looked away. "Yeah." It was weird, talking to her parents about the boy she liked, but it still felt nice for the most part.
"Sakura," Maki spoke in a serious tone and Sakura made sure to pay attention. "As you know, the alliance among the city states has been faltering for a while now."
"Yes, because outsider city states want to come into the alliance, but want just the wealth and not the defense of the actual cities."
"Precisely. And we need to shore up these holes and reinforce the alliance."
"So…are you sending the ambassadors then?" Sakura asked as the ambassadors were worthy people, who Sakura was in charge of training to know what was deemed important to the city.
"No. Your mother and I were the ones who created this alliance, so we have decided to go ourselves."
"But-….then who will take charge of the city? The last high regent tried to scam the merchant guild."
"That was five years ago, before we had an Heir Apparent." Maki smiled and Sakura widened her eyes at the sudden change of voice her father used with her. "Sakura, we will be leaving the city in your charge."
"M-Me? A-am I really ready for that?" Sakura questioned, as she looked at her hands. She could barely touched anyone, and still feared hurting her citizens with the traditional kiss to her hand.
"Sakura, you have grown to be a beautiful woman, strong of will and of mind. We trust that you will take care of this city as your own as it will be when we pass on."
"Dear, you have nothing to fear. This is your chance to show the people what it could be like under your rule."
"M-my rule?" Sakura questioned, and images of the kingdom shining brighter came to mind.
"Yes. Do you accept our charge to you as heir apparent?"
"Y-yes!" Sakura exclaimed, jumping out of her seat to wrap her hands and arms around her parents. "I'm going to miss you more though than this!"
"S-Saku-Chan, you're hugging us." Sakura's mother sniffled and Sakura opened her eyes to see her father smiling at her. Fresh tears fell down her face as she hugged them stronger. She was always so quick to cry, but after training with Ino, she could hug her parents. She could do this. She would do this. For her people, and no amount of nightmares was going to get in her way.
AN: Alright: Time to know! How do you guys read my stories? White, with black letters, or Black, with white letters?