Transition

Sakura is perceived from the perspectives of others as she changes during the years into something else entirely. The people near her follows her transition closely and when she starts abandoning everything she held dear - she gets closer and closer to her goal.

Chapter 14

Hollow Failure

Through the Eyes of a Boy a Fox Boy, a Passing Bird and a Man of Shadows

The Man With a Borrowed Eye Hatake Kakashi

Naruto howled, his chakra shooting off the perimeter with waves of roiling power and Kakashi felt his mind work a million times faster than what he was used to. He was tired and wounded, injuries inflicted by Kabuto's chakra scalpels and Orochimaru's forbidden jutsus hindered his movements, yet he had to work this out. Kakashi grit his teeth as he remembered the messenger hawk that had delivered the scroll of information of the hideout. Tsunade had written in the scroll that she would send a backup immediately and the backup was supposed to have arrived thirty minutes ago at Orochimaru's hideout, but the sent man was nowhere to be seen.

Spiking chakra told Kakashi of Naruto's second tail protruding and the boy growled as he nuzzled into Sakura's messy hair, her body unmoving. His teeth that was left visible in his growl had become pointy and canine-like. It was then that Kakashi realised Sakura was not just unconscious; she was bleeding from a large snake bite mark surrounding her torso. Kakashi felt his breathing speed up, hitch, as realisation dawned on him like lightning. He felt his heart thrum like the batting of wings. She couldn't be. She just couldn't be. He hadn't told her he was sorry for yelling at her yet, for hating her a few seconds, for disrespecting her. He hadn't told her that she actually did matter to him. He hadn't even-

"Hatake Kakashi, I presume. I am the sent Mokuton user, Yamato is my name. On orders of Godaime-sama I am here to aid." A man presented himself to Kakashi as he appeared besides him on a rock and Kakashi cursed himself as he hadn't even noticed the man's chakra signature, too enveloped in his dark and stressed thoughts. The man had dark brown hair, large black eyes and a pale complexion, donning Konoha Jounin attire as well as the common hitai-ate. Kakashi blinked as Naruto growled somewhere, holding a dead girl in his arms.

"How can you help me?" He asked, his voice void of emotion. Empty. Lost.

"It seems the Kyuubi container has lost control. I have Hashirama's cells within me which means I am a natural energies user; I may be able to strengthen the seal on Uzumaki's stomach." Yamato said as his fingers went through different seals directed at the Kyuubi container and Kakashi saw how the man strained himself, large chunks of tree shooting off from the ground, capturing a howling Naruto in a cage, constricting his movements but not for long. Half of the man called Yamato's chakra reserves went to the completion of the seal and Naruto snarled, his chakra rippling underneath the Kyuubi's red chakra as he clawed at the thick tree bars. Then with a scream, too animalistic to have been Naruto's, the Kyuubi container fell inside the cage of trees and the red chakra was swept into a whirlpool into his stomach.

Kakashi sprinted to both Naruto and Sakura shortly followed by Yamato, as the blond boy slumped unconscious into the tree prison. Yamato dispelled the cage and the trees disappeared into the ground where they had come from. Kakashi was fast to check that Naruto was fine and unconscious before he went straight to Sakura's limp body. The bloody marks from the snake's bite still bled, yet not as feverishly as before. He felt with his fingers on her forehead, finding his hand slick with her sweat. She was burning, still warm.

And then he heard it. Her heart beat.

"So you eat poisons?" Kakashi said and he sighed with a tugging smile coming on to his lips. She just kept doing that thing, making his interest perk in her direction.

"Yes, daily, in tiny bits within my food. Luckily, however, the snake that bit me didn't produce enough amounts of poisons to kill me. I'll keep hallucinating for a while, and my body temperature will change drastically, but it'll be fine if I get some medical treatment back in Konoha. Well, I would have died as well had I not chakra enhanced my inner organs in the last second." Sakura said unsteadily into his silver hair as he carried her on his back, piggyback style. She had refused at first, but when he had propositioned to carry her like a princess instead, bridal style, she had snorted and climbed onto his back. He was careful when he jumped in the trees, careful not to hop so that she rocked on his back. She gripped around his throat tightly, connecting her hands so that she would not fall. She was hurting, but she didn't show it.

"And those bite marks, you'll have to see to them too. They'll scar, you know." Sai commented with a weak voice, as he was carried by Yamato in a similar fashion to Sakura's and Kakashi's. Yamato had a bit medical knowledge and had produced a few herbs that stopped Sai's blood flow from his wounds due to the wires that Sasuke had flung back at him. He was near the brink to having an acute need of a medic, Sakura being too weak and wounded to heal, but it was fine for the moment. Naruto was the only one not being carried nor carrying, as he jumped in the middle of the three pairs of feet touching the ground. He had regenerated quickly and his wounds were nonexistent now, all because of the cursed and blessed chakra of the Kyuubi. He was eerily quite, for being Naruto. The appearance of Sasuke, the confusion that had arisen when Sakura had gotten bitten, all these things were probably being processed in his mind.

"Yes, the scars will make lovely patterns on my body." Sakura smiled tenderly as she gripped her hands tighter around Kakashi's throat.

"I kept thinking about one thing before. Why does your eyes get white like that? I saw it when you fought Sasuke-teme." Naruto asked, not wanting to talk about their failure of the retrieving mission. Not wanting to talk about Sasuke-teme escaping their hands once again. About their wounds. About the sting of Sasuke leaving them again, time and time again. None wanted to talk about it.

"I think it's the bloodlust. Izanami gets ahead of herself when she sees blood and this affects my mind. When her bloodlust seeps into me, it triggers my own want for.. death. I am not sure why they turn white though, I didn't even know they did until someone commented on it. They just feel hot and jagged." She said and her voice was so thin, Naruto had almost not heard it.

"You know, they say that the eyes are the windows to your soul." Kakashi said as he jumped over a fallen log in the trees, making the canopy graze his and Sakura's head softly.

"Yeah, and so white is the colour of death." Sakura muttered as she looked up from Kakashi's back, into the shafts of light falling through the foliage of the trees, the image blurring as they sped up.

"White also symbolises freedom." Sai added weakly, as he bumped around on Yamato's back a few trees away. Kakashi thought Yamato was not as gentle as he should be.

"And salvation. I think." Naruto said and thought it to be true. The pink haired kunoichi didn't reply. Kakashi was reminded of kekkei genkais being similarly described as she had, but he dismissed the thought.

For a while, they said nothing. The silence was contemplating and they were all thinking of what had happened the past few days. And the Konoha shinobi all knew they had failed.

"Next time." Sakura whispered and they all understood what she meant by it.

The Man with a Name Sai

"Defeat is only the opportunity for improvement!" Naruto said and his eyes burned as they sprinted through the Sekai forest, nearing home. None answered him, only nodding tiredly at his never ending energy of the sun. Sai knew then that Naruto would try and try again until he had Sasuke back in Konoha, in both body and heart. He would either kick the Uchiha all the way back or talk him to death. Either way, he would never stop trying.

Sai tried to understand this concept of bonds Naruto had so exhaustingly tried to explain to him during their stay in Suna. That this bond Naruto shared with Sasuke made them fight and come together, as magnets always clashing. That there was no way he saw his future as the Hokage of Konoha without Sasuke at his side. That they understood each other. Sai wondered where that left Sakura, since Naruto never described her as a magnet. Sai, for the first time in a long while, felt something in his chest. He recognised it as a feeling, not an upcoming illness. At least he had learnt that much about emotions and the workings of the body. He felt the clarity of the failure. And he knew that Danzō would be disappointed, to a point where he would be punished. But Sai was not... sorry.

He thought that Sasuke maybe could be saved and by that he needed to be alive. Sai couldn't imagine what Naruto would do if Sai had succeeded in killing the Uchiha. What he would have done if Sakura had killed the defector. She had fought but it hadn't been enough. The Uchiha was by far stronger than her, which really shouldn't be a surprise. Sakura came from a small and weak Clan that had turned into civilians, she was no prodigy, had no kekkei genkai, did not have a beast inside her with the exception of the demon goddess within her sword. She also seemed not have had the opportunity to call for her summons, and also since summoning them took a great deal of chakra. Naruto and Sasuke played at another level entirely, two powerhouses that left no room for an ordinary kunoichi.

Yet a nagging feeling in the back of Sai's mind made him hesitate on this conclusion. What was inhuman about Sakura was her never failing determination. What was unnerving about her was the will to prove herself. What had made her be accepted into Root was her willingness to crush all opposition, fast and cruel as he remembered her ceremonial trial. Her snapping the neck of the recruit at her side in the blink of an eye. Her crushing the other recruit's throat with her foot. Never hesitating, she ploughed forward. Swallowing the pills of life and death and she never looked back, never regretting. That was what made her have the slightest chance to nullify the workings of magnetism of bonds between Naruto and Sasuke. A saying goes 'what is good is always three' but Sai wondered about the truth in that, as he wobbled on the back of the running man called Yamato who had saved them from the Kyuubi in Naruto from coming out.

When they neared the gates of Konoha, Sai passed out.

A Passing Bird

The rain fell heavy on the village of leaves. The chatter on the ceiling panels was all that was heard in the silent apartment as a young woman stood in the stillness in front of a mirror. The crying of the heavens sang its dirge of premonition. A heavy sigh was heard and the woman undressed in front of the mirror. She stood then in only her undergarments and regarded her body in the reflection.

At the side of her stomach, a fresh and grotesque half moon shaped bite marked scar was visible in the pale moon light that shed its luminescence inside the room. Her creamy skin adorned several other scars, left to stay without a second thought, as a reminder of battles fought. She slowly touched the scars on her stomach, each bite mark that had left deep holes in her body she grazed each with her finger tips. Her green eyes were thoughtful as she continued to trace her scarred body.

Then her fingers stopped and she looked at her right palm. Another deep gash was visible there, a pink tinted slash across her palm. Her eyes fluttered to a katana which was positioned on a small altar at the foot of her bed. The presence of the sword was similar to an eagle, the King of the Sky, and the bird shuddered. Her eyes became the darkest gates to the abyss.

She clenched her fist then, and turned her head away. She quickly dressed into a top and shorts, and shuffled to her bed. When she lied down, she didn't close her eyes. She was very still and one could almost not see her breathe. Her eyes were tired, but clearly green. Then, as if she prepared herself for battle in cold determination, she closed her eyes and was asleep instantly.

The bird then flapped away into the night, away from the woman's window sill, feeling strangely at peace with itself as it flew in the chaos of raindrops.

The Man of Shadows Shimura Danzō

He had given too much trust to the girl, he had relied on her too much. Returning without the blood of the Uchiha on her hands had disappointed him deeply, more so than he had counted on. He had expected so much from that kunoichi and he cursed himself for almost believing in the girl. She had failed him. He needed to reprimand her for her incapability as disappointment flooded his mind.

He called for her to arrive in the ceremonial trial room days after her arrival back to the village from the failed mission, the room where she had proven her place within Root. And now she was to be reminded of the consequences for failure within the organisation in the very same room.

The night had fallen and he had gathered the more important members of Root to attend to the punishment. Haruno Sakura bowed to him in the middle of the room in respect and submission, and in her movements he saw she was as of yet not completely healed from the wound she had acquired by a mere snake. Maybe she was already aware of her coming judgement, he thought, as her jaw was tight. The ANBU captains and higher ups within Root stood at his side, not knowing exactly what would take place that night.

"I trusted in your abilities, Haruno Sakura. You proved me wrong. Failure will never be accepted in Root." He said and regarded her petite form. The blank mask was strapped at the side of her head, unveiling her pink long hair that cascaded down her shoulders.

"You will be accordingly punished for your failure." He concluded and the men at his side flinched. Most knew of the punishments dealt by himself was not easy to walk away from. If at all.

"Strip." He then stated and the men at his side snapped their heads up, looking at him with blank expressions. The Haruno girl's eyes widened slightly. Then she bowed again and hesitantly took off her mask completely. She put it down on the floor, leaving it there as the only thing that blocked the other captains view of her facial expressions. Danzō's hard eye followed her movements.

"All of it." He then said and shattered the silence in the room. Her green eyes went to his and she saw his objective for what it was. Humiliation. She looked down on her black turtleneck top and in one swift movement, she undressed the top over her head. Standing with only her chest bindings and her loose hakamas, she folded her top carefully and placed it on the floor, next to her blank mask. The men in the room watched her then pull down her hakamas without hesitation and she folded them as well, laying them on the ground. She stood with her chest bindings and under garments only, in the middle of the room. She looked one last time at Danzō, and then she stripped her chest bindings off along with her under garments.

Her body was completely bare and blatantly displayed creamy pale skin, adorned with several pink scars on her flesh and one impressive half moon shaped bite mark on her torso. In all of her nakedness she stood almost proudly, yet Danzō saw the burning in her eyes, in her defiant stance. It seemed she refused to give in to the apparent humiliating act, refused to acknowledge the dishonouring of her body being shown so mercilessly to a group of unknown men. She was however, what Danzō knew other men would say, beautiful in all of her glory. She had shapely slender legs, a slight hour glass form, tenderly sculpted muscles on her abdomen, protruding breasts and a thin neck. But her body was tainted with ugly scars. The ANBU captain Fuyu sniffed and changed his stance.

Danzō then tucked out the whip from his belt. It was a sleek and long whip, battered from use, with additional shards of glass fastened at the end of the tail to further the damage and deepen the inflicted wounds. The glass shards stuck out like sharp teeth from the hardened leather of the whip. The Haruno girl looked at the whip with emotionless, impassive sapphire like eyes yet her stance slightly straightened in preparation. The muscles in her neck strained and betrayed her unafraid eyes.

"You will count each whip lash loudly. One hundred lashes will be exacted. If you miss to say the number of the current lash, or is unable to, I will start over again. Is this clear?"

"Yes, Danzō-sama." She clipped. The Root member closest at his side turned his head over to him. The emotionless facade of the Root member called Shigemi coldly looked at him.

"At twenty-five lashes the voice can no longer scream. The screaming only ever lasts for a little while, because then the strength to scream dissipates caused by the pain. It leaves no strength left to give release of the pain in the vocal chords." He stated. "The pain tolerance reaches its peak at thirty. Fifty lashes makes the hardest Root member pass out."

Danzō only gave Shigemi a raised eye brow.

"I will not question your objectives for this punishment of the kunoichi, Danzō-sama. But a hundred lashes might make her unable to continue with her shinobi career." He explained.

"Then don't ask unnecessary questions, Shigemi, if your intention is not to go against my decision."

"Y-yes, Danzō-sama."

Giving the backing man one last hard glance, Danzō walked up to the naked young woman. Shigemi bowed his head down, not wanting to disrespect him. Danzō peered down on the girl in front of him. Having taken away her dignity, she still stood straight.

"Lay on the floor on your stomach." He ordered her and she obeyed, laying flat on the mats of the cold floor. Her pink hair settled around her head in swirls. Then one of his attendants scurried over on cue, placing large metal spikes at her hands and feet. He was fast to hammer down the spikes hard into the floor, making them stuck. He then produced chakra restraining chains and hand cuffs and clipped them first at her wrists, locking them at the large metal spikes, and then fastened them to her ankles. She couldn't move as she was shackled harshly to the ground, splayed on the floor in the form of a X. Danzō stood, looming over the girl's pale and slightly voluptuous naked body, and tried the whip in the air once. The crackle of the whip snapping into the air made the girl's slight form wince. He grit his teeth. His right arm was used to dealing similar punishments, but he knew he would acquire sore muscles after this night.

"The punishment of Haruno Sakura begins now, with one hundred lashes exacted on her body for her failure of assassinating a missing nin." He said and landed the first whip lash on her back, thwacking open her tender skin. The glass shards made a shallow wound bleed a little as he retracted the whip's tail and the girl yelped in pain, yet she showed no other signs of distress. The lash left a trickle of blood and flushed skin on her pale shoulder, contrasting the stark red liquid and the almost white colour of her skin.

"One." She snarled and he could hear how she clenched her jaw.

What was left on the floor mats of the ceremonial trial room was large amounts of crimson blood splatter and in the atmosphere was the fading crackling sounds and echoes of one hundred and thirteen whip lashes. What was left inside the empty room was the loss of innocence, a harsh reminder to never fail and a kunoichi's frayed dignity.

The Cloud Watching Boy Nara Shikamaru

"Sakura?"

When she stumbled inside his apartment without knocking, he knew he shouldn't ask. She was broken. To the core. He could see it in her faded eyes and she let her facade blatantly fall. Her eyes seemed to ask for salvation and he wasn't sure he would be able to give it to her. He cradled her in his arms as they sat on his couch. Her embrace was weak and she grit her teeth. For the first time since that day so long ago Sakura had killed five missing nin with white eyes staring blankly at the blood soiled ground, she cried. She hulked and cried heavily into the hole of his neck and he let her. When he snaked his arm over her shoulder, to steady her, to comfort her, she winced. Shikamaru looked over her shoulder and saw bandages cover her back in the glimpse of her top's opening.

"It's okay to break." He whispered and anger knotted twists and twists in his stomach as he pondered on who might have done this to the girl. Who might have broken her this much, to this extent, who had hurt her this fatally.

"Break. And grow stronger again. Patch up the pieces left." He murmured and hugged her even more tightly, though avoiding to press on her bandaged back. She responded by almost breaking his neck when she hugged him tighter, the sobs making her whole body shake. He let her break him even though it hurt, as she was even more broken.

"I'll hold you together."

Moments went by and her sobs and tears made his shoulder wet, yet he didn't care. He stroked the back of her pink hair, holding her closely to him. This was the first time they had been this near, the first time he had comforted her in his arms. He smelt the apple shampoo in her hair, the dirt on her body, the metallic scent of washed blood and soap. Then he realised what was missing.

"Where's Izanami?" He mumbled, not remembering the last time he had seen her without the powerful katana strapped on her back. The demon goddess was always with her, yet now it was blaring with its absence. It was like a part of her was missing.

"I can't let her see me like this." Sakura breathed shallowly at his skin and he understood, somewhat. Izanami highly disapproved of weakness, and the girl in his arms right now was the epitome of it in the demon's eyes. Shikamaru, however, thought that was not the case. This girl was stronger than anyone he had ever met. She was strong since she had been holding up for so long and she was strong since she let herself break in his arms. She was strong because she accepted her weakness, her destroyed state, and let him see it. Sharing her pain with him made Shikamaru sigh in a complex kind of relief as he continued to embrace her.

"Thank you, Shika." She hiccuped and slowly, slowly her sobs started to lessen in frequency. "The memory of this day is what will give me courage. To never fail. To never be at the mercy of someone else." She said with a raspy voice into his shoulder, filled to the brink with unwavering determination.

And he believed in her.

The Man with a Name Sai

"Hey, something's been bothering me. Where's Sakura-chan? She's been gone a lot lately since we came back." Naruto chewed on the dango in his mouth, having his arms behind his head in a very Shikamaru-like manner. Naruto and Sai made their way from the dango shop in the bustling streets of Konoha, heading to the training grounds.
"I hear she's been with Godaime-sama and Mr. Shady in a lot of meetings." Sai pointed out as he took a delicate bite off his own dango. Naruto snorted.

"Who's 'Mr. Shady'? Another of your weird nicknames." Naruto giggled with the dango in his mouth, making the giggle come out a bit muffled.

"Mr. Shady is actually Ugly's nickname for Shimura Danzō." Sai explained and gulped the bite. Naruto stopped walking, the dango left unbitten in his gaping mouth.
"What? Why is Sakura-chan meeting with him? That creepy, old bandaged man." He exclaimed as he fanned the dango stick in front of Sai's face.

"You didn't know, Dickless?" The Root member asked, his emotionless expression looking at the fox boy.
"What?" Naruto said irritably.

"She's been in Root for over a year now. I was there when her ceremonial trial took place. Didn't you know this? I thought..." Sai trailed off, looking down on his feet with creased eye brows.
"What? I- She never told me! In Root? Are you sure? What the hell-" Naruto startled and waved his hands angrily and confusedly in the air, but he was cut short on his upcoming rant by Sai putting his index finger over the Kyuubi container's mouth in a silencing gesture.

"Hush. We're not supposed to talk about this. But I thought... you should know. Since you two are what one would call 'friends'." He said and retracted his finger from the blond man's mouth, wiping it on his shirt.
"Gods. Yes, we're friends, Sai. But what is Sakura-chan up to? How'd she get into Root? That bloody fucked up organisation." Naruto bombarded the emotionless man with questions.

"Danzō took an interest in her some year ago and... he asked her to join us, to support Konoha from the shadows. She accepted and passed the trial." Sai explained, looking back over his shoulder.

"Why-Why did Danzō take an interest in her? Do I... even want to know?" Naruto bit his lip, looking at the dango in his hand, contemplating.
"She was openly hateful towards the Hokage's reign, saying it was too soft a rule. She was a bit rebellious and it lead to the Godaime dismissing her apprenticeship. Also, Sakura successfully completed an A-ranked mission in Snow, killing the Daimyo there and in doing so she proved her efficiency as a shinobi. So I presume Danzō saw something in her."

"She was hateful towards baa-chan?" Naruto asked, not quite believing it. "There must be a reason why. When I met them before in the office, they seemed to have a really great relationship. Baa-chan seemed to be at ease with Sakura-chan and the other way around. I can't see them hating each other."

"That's right. I have been thinking about it. And it just might be so... That it was all an act."
"An act? Why?"

"So that Danzō would take an interest in her. Maybe, and this is just my own speculations, she is on an undercover mission within Root on orders of the Godaime. That would explain a lot."

"Oh. But- Wow. Yeah. That actually seems plausible." Naruto winced and realised it was probably true. "But why? I know Danzō's not a great guy, since he's all shady and stuff... But is it really necessary to go so far as to spy on him?"

"Probably. Perhaps. I don't know all the facts." Sai said exasperatedly, which was an incredible feat in Sai's limited emotions spectre. Naruto almost snorted.

The Man of Shadows Shimura Danzō

Danzō had put the girl on executioner work in T&I. He had contacts therein and they allowed her to pass, even though she hadn't been properly educated in Torture and Interrogation's intern programme. She helped torture a few missing nin with her katana every night. It proved to be most effective, and nowadays she didn't even need the two poisons she had developed. She managed fairly good on her own with her taunting and questions and her slicing and just her plain presence.

Danzō attended the execution she held this night when she terminated a prisoner she had finished interrogating and he somewhat agreed with the slight hint of disgust in the other interrogator's eyes, eyes that had probably seen similar interrogations in his time as an interrogator. Just not quite like this one. The prisoner was cut up into shreds. Bleeding from far too many places, his skin pale and bluish due to severe blood loss. His eyes had no lust for life and they were so tired of pain and sharp edged swords. She finished the man cleanly, with one precise slit of the katana at the man's throat when she had pressed the last tidbit of information from him, making him useless alive. She sliced the life giving vein that gave blood to the heart and in the prisoner's eyes, he thanked her for finally ending it and giving him his freedom, freedom from pain and freedom to sleep forever.

"Three hundred and sixty four." She said casually and wiped off the katana with a cloth absentmindedly. She tossed the cloth in a trash bin, slid her katana back into its scabbard at her hip and started the procedure of removing the limp body from his chains and spikes that fastened him to the moss covered walls of the cell. She had replaced her earlier ponytail with a long, simple braid but it had loosened over the course of the interrogation, leaving soft petal hued tendrils sweeping across her cheeks and forehead. Danzō watched her for one more moment, then left without saying a word. He knew that the punishment he had dealt on her three weeks ago had been severe. She had almost not recovered from the lashes and the dishonouring of her body, but she had and now she was almost as emotionless as a Root member. It was definite now; she would never fail him again.

She regained her training schedule and started wearing those ugly black bracelets again, at her ankles and wrists. Another addition to her attire was a black necklace with a magatama jewel that rested at the hole of her throat, of which he knew was specially designed to weigh as much as she could bear, and when she became stronger, the heavier the magatama necklace would be. When he had asked her about it, she had said it was a gift. She also started wearing a white intricate comb in her hair at the side, an exquisite comb that seemed to work just as well as decoration. She had told him it was a gift from a friend. She also wore a ring on her thumb, which he didn't recognise. It was sleek, golden and it had the kanji sign for "sphere" on its purple jewel. The ring had been a gift from death, she had told him. He didn't think of the matter any further.

She continued to be sent on missions from Danzō, but these missions were dirtier and more varying than they had been before. Seduction missions. Torture missions. Infiltration missions. But she had to work her way up to where she had once been, at his side. She had to prove her worth once again and this time, it wasn't enough just swallowing the green and the red pill.

The Female Weapon with Chinese-Style Buns Tenten

When they sparred a cloudy day, that pink haired woman broke Tenten's leg in their taijutsu match. It hadn't been accidental; Tenten had seen her green eyes pale and bloodlust had hung heavily in the air they breathed. If Lee hadn't interrupted and earned a hard smack across his head, crashing into a tree, Tenten was not sure Sakura would have stopped after seeing Tenten's blood on the grass.

She had changed again. It was just so visible on Haruno Sakura. Her face had thinned, leaving her cheekbones rather chiseled and her eyes hollow. The green was dark and mossy, tired yet oddly sharp. Her mouth was always in a stern line. It seemed like she was constantly clenching her teeth. Her hair was now in a strict braid at the nape of her neck, keeping her hair strands in place and out of her face, straining the roots as hard as it was drawn back. The laughter was gone from her eyes, the always playful smirk absent from her lips. She was older, in heart and soul. Her posture was strong and yet it was like she was made of glass, easily broken and if touched one would bleed on the shrapnel of broken glass.

It was known. Sakura had become more violent. She craved blood and smashed knuckles. She wanted bruises and marks of battle. She needed the aggression, the anger, the intensity, the adrenaline. Maybe to feel like she wasn't made of glass. To feel like she was made out of diamonds. Maybe it was to feel superior to whomever she smashed to pieces. To prove herself. And it was all so painfully wrong. Having seen her innocent smile once, the sun reflecting in her glittering apple green eyes and that playfulness of youth having been shaved off and what was left was not pleasing to the eye at all, so confusing and misleading. Rather, she was beautiful in all of her coldness and stern maturity, yet it was tainted with her bloodied gaze.

Tenten grit her teeth in the hospital bed. She knew Sakura had gone to a lot of missions and the most recent one had left her with a snake bit on her whole torso and she had failed the retrieving mission on the Uchiha at the same time - so she understood the mental toll the girl must have taken. Tenten tried to forgive her, yet she was in a hospital bed because of her and would stay there for two weeks. Her leg had been shattered to pieces and she couldn't find it in herself to smile at the pink haired girl anymore.

The Cloud Watching Boy Nara Shikamaru

"You need to get dragged back down from that high peak you're standing on." Shikamaru said, for once he was serious. He watched her silently as she sat in a meditative position on his couch. She had just strutted inside without warning and taken over his couch. He had offered tea, but she had denied it. Maybe it had become a habit of hers, simply strolling inside his bedroom.

"I've been pulled back countless times. I have tired of it." She said and closed her eyes.

"That's not what I mean. Sakura, I think you've given in." Shikamaru pointed out as he sat on a chair in front of her, drinking his green tea.

"Given in? What are you saying?" She opened her eyes, and they were so hollow, so empty, his heart clenched.

"To hatred. I think that Danzō's punishment triggered it, you having become more violent. It's like you... enjoy it. Maybe you need some time off, release the pressure-"

"I'm perfectly fine." She snapped and swung her legs over the couch's edge. "And I most certainly don't need some time off. This conversation is over."

"It's not. We need to solve this." Shikamaru persisted and she snorted at that.

"There is no 'we' in this. I can take care of myself." Her cold voice sliced through the air in Shikamaru's bedroom. He shrugged.

"I'm most positive you can. It's just that I think you might have broken a bit too much under Danzō and Izanami, and then there was the retrieving mission and the Akatsuki member you killed which has left your bounty to rise in the Bingo Books a whole fucking lot. You need to-"

"Oh, please. Shika, stop it. You think too much. You always think too much." She said and her eyes gleamed, rather cunningly. "You need to start feeling. What does your heart say?" She questioned the male Nara and took a step closer to him when she rose from the couch. He didn't flinch when she lightly touched his chest, standing over him. He involuntarily shivered as he put down his tea cup and was greeted with a smirk on her soft lips.

"What is in your heart?"

Shikamaru swallowed harshly. Her touch sent waves through his body, rippling his muscles and gathering warmth in unexpected places. A thick tension in the air made itself known as Shikamaru felt it press down on his mind, his body reacting accordingly as they were so close. Their gazes met and electricity went through his flesh. And then he decided to be reckless, even if there were conflicting interests in his mind but he ignored them.

"Are you even aware...", he drawled and pulled her closer to him, his hand at her waist, their breaths mingling together, "of just how troublesome you are?"

The close proximity to her body as he looked up at her, the warmth radiating underneath her unnecessary clothes, all made him spiral away into dirty dreams forgotten involving her and him.

"If I must say," she almost whispered, her voice teasing, "your life would be boring without me."

At that she smirked, and she was so close he could see little flecks of gold in her apple green iris, framing her small pupil. Her mouth, those soft and slightly moist lips, were painfully close to his and she didn't shy away. Rather, it seemed their closeness was amusing to her. He wanted to tell her not to play games with him, but he couldn't muster the words. And deep in his heart, he wanted her and it didn't matter to him that she was only having fun. And that smirk she wore, so knowing, but how could she know? He pulled her closer to him, she settled on his lap and she bit her lip, that damn woman bit her lip, and that was the end of him. His chest burned and he was lost in her green eyes.

In one movement, he forced himself up from the chair, had her pinned to the wall with his hand gripping both of hers, his shadows pressing against her, holding her hands above her head. His harsh breath against her soft skin made her own breath hitch. Then it was over for him. His lips grazed hers, not questioning, they demanded. And she succumbed to him and he fell even further. They kissed and it was rough, animalistic in a sense, the sexual tension reaching its peak as he held her neck. She bit his lower lip and he growled. Their mouths played and danced and then their tongues met in a sensual greeting. He pressed his body to hers and she moaned, feeling his bulge against her.

And he fell.

"Shika. This- we shouldn't." She breathed against him as she gulped for air, she said this and yet her fingers were tangled in his thick brown hair which had loosened from the pony tail. Her voice was a mixture of want and calculated knowing of disapproval, like she was battling within herself.

"I know." He said harshly, and pressed his lips against her again and she responded to his wished. Possessive thoughts started to seep into his mind. She was his. He wanted her to think of him and only him. Her mind was going to be filled up the brink with him and his name. She was going to call out for him. She was going to claw his back.

"I can't- Shikamaru. Listen to me." She broke their kiss and the Nara blinked. "I have developed three Seduction jutsus and they come to me involuntarily whenever I am in bed with someone. The techniques are hard to handle, especially my genjutsu Blooming Immolation, and the Dance of the Fireflies, and they will make you delirious-"

"Shh. Sakura." He said in a deep voice, pained with lust. "I am actually rather interested in those techniques." He whispered in her ear and she almost shivered, almost.

"Are you sure you can handle my Thousand Fallings?" She smirked then, giving in to whatever battle she had had in her mind, her eyes still empty.

"Are you sure you can handle my shadows? My penumbra?" He mumbled and let his shadow technique come to good use, as the shadows of his hands slithered and caressed her body through the fabric of her turtleneck top. She gasped and he felt satisfaction overwhelm him.

"I like it when you talk like that." Sakura wheezed and her eyelashes fluttered like feathers, gracing his chiseled jawline with her finger tips.

When she touched him as well, he was blinded and he couldn't see the world behind her. She ignited his bones and sparks glistened around him. Her power over him grew and grew and he wanted nothing more than to please the woman he felt under his skin.

Hours went by and he had never experienced such lust and overwhelming desire, and that was simply put. He didn't even care that he was in her command. He didn't even care that he wanted to please her with everything he was. He existed in an euphoric daze compared to nothing he had ever felt before. Searing pleasure burned through his body and he couldn't help but growl with ecstasy as he lost all sense of his surroundings.

In a blissful and sweaty heap, he collapsed, exhausted, but happiness clouded his mind so nothing else in the world mattered. His broad shoulders relaxed and his hands held the woman with green eyes in his arms. She trailed her fingers slowly over his bare chiseled abdominal muscles and he sighed in contentment, then he closed his eyes.

When he came to, he lay sprawled on his bed with a sheet gently laid over him. He felt every muscle in his body protest achingly, he felt dried sweat covering his body and he knew he had been out of his senses for hours. But he was alright. No, more than alright. His mind was still in an ecstatic state and he was oddly at peace with himself. Then he noticed a woman sitting at a chair across the room, fully dressed in her black turtle neck top and beige skirt, showing off her creamy slender legs. Her pink hair wasn't even ruffled. Her eyes were a darker shade of green.

"What happened?" He asked sleepily, scratching his head as he sat up. He knew that they had not simply made love. What Sakura had done to him was something else entirely.

"You... Couldn't handle the Blooming Immolation technique. When I tried not to use it, I accidentally fell into a Thousand Fallings. With every... thrust, you spilled a secret from the Nara Clan and I didn't even ask you. I'm sorry, Shika. I'm... so sorry."

"Oh. I told you..." He mumbled. "You may be sorry, but I'm not. I trust you, Sakura. I can't imagine you spreading classified intel."

"I-" Sakura started, then bit her lip. Shikamaru felt his chest burn. How could she not know that biting her lip was his trigger?

"Come back to bed." He commanded and yawned, patting his hand besides him on the soft cotton sheet.

"I can't. I would like to, sincerely and truly, but something makes me... I can't sleep together with others." She confessed and looked down as she rose from the chair. She gracefully walked up to him and planted a soft kiss on his mouth. Her farewell.

"See you at the briefing tomorrow." She said and disappeared without a trace, leaving a scent of flowers and citrus on the linen of his bed. He slumped back on the soft cushiony mattress, not being able to close his eyes. Her words had silently promised him to never do it again. He felt his heart clench, ache.

What was she doing to him?

And yet, her hollow eyes had changed. Maybe his touch had made her see? Maybe his kisses had made her come back? Maybe his silent confession of her presence in his heart had made her melt? He could only hope, as he closed his eyes with a frown.

Maybe she had changed again.

Author's Note

Hi guys! God I need to pee, so I'll make this quick. Thanks for the response and I hope you'll enjoy this chapter. I just knitted a lot of things together and if I missed something, do tell. I wrote a whole lot and defeated the Writer's Block gallantly, with coffee, cigarettes and dull inspiration. So another chapter will be out very, very soon.

Cheers,
fascalia