Reviewers;
JayK24: Glad that you have someone who loves you and who you can trust so much.
St3rfire: I do admit that she started out as naive and stuff, but she was scared and now that she has control over it, her powers are becoming truly awesome, right?
Guest: Thank you for the point out. Rachael was Layla's original name before I corrected it.
Czar Joseph: Pretty much staying in the ice, it was all in the chapters on Sakura's coronation. Mikoto died in childbirth with Sasuke and Fugaku died a few years back.
Duh Bomb: Th evil is subsiding, yes and now Sakura is choosing where she will go and rest.
TsukoBlue: Thank you...
AN: Just like many other who told me, I look to my mother, who is the one who i can talk to about things when I am down. And now that Sakura has had some time to herself, let's see what happens afterwards. Time for another plot twist i think. Don't you?
Fire & Ice
Arc 2: Let It Go
Chapter 22: In Freedom, There is a Cost
A month passed for the young sorceress, and for her, it ranked in the top four times of her life. The first was her kiss with Naruto before the accident. The second was the desperate kiss they shared before his banishment. The third was when she was little and slept in between her parents who kept the bad monsters from underneath the bed away. And then, was this.
Sakura opened her eyes and stood before a crowd of happy talkative people sitting upon the ground, as they watched through the clean winter sky as stars shot across it in the middle of the day, looking like balls of fire streaking above the earth itself.
Sakura stood on a small hill of snow that had fallen during the night and saw some of her people, all of who were actually around her age, holding the hands of their opposing sex. Sakura smiled and shook her head. Romance between her creations. Who would have thought that to be possible? Maybe in a few years, children would be running through the streets! That made Sakura giggle before a throat cleared to her right.
"Layla." Sakura spoke softly, smiling at her first friend, who, like the others, held a hand and blushed as she looked away and pushed her boyfriend in front of her.
"Sakura…this is Blake. M-my…lover-Boyfriend!" Layla spoke lovingly, but yelled as she corrected her mistake, but Sakura widened her eyes and dropped her mouth. She had made them and they were able to do it?! Oh Gosh! This just made her even more awkward!
"Pleasure to meet you Lady Sakura."
"Please just call me Sakura. And let me tell you that Layla is a special girl." Sakura smiled and Layla groaned. "She needs to be taken care of often."
"Sakura…" Layla blushed furiously, looking over Blake's shoulder as he laughed at his Lady joke.
"I'll take good care of her."
"You'd better. I am her guardian," Sakura smiled, but thinking elsewhere. "And yours…and everyone else…and-"
"It's okay. We'll be careful. Though Layla does squeak a bit."
"I-I do not!" Layla spoke before punching Blake's shoulder. "You said you wouldn't talk about it."
Blake just smiled and hugged her close as he kissed her forehead. "But I think it makes you adorable, sweetheart."
"Aw!" Layla reached up and a small make out session began before Layla quickly broke it off and looked to see Sakura's eyes looking away and ashamed to be standing next to them. Layla let go and her face grew sad. "I'm sorry, Sakura."
"It's okay." Sakura spoke, wiping her eyes. "It's good to see you and everyone else happy. I'm going to head upstairs...for a bit." Sakura hiccuped as she quickly excused herself and moved inside the castle. Blake held onto Layla's waist and placed his head on her shoulder as they watched her move down the hall.
"Is she going to be alright?"
"Yeah, just let her be alone for an hour."
"Is it because-"
"-Yeah. Heartbreak."
Sakura walked along the hallway up to a staircase and then onto the second floor parapet that stretched out along the inside of the outer wall and showed the first floor ballroom. Sakura tried to make it to her room this time, but the tears came flooding out and she sniffled and laid a hand on the window that looked outside.
Sakura sat in the windowsill, and looked out towards the western lands. Being free was great! She had everything she had ever wanted to do without restrictions. These creations loved her without restraint or force! And she could make food and water grow out of the ground! Her food was cold-resistant and all she had to do was remove the top layer of snow. She had wealth because as they began to settle in, Sakura came across gems of all kinds hidden inside the mountain peaks. She had respect and her magic was loved! She should be happy! Right?!
But…every time, every day, her heart…it longed for Naruto. Sakura held the spot over her heart as the pain intensified. She hadn't seen him, and her heart should move on. She could just make a creation that loved her, but when she tried, she always gave up and broke it before it came to life. She was so pathetic.
And now here she was in the middle of this castle, made of her own magic, and able to do things that she could never have imagined! And yet even with all of that freedom, without Naruto...it was pointless. She wanted to see him so badly, and make love to him. And if he died, she would kill herself! Then they could be together forever! That was the cost of this supposed freedom she had always craved?!
Her feelings were constant, like the ice around her. Sakura stroked the soft ice cushion below her scarcely covered legs that felt as normal as a real windowsill cushion. This couldn't be ruined except with her own magic, and yet…her fire could stay lit even when it was on top of the ice, not melting it if she so wished. Sakura was slowly beginning to understand why witches grew crazy. They couldn't be with anyone, detached from their emotional hearts. Sakura pulled her legs up as she stared at the endless horizon before she held her knees close to her face and cried, until she could cry no more.
A few hours later, Sakura stepped into a bathroom to wash her face of the crying river lines down her porcelain face. The idea for a toilet was a Nara invention and Sakura was glad to remember how the system worked, but for her, she moved to a table with a depression in it and a mirror of ice in front of her. Sakura frowned at the tear marks on her face and twisted a knob as water flowed out.
She called this flow of table water a sink. She had originally wanted water to melt and flow out of the ground and in through this pipe of ice, but when she saw the water draining out, she thought that it sunk back into the ground. So…a sink.
Sakura splashed the water on her face and sighed happily at the glacier water that wet her cheeks and erased her tears. It was only glacier water that made her feel the coldness of what water could be like and she liked it a lot.
As for erasing the tear marks, Sakura did it for her guards' benefit. Because they were a part of her magic still, a tiny part of them felt the sadness she did, not who she felt for or anything mind knowing, but just sad. And feeling was one thing, but seeing it on her face was another, and they grew sadder when they saw it, so Sakura wiped the tears away, and they were grateful to her care.
Sakura grabbed a towel that she had made and dried her face. She was getting better at making things. The first wall she made had cracks inside of it and so Sakura practiced every day, and now, her imagination was near flawless. Sakura put the towel back down and stepped out of the bathroom, walking along the lobby floor and out into the sunshine.
Or at least, there was sunshine a few hours ago. Now, the sun had faded behind a wall of smoke and ash, and Sakura looked around the view to see it in a huge semicircle around the canyon walls. Sakura looked over as Layla ran over to her, suddenly breathless.
"Layla. What is going on?"
"Some of the horseman were riding out of the canyon, when they saw soldiers approaching. They were in the east and they appear to be everywhere."
Sakura nodded and faced her palm face up as a cylinder formed of bendable ice before the inside reflected as ice particles moved to form telescopic lenses. Sakura took the rounded object up to her eye and looked through it to the east.
Soldiers were walking causally forward, but fully decked out and prepared for war. Sakura looked to the north and the same image appeared. Sakura swirled back to her old city and breathed a sigh of relief as no soldiers were there. But Sakura had a feeling and turned to the west to see soldiers walking along the neutral lands.
Sakura thanked God a bit as the banners were not of the Alliance, but each held a red flag that was engraved with a black raven. Apparently, Sasuke was not giving up so fast. Sakura had five hundred warriors, and each of them took down ten of the enemy, and so Sasuke had lost five thousand soldiers a month ago.
Well, now it appeared that he had split his forces apart and now there were four forces of five thousand a piece coming up to the canyon entrances of her nation. "Sakura…what do we do?"
"We defend ourselves. But I need to think," Sakura spoke as she moved up the mountain until she reached the top and sat down, Layla and two others standing guard over her. Sakura closed her eyes and thought about her options.
Back during invasions, her ancestors attacked the enemy from above the canyon walls, because the only way up them was through the center of the canyon itself. But she didn't have the manpower to do that. She needed to stop them before the enemy even reached the canyons themselves.
'Okay, so what stopped people from moving forward? A chasm? No, she couldn't move actual earth, but…a wall could do that. Keeping the enemy out.' Sakura breathed and smiled at Layla who smiled back encouragingly. Sakura closed her eyes and concentrated on all the sad things in her life. Losing her parents. Losing Ino. Losing Naruto. She had four targets to guard. There were two to the east, one to the north, and another to the west. She could deal with anyone going through Port Haruno at a later date. So, as these emotions came flooding out, Sakura yelled sadly and sunk her hands to her elbows into the snow beneath her.
Down near the canyon walls, an army of five thousand happy soldiers walked forward in relaxed formations. They were happy because there was no way that they could lose. Not after their Lord had pronounced that he was the witch slayer and that they were his weapons to destroy her. They were out for blood; the blood that had been lost a month ago in the port city. They would kill her here and now.
The ground rumbled as if the mountain was yelling and they yelled back, laughing as they did so and took their first step inside the canyon itself. To think, they were the first attackers in over a hundred years to step foot inside the ancestral Haruno lands. They were unstoppable.
That was when they heard it; the sounds of cracking and a massive scream as a horde of banshees screamed all around them. Men in the rear began to scream, and soon the men in front looked above them as, from the highest mountains, snow began to fall. But it wasn't falling like it usually did down the mountain.
No; instead, it was falling through the air, towards where they now stood. Being in Port Haruno last month made the men skittish at any form of flying snow and now, the men backpedeled and flat out ran for their lives as snow fell in clumping forms from the tops of the cliffs. This snow moved across the flat ground, as if a giant sludge monster was trying to grab at them and so men ran out of the chasm entrance and breathed a sigh of relief.
The snow did not follow them. Instead, it simply packed itself higher and higher and higher up against the open area of the canyon walls. The men smiled as surely now all the snow had fallen and they could simply climb up this giant snowdrift or build a tunnel through it. But all of that changed when the snow shifted once more.
As from the eyes of the invaders, the snow exceeded the height of even that of the canyon walls, perhaps ten feet above the hundred foot tall canyon walls. Now, the snow slid off and melted into the winter air, but that was not what daunted the men. They were afraid as ice appeared from within the snow and formed a wall of complete ice.
This single block of ice did not have a single crack inside it and had no signs of it being cut. It was all just one humongous piece of ice. But as they looked up at the top of the wall, they noticed that there were walkways and five towers along the entirety of the used to be opening, and they were afraid to go near it.
Sakura smiled as she breathed heavily as the walls completed their work and stood proudly against the enemy. But it was so hot all of a sudden! Sakura held her throat as she cleared it and coughed a bit. Everything grew a little woozy for her. Sakura tried to stand up, but her feet left her and she sunk down to the snow below her, breathing heavily.
"Sakura, you okay?" Layla asked as she ventured forward.
Sakura breathe heavier. She felt so hot. She felt feverish even. She had always been so cold and so she was unprepared for this kind of heat. A hand touched her sweaty forehead for a second before it retracted quickly. "Sakura, you're burning up. You have a fever."
"Huh?" Sakura breathed and looked down to squeak a bit as the snow around her began to melt at the heat exuding from her body. "I must have used a more of my ice magic than I thought. Did I at least get them all secured?"
"Well…" Layla began and Sakura followed her gaze to the north and sighed. She hadn't been able to split her magic more than three ways. Now, they would invade and she might lose many of these protectors she was so fond of.
"Geez, if only I was colder."
"Sakura, that's it!" Layla exclaimed, making Sakura look at her curiously.
"What's it?"
"You don't have just one power! You have Fire!"
"T-That's right!" Sakura realized and smiled brightly to Layla. "You're so smart."
"Well, I um, get it from you." Layla blushed.
Sakura reached back inside her, feeling the heat of her body. Her hands wouldn't be able to fuel her rage and anger like her sadness that flew more easily down her arms. Sakura thought about what made her angry. So then...what made her angry.
Well...Sasuke finding out her secret and exposing it for one! Sasuke starting this whole war just to gain power! Sakura's magic boiled and blistered inside her throat and Sakura knew she needed just one more thing. Sasuke….
-But he had given her this new family. Her rage fell and bubbled. Who else was she angry at? Sakura's mind clicked and she let tears fall as she stood back up, as she yelled defiantly and fire surged out of her throat and into the air before her.
She was angry at herself! For letting her parents die! For forcing Ino who wanted to stay with her to leave! For Forcing Naruto AWAY and Now never to come back! Sakura screamed high and the fire arced above the clouds before bursting above the entrance to the canyon. Yard upon yard of blazing fire fell upon the area before casting the entrance in a golden ethereal glow, as well as inside the beginning of the canyon itself.
Sakura fell to her hands and knees as she shivered again, but smiled. It felt good to be cold again. Sakura looked up at the awe in Laylal's eyes as well as the people that surrounded her. Sakura moved to get up, but her legs had another idea and she slipped on the snow around her and fell back down to the ground.
"Here, let us help, My Lady." Layla smiled and Sakura's arms wrapped around two necks and they slowly descended to the safer part of the mountain. After a few minutes, they walked back out of the small trailhead to the top of the mountain and Sakura's creations smiled at her as she breathed heavily as a cold sweat adorned all of her body.
Sakura was placed against the wall of the castle and could still see the three walls to the east and west. "What was I thinking?"
"What do you mean, Sakura?"
"Walls are easy to climb over when there is no one guarding them."
"…Then we will guard them."
"What?" Sakura asked, her eyes roaming over her creations who nodded and smiled to each other.
"We guard you, Sakura. And guarding the walls will ensure that you can move around freely and without fear. Let us go and guard the walls, everyone." Layla spoke and a cheer erupted as falcons and eagles cawed and swept up into the sky. Wolves howled and charged away in packs as the sounds of horsemen and those on foot began to run for the border. Sakura walked slyly forward as she watched them go as the camp slowly grew smaller and smaller. "You can't go." A voice called out and Sakura turned to see Layla standing beside her.
"Why not? I can shoot fire and ice at the enemy."
"But Sakura. If you die, we die. At least I think."
"Then what am I supposed to do? Just sit around while you risk your lives for me?"
"We have had more life than we could have ever hoped for. Besides, you need to concentrate on making more of us. Then, we'll stand a fighting chance." Layla smiled and Sakura groaned at the lack of her being able to join her warriors on the front lines but knew that the reasoning was sound. So Sakura nodded back as they looked to the walls, the wind whistling and blowing gently behind them.
Up at the walls, soldiers in ice blue uniforms stepped up to the edge to listen to the shouts of the armies before them. Their swords and shields shined brightly from the tops of the walls, as wolves stood beside them, ready to attack any enemy who made it up the walls.
And up at the top of the towers, birds of prey perched upon the ramparts, as a frozen flag billowed in the wind. These flags were not like others. Instead, now, flags made of ice stood on the towers, with a mixture of frosted red and blue background, and a snow white circle in the center, signifying the unity of the creations defending their creator; this was the symbol of the Witch….The Witch of Port Haruno.
AN: And so ends the three part series for Sakura. No Question this time. In truth, I'm not feeling too well today. A lot of depressing things, from my laptop breaking down to getting scammed out of a good portion of money. I got played, but I hope you all are having good days.