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 15
Assassins, not Guardians
Through the Eyes of a Unknown Librarian, a Young One and a Man of Shadows
The Fox Boy Uzumaki Naruto
The birds chirped and Naruto stretched his back, folding his hands at the back of his blond head. He strolled through the silent streets of Konohagakure, enjoying the soft sun rise and he felt light on his feet. His ramen breakfast rumbled comfortingly in his stomach and he was pleased as the noodle-energy made his body bounce forwards. When he arrived at the training grounds, Naruto found Sakura training by herself in the morning sun light. She had her katana in a right handed grip, swinging it, shifting through the air like leaves in the wind, and yet striking hard like a coiling snake. It was a very enjoyable and yet peculiar sight, since she was practicing the katas Suzaku, Sakura's vermillion bird summoning, had taught her and they were nothing like the Kenjutsu Naruto had seen before. The moves were stricter, more sharp but yet had that soft edge that left room for instant evasion due to the opponent's possible counterattack.
"Sakura-chan! Morning!" He cheered and waved his hand to catch her attention. She stopped abruptly, right in the middle of a half moon strike, and she looked at him with sweat dripping down her forehead. Hair was plastered around her face, strands that had let loose of her braid. Her usual black turtleneck top had been replaced with a white slightly large shirt and short black tights that ended a bit above her knees.
"Naruto." She smiled, almost lovingly, and she retracted her sword and slid it back into the scabbard which was strapped at her hip. "You really have become such an early bird since our Genin days."
"Can't help myself when it's such a sunny day!" Naruto grinned and jumped to her side.
Sakura's eyes were hollow, but they were lighter than before. Before, three days ago at training ground four, when she had broken Tenten's leg Sakura had been nothing like herself. Naruto hadn't really been able to look into Sakura's eyes then as he had been sparring with Lee at the time and had witnessed the two kunoichis' fight. The pinkette had looked at Tenten as if she didn't recognise her when she cleaned her hands with a towel, rubbing the blood away from her ravaged knuckles absentmindedly.
"You know, Naruto, your current mantra of 'Rasengan it to death' won't do you any good in upcoming fights with the Akatsuki." Sakura commented and Naruto was pulled back from his memories of the day three says prior, and was about to protest when her eyes flashed for one second a shade lighter. "What about a spar? And the rule is that you won't use Rasengan." Sakura said and tilted her head questioningly.
"Oh, yeah. Sure, Sakura-chan. But then that applies to you as well; you won't use Izanami. She's like your version of Rasengan. You 'Izanami people to death'."
"Deal." Sakura smirked. Naruto bit his lip then and looked away to the orange sun rise.
"And no breaking bones." He added quietly. At that, Sakura looked down at her hands, then clenched them. Her knuckles turned white.
"That won't happen again. Ever." She said with furrowed eyebrows and her eyes met his sincerely. "I'll control myself."
"That's all fine and dandy then." Naruto said and gave her a gentle smile.
"Where'd you get that phrase?" Sakura chuckled as she cracked her back with a little groan, then went to stretch her arms.
"Ino, actually. She's a fun one." Naruto grinned and took off his jacket, the absence of the neon orange and black jacket leaving him in his charcoal coloured t-shirt. He had to buy a new one soon, he noticed with a grimace. The material stretched at his now broader shoulders and his muscled chest and abdomen.
"Oh? So you hang out with the pig now?" Sakura asked, her expression amused when she unstrapped the scabbard at her hip and gently put Izanami down on the grass of the sidelines.
"Nah, not really. We just hung out with everyone from Rookie Nine at Ichiraku's few days ago and we connected over a tale of pranks. I didn't know she pulled one on you in the locker room at the Academy! It was really well thought out-"
"Please don't bring that up." Sakura snarled and the blond stalled.
"Sorry, sorry. I just think it was cute." Naruto grinned as he walked up to her on the training field's center. "Let's begin."
"You just gave me some more motivation to smash your face." Sakura leered and sprinted at him. They engaged in a flurry of hitting and kicking, rolling and evading. It was fun, Naruto realised, as Sakura's taijutsu had improved a whole lot since a few months ago. She could actually keep up with him and she gave him room for improvisation. Her style was however more calculated and textbook correct. Naruto was ever flowing and could change the direction of a hit in one moment of instinctive glee, because he was just that - an unpredictable ninja. Yet it was hard to fight against someone who knew every counterattack to any pattern. But he had improvisation on his side, so he dived under her defence and landed a hit. He had expected her to at least fly back from the force a few meters, but she absorbed the hit somehow and Naruto guessed she used her scary chakra control to redirect the force through her whole body, dispelling it gallantly. As Naruto was too occupied being fascinated by this quirk of Sakura's taijutsu, she landed a kick at his side which made him stumble away.
But Naruto couldn't be fazed by just that; he was after all the future Hokage of Konoha. He spiralled away from her continuing flurry of kicks and he successfully rounded her to appear behind her. When his fist was a millimetre away from her pink head, she simply cocked it one side as if she sensed in what direction his fist was headed and his balled fist whistled past her cheek. He was fast to jump away when she almost elbowed him in the stomach. Naruto almost laughed; this was just too much fun.
An hour later of full on sparring with the kunoichi, they were drained. They had gone all out on each other and Naruto wasn't used to using much of taijutsu, since his signature style was the Rasengan and his kage bunshins which all made up for his lack of taijutsu. Sakura, he knew, had trained with Lee and Gai-sense a lot, so she had a bit of more experience than him. Naruto couldn't take away the smile plastered on his sweaty face as he lay slumped down on the grass, watching the clouds drift in the blue sky. Sakura lay huffing besides him and she was just as exhausted as he was. But he had noticed her contemplative gaze and he knew her mind was at work elsewhere, her eyes distant and unseeing. Sakura's fighting styles and abilities were the culmination of various training methods intermixed to create something unique, and he recognised the glint in her eyes.
"So what's your secret?" Naruto asked besides her as they lay exhausted on the grass at the training field, him finally catching his breath.
"Huh?" Sakura snapped her head up from her huffing pile of sweat. Her eyes glittered like emerald for a short moment.
"Yeah, I can see it. You're developing a new technique!" Naruto rolled around to his stomach and poked at her shoulder as he grinned.
"Ah... Yes, how did you know?" She smiled and wiped her hand at her forehead.
"I know you quite well, Sakura-chan." Naruto said. "I can see that stuff."
"Oh, I see. Well, yes I am." She admitted.
"Then what is it? Some kind of badass mountain-wrecking final punch?" Naruto asked excitedly, his fist clenched and stretched into the air, as if reaching for the sky with a punch. Sakura snorted and looked at him, the green fresh grass grazing her chin as her head was turned his way.
"Nothing of the like. It's a seal developed by Tsunade which is reputed to be the pinnacle of chakra control. The theory goes like this; by storing chakra over an extended period of time into a specific point on the body — which is mostly the forehead — the user creates this seal which manifests in the form of a rhombus-like marking. Once the seal is formed, the user's already exquisite and sharp chakra control which is necessary to concentrate and store the chakra over the period of time allows them to perform techniques without any wasted energy or their own chakra. When released, the seal will either spread across the users face, or wrap around their entire body. The stored chakra is released into their body greatly amplifying their medical techniques and physical strength as well. But you see, I have adjusted the seal a bit. Instead of releasing it all at once, and in that releasing every bit of saved chakra at one time, I'm trying to save portions of it in different parts of my body. And instead of opening the tap of chakra fully when releasing, only streams of chakra will be let out. I've made the doors smaller so they won't pool out every drop of spared chakra. I don't know if it will work yet, but I've been saving chakra into different tenketsu points in my body for the last year. We'll just have to see if it works."
"Wow. Sounds even more awesome than a severe ass-kicking." Naruto said and laughed heartily. "You know so much stuff, Sakura-chan."
"Ah, Naruto, I must let you in on my secret. There exists this thing called libraries, where you can read these things called books, containing information..." She said sardonically and Naruto gagged.
"Ugh, books. There is no other thing in the world that puts out my flame like words on paper do. They drain my soul, I swear." The Kyuubi container muttered and Sakura shook her head with a smile ghosting her lips.
"Your taijutsu is really good, Sakura-chan." Naruto commented and huffed as he squinted at his arm that had taken a great toll, large and purple bruises starting to appear on his skin. "These bruises will take a while to heal, even with Kurama's help."
"Well, combining taijutsu with perfect chakra control is what I am capable of and I will someday perfect it. Taijutsu is a lot about feeling and instinct, something I will have to work hard on because I only know what the books told me. That's something you excel in, though. Improvisation." Sakura praised the container and he felt a flush creep onto his cheeks.
"Thanks, Sakura-chan. Your qualities of chakra control and textbook knowledge makes you a worthy sparring partner, so you're just as good." Naruto replied and the pinkette smirked.
"I was inspired by you, Naruto. You've always worked hard, and I thought I could be no less of a shinobi."
The Unknown Librarian of the Hokage's Secret Files Senju Kitsune
"We came unprepared, scrambling inside the hideout without any forehanded prepared instructions on how to take on Orochimaru, Kabuto and Sasuke. What I am in my core is a paper ninja and I have abandoned that aspect of myself recently. So I am here to acquire all knowledge about strategies and reserve plans for every take of possible actions. To see from all angles. I'd like to begin with anatomy of shinobi, then on to tactics and strategy, mostly basic things. When I get the overall picture I intend to dig deeper. I have a memory that recalls easily so it won't take too long." Sakura said over her cup of tea. Kitsune was happy the girl had visited this night, when the moon was full and she had been more lonely than every before. When Kitsune had sneezed from the dust of a few old books she was about to go through and clean, the pinkette had appeared and helped her carry the books to the filing section in the large library. They sat at a table, in the center of the hidden personal library of the Hokage.
"I see." Kitsune replied. "I am a paper ninja as well. I derive from the Senjuu Clan and so I have tidbits of information regarding their techniques, though I am unable to use them."
"Oh. Well, I am not going to be impolite and ask of you to share that information. They are your Clan's secrets after all." Sakura said so quietly, Kitsune had almost not heard it.
"Hn, yes. But... I might make an exception for you, Sakura." The librarian said and felt her cheeks flush lightly and she looked away.
"Really? What is the trade?" The pinkette asked with a raised eyebrow. Kitsune swallowed.
"Simply your time-to-time presence."
"Is that really all you ask of me? Trading your Clan's secrets solely for my presence?" She asked, her voice unbelieving and she sat the ceramic tea cup down on the table. Her sapphire eyes were fully focused on Kitsune and the librarian blushed.
"Yes."
"And you crave nothing more of me?"
"No."
"You are so pure, Kitsune-san." Sakura drawled and closed her book slowly. Kitsune felt as if her heart was beating mercilessly in her throat and she swallowed loudly. The pinkette only looked at Kitsune with those feline like green eyes.
"If that is what you wish, then I agree." Sakura smiled and the tension was gone like the wind through barren trees. Kitsune sighed heavily, not knowing if she should have craved more.
The Senbon Guy Shiranui Genma
"Up for a training session, Saku-chan?" He cheered as he saw her in the bar of Ichiraku's, sitting by herself on a stool as she raised her head up to meet his eyes. Her black usual turtleneck top strained a bit at her now slightly more developed body and his eyes raked through the material unconsciously. The ever present senbon in his mouth slid to the other side of his mouth in a leer.
"Oh? I thought my training was done when I left you in a delirious puddle last time." Sakura smirked and flicked her petal hued hair to one side. Genma's eyes glittered and he laughed, the alcohol in his body making him feel like he was on top of the world.
"That might just be the problem." He said then, with a deeper baritone voice near her ear, known to have felled many females in his days. "Leaving your victims craving more might be a dangerous quirk of your bedside techniques."
"Genma, I do hope our relationship is to remain at a professional level. If you don't have sincere pointers on my techniques then I kindly reject your proposition." Sakura smirked and sipped gallantly from her saké cup.
"Well, yes. One could say I have a few pointers." Genma smiled arrogantly.
"You're drunk, Genma." Sakura laughed. "My techniques are perfected. You and Anko has both seen to it and experienced them."
Suddenly, Genma's expression was serious.
"I was going to talk to you about that. These three techniques you have developed are dangerous. Anko was almost turned into your slave because of it. I was able to dispel her illusions and I had to go to Inoichi to erase most of my memory of the time spent in bed with you. It muddles the mind. Don't ever use these techniques on someone you hold dear. Ever." Genma said and he saw Sakura's eyes widen.
"Oh. I wasn't aware... I'm sorry, Genma. I truly did not know the lasting effect. I thought the illusions were limited in time, but if what you're saying is true, then..." Sakura's eyes were sad and thoughtful as Genma saw her mind at work, seeing her techniques from different angles and trying to see the cause of the lasting effect. The she pushed away from the chair and paid her tab. Genma's eyes followed her silently as she turned to him and her smile was slanted.
"I'd like to be alone in the crowds. Do not follow me. Have a good evening." She told him and disappeared in a whirl of scented winds, citrus and metal blended. Genma sighed, then bit his lip and forced a smile at his ANBU companions at the other side of the bar as he strutted towards them with another four pints of ale in his hands. He would drink and forget. That had been Inoichi's advice, since he could not truly erase nor forge memories.
The Prodigy Hyuuga Neji
They met on the training grounds early on a cloudy day and after a long and hard spar, they sat together to drink water and watched the little Genins run around and try to throw dummy kunais at each other. The sweat on their skin took a while to dry in the humid weather.
"I have developed three resistance techniques that will dispel my Thousand Fallings, Dance of the Fireflies and Blooming Immolation. That way, people won't become addicted to me if I teach them the dispelling jutsu." Sakura said lightly. Too late, Neji thought as he bit down on his inner cheek.
"That's nice, Sakura." He drawled and scratched his head, as he moved to sit closer to her. He inspected her face from the side, that complexion which had become healthier since a month ago when she had gotten back from the failed retrieving mission. Her eyes were clear, once again. And he couldn't stop remembering two days ago when she had visited his bed chamber.
He touched her cheek gently and she turned her head to stare back at him, with those cold yet doe-like eyes. Her skin was so soft and he was about to lean in to kiss her, but her hand gently took his hand and pulled it down from her face.
"No. I have given you one night of pleasure of which I won't regret, Neji. It's been lovely and I've had a most... interesting experience with you. Your Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Fingers technique combined with your Byakugan eyes was quite wonderful. But that's it. I've decided that until my goals are completed I will refrain from non-commissoned sexual activities. This also because of you... slipping Hyuuga secrets." She told him and he looked down on his feet, not wanting to acknowledge the lump of ice in his throat. Always the calculative one. Always the one without fire in her emotions towards him.
"Oh. I get that." He said casually, but his sitting stance was rigid. "But is touching you prohibited?" He asked as he looked up and stroked his fingers on her shoulder towards her visible collarbone, his thumb circling. "Is kissing you... Not allowed?" He murmured and leaned in, letting his lips ghost over her throat. The pinkette didn't move away.
"I want you." He whispered almost inaudibly, and he was helpless.
"Neji. Don't." She scolded him meekly and pulled him away. "You deserve better."
"You want it, I can see it." He said and left the sting of her dismissal of him in the back of his mind.
"Yes, but that is only what my body wants. I... If I do this, I want to be here with my heart in it. But as of now, my heart is nowhere to be seen. It's been ripped apart and left cold on the ground somewhere and I need to find it before I can give myself to you."
"You're saying that you can't love me." He realised his spoken words and he had known it from the beginning, yet he had wished. He had wished so much that it wasn't true, that she was capable of loving him. But she couldn't.
"Yes." She said and he felt his mind shattering into pieces.
"I'm... no good for you, Neji. I'm manipulative and can't even control my own Seduction techniques. You deserve so much more." Her voice was soft and he could hear how she restricted herself from touching him.
"But all I want is you." The words came out alien on his tongue, since they were sugar coated with his own feelings. Yet he couldn't help himself, the words simply spilled from his mouth naturally, even though they filled him with distaste caused by his clichéd wording.
"Oh, god." Sakura bit down on her lip hard, to keep from laughing Neji knew. He flinched at his own cheesy comment, but it was nonetheless true.
"You don't know that, Neji. How many girls have you even looked at?" Sakura tried and carefully let her hand gather her bubblegum coloured hair up into a ponytail at the back of her head.
"I see everyone, but I only look at you." Neji said and sighed. "It's annoying, though. And not very constructive."
"That's why you have to let go."
The Flower Girl Yamanaka Ino
In the morning light of sunrise, the pink haired girl crouched besides her companion on the roof top, her eyes scavenging the crowds on the street, the civilians oblivious to the presence of the dangerous shinobi right above them.
"And when I have scouted the perimeter-" The pink haired kunoichi started, her eyes sharp, but the Yamanaka interrupted her.
"Wait, Sakura. It sounds like you've just prepared for a mission?"
"Yes?" She looked confused. "It's more efficient seeing it that way. The perimeter where the crowds are, the most strategic point to get through, the timing of the day - these are all important factors. It's also important to not lose sight of the goal. My final conclusion is Okita-san's stand at the crossing between Gotou street and Shinken street. She has the best apples, they're fresh and they're price worthy."
"You just made a mission out of buying apples." Ino stared at her. "I think you need a break. Like, really need it."
"Nonsense. Now, apples!" Sakura said and spiralled through the air, landing gracefully on a blank spot between the moving bodies of the crowd in the market. Ino sighed and went after her pink haired friend as she saw the outrageous colour move through the street, gallantly slicing through the crowds on the tip of her toes.
The Younger One Hyuuga Hanabi
She had seen it, on the hidden training grounds when she had strolled by to go home form training with a Hyuuga advisor. Somehow, that devil in pink haired disguise had used Gentle Fist, which shouldn't be possible for someone not having the blood of a Hyuuga. If Hanabi's assessment was correct, then that meant Sakura knew every tenketsu point in the body without seeing them. That meant she must have studied them until she couldn't think of anything else. There were thousands of tenketsu points in the shinobi body and it was said to be impossible to learn every single one of them. Besides that, she had used her palm against her clone and it had exploded in grit and bones. That meant she had fused her chakra in her tenketsu points in her palm and let the destructive force of chakra slide inside her clone and explode from the inside within the veins and the correct tenketsu points. In conclusion, that devil must know the secret of the Hyuuga Clan's kekkei genkai - the knowledge on how it worked to its last minimal detail. Hanabi grit her teeth. She would tell father.
That pinkette would be sentenced to death for stealing Hyuuga Clan secrets.
Yet, Hanabi frowned and looked at her feet, balling her fists. She had seen how Neji-niisan had looked at the girl. He had fond feelings for her and Hanabi wrinkled her nose with disgust. And it was most probably his fault. Father would know. And Neji-niisan would probably be punished severely, exiled or maybe even get executed for having told the girl of the Hyuuga techniques.
"The flower of youth shalt not wither wrinkling its features! It is not the time to wilt in spring, it is the time to grow!" The green beast appeared in a whirl of leaves and threw off a Nice Guy pose and Hanabi face palmed. Just wonderful.
"I'm not wilting. I'm thinking, Gai-san." She snapped and threw another kunai at the target tree.
"That seems to take a strain on you, flower bud. Don't let your adolescence go to waste consumed by mere thoughts!" The green beast cheered and bounced around. Hanabi had always been honest and straightforward, and it had let to Father reprimanding her many a times. But it never hindered her.
"If one doesn't think, one doesn't exist. Or is an idiot. You're weird, Gai-san." She drawled and pushed her hair to one side.
"Only one of my many assets, that is!" Gai gave her a thumbs up and Hanabi almost gagged. Might Guy was everything Father was not. His expression always open, there to be read and scrutinised. He was never ashamed of his appearance and his ridiculous antics. Father was quiet and powerful, never letting a shred of emotion peel off his face. Hanabi scowled and went to pick up the kunais she had thrown on the tree.
"What is it that bothers you, flower bud?" Gai asked as he went to help her pick out the kunais. Hanabi didn't answer as she had a bit of a difficult time getting out one of the kunais she had thrown in anger, it being embedded deep into the bark. Gai simply pulled them out form the other trees, one after another. With gritted teeth she forced a bit of chakra into her hands to pull the damn thing out and she was thrown to the ground as the tree exploded.
"Gentle, gentle." Gai said and picked up the kunai that had been forced away from the exploded part of the tree.
"I'm just- I don't know how to handle a certain situation." Hanabi confessed as she got up from the ground, angrily wiping away the tree splinters on her Hyuuga training outfit.
"The flower of youth might deem to be found difficult at times, knowing it knows nothing." Gai said and then smiled. Hanabi was almost blinded by the whiteness of his teeth.
"The most important things is to always listen to your heart." He exclaimed and gave her the kunais he had gathered. Then he stroke a Nice Guy pose and disappeared without a word, probably off to pester another Genin with his embarrassing subjective life guidance.
Listen to what your heart says. Hanabi snorted.
Yet it got to her. Her heart was untouched by Father, it always had been. It was her mind that was calculative, repressed, thinking, formed by Father until perfection - the true workings of a worthy shinobi of a revered, old Clan. But her heart told her to handle the situation differently. Her heart told her not to be the cause of unnecessary bloodshed. That she didn't know the whole story; why the Haruno had gotten the information - what Neji saw in the pink haired woman, since Hanabi knew he was a sensible man. Neji, who had taken of his own time to train with Hanabi and give her well founded tips of improvement. Father had never done that, he had told her to see her own faults and exploit them, since if it was one thing a Hyuuga could do it was to see.
Neji had also become more polite and less passive aggressive towards the Elders, gaining their confidence and trust. Hanabi knew he rivalled her position as the future Head of the Hyuuga Clan. Since birth, she had been trained to lead, it having been ingrained into her whole being. But she could more easily see Neji as the Clan Head rather than herself. Hinata was no longer an option, her having been deemed too weak by Father at an earlier stage.
If Neji was to be executed together with the Haruno, Hanabi was certain she would become the Clan Head in the future. The simple option of not shouldering that position with responsibility and the thought of her becoming like Father was rather discomforting, Hanabi realised. She... didn't want to become an exact replica of Father. She wanted to be strong, like Father, but with her heart on her sleeve, like Gai. She bristled at her thought process. She actually wanted to be like that strange green beast?
Hanabi was confused. But she listened. She listened to her heart. But before she decided on not to act out on her knowledge of the Haruno knowing Hyuuga Clan secrets and Neji being the one who told her, she would learn the truth. She would confront the pink haired devil. And from what she learned then, she would act on it.
She found the pink haired woman coming out of the Hokage Tower with a grim expression on her facial features, her hands in her pockets and her head bowed down. It was like she was contemplating something. Hanabi knew she had been in a lot of meetings, Neji-niisan had said it himself. For what reason, none knew.
Hanabi strolled up to her and smiled innocently at the pinkette, her eyes wide and expressive. The Haruno only looked questioningly at the shorter girl as she stood in her way.
"Good day. My name is Hyuuga Hanabi." She presented herself politely with a fake smile tugging at her lips. "I've heard a lot about you from Neji-niisan. Can I watch you train just one time?"
"Oh?" The Haruno said and her eyes widened. "Of course you may. I'm headed to the training grounds right now, Hanabi-chan. Want to follow?" She smiled gently.
"Yes!" Hanabi said happily and sauntered off after the pink haired kunoichi.
At the training grounds, Hanabi watched the Haruno stretch for a bit, jog around the area in very slow pace and Hanabi came to wonder if it had all been a scam. She seemed weak. When the Haruno got back, sweat was visible on her forehead. The Hyuuga girl knitted her eyebrows in disgust. That meek warm-up exercise had left her sweaty?
The pink haired devil then positioned herself in the center of the training ground forty-five and started with a few taijutsu katas. Hanabi noticed a few black bracelets strapped on her wrists and ankles, two at each ankle and wrist. They were really ugly. Hanabi tired of watching the slow strikes and went to the training ground besides the Haruno and started with a easy version of the Gentle Fist, then lapsed into her own version of it. It took a while before Hanabi noticed the Haruno was watching her.
"You force the heel of your feet too hard into the ground when you go for the crown chakra in your opponent. It leaves you unbalanced for one second, and sometimes one second is all it takes to to lose your life. If you focus more on the elastic movement of retracting your palm fist, then you will find balance easier." The pink haired devil dared to comment, unabashedly. Hanabi snorted.
"I have a few pointers to you as well, Haruno-san." Hanabi declared confidently. "You're pretty much just a second-hand Tsunade. You were the one that destroyed our training fields with one punch, right? That was so Tsunade. Your techniques are inferior and you hide behind a sharp blade because you can't do anything else. You haven't even fully evolved on your Kenjutsu, just leaving it at the ground like that. I saw when you used it once and it's just a mess of instinctive katas."
"Sharp, aren't you." Sakura smiled approvingly. Hanabi wrinkled her nose; why was she satisfied with Hanabi's degrading assessment of the pinkette's abilities? Then they started talking for a while about different techniques and tips of improvement, the Hyuuga girl realising the tips were well-founded. Hanabi then found herself finally asking the question. When she got the answer from the Haruno who didn't even blink as she told the Hyuuga heiress, Hanabi blushed so hard she would have embarrassed even Hinata-neesan.
The Prodigy Hyuuga Neji
"Neji-niisan?" Hanabi asked the taller man as he read a book, her opalescent eyes peering innocently over the book's edge at him. He didn't look up from his book as he answered her.
"Yes, Hanabi?"
"So Sakura fucked your lights out so much you spilled our Clan's secrets?" The little girl asked with an angelic smile and ugly words on her tongue. Neji's mouth was agape within seconds, his eyes wide and his cheeks becoming flushed.
Oh.
Jesus fucking christ. Bloody fucking hell. Fucking fuck. Shit. Fuck on a cracker. Just shit.
"Who told you? Sakura did?" Neji almost stuttered as he gripped his book hard. Hanabi sighed as she twirled a brown lock her hair around her finger.
"Yes, because I asked her. She was practicing at the hidden training grounds and I saw her perform a style similar to Gentle Fist, but adapted to her own style since she doesn't have our kekkei genkai. I figured it was you who told her, but I didn't know why or how. So I asked her how she knew it."
Hanabi's eyes had turned colder, chilly and freezing. Neji frowned as he put the book down on the table and he said nothing.
"I hope you know what you're doing. I was about to rat you out to Father, but I thought better of it. If I had, Sakura would be dead and you'd probably be exiled or something. So you owe me one." She said with a cheer.
"What do you want, Hanabi?" Neji asked, knowing this couldn't be good.
"Become my teacher and train me." She leered and cocked her head to one side. She had him wrapped around her little finger and she knew it very well.
That was when Neji realised Hyuuga Hanabi in truth was devil-spawn.
The Cloud Watching Boy Nara Shikamaru
"Sakura's gone in meetings again?" Ino wailed as she shook her pint of ale in front of Shikamaru's face. He ducked and avoided the beverage within millimetres.
"Yeah."
"Fuck, it's been far too long since I saw her stupid face for real. She's just always gone on stupid little missions, killing off a stupid little Akatsuki member, letting stupid Sasuke slip her fingers and god knows what! The only time I got to see her was when we were buying apples!" The blond girl accused the absent pinkette drunkenly, waggling her fingers at thin air and Kiba patted her back as he chewed on a chicken wing. Choji munched on his snacks he had brought with him into the bar and Hinata and Naruto sat in a corner, talking quietly. The Rookie Nine were all gathered, with the exception of Tenten and Lee who were on a mission with Gai in Tea Country. And Sakura as well. Not often did this many of the rookies gather almost all the same time at once.
Shikamaru drank his beer greedily, not caring to comment on Ino's angry accusations. The night turned into a blur of beer and saké and old memories. Shikamaru didn't even remember that he had taken off his shoes when he went to bed.
The next morning, when Shikamaru groaned and sat up from the bed and dressed slowly, he found that Neji already sat in the large main hall of the Nara Clan, drinking coffee and watching the rising sun from the veranda. Shikamaru joined him and sat gracefully on the wooden floor besides him. For a while, they sat in silence. Then Shikamaru's mind started to drift off, into the memory of a night he would remember for the rest of his life. When she moaned his name. Clawed his back. And her eyes were a darker shade of green. A fire ball burned inside his stomach, it twisted and screeched.
"Loving her is like chewing on pearls." Shikamaru muttered. He felt a sudden hard gaze on him and he looked up only to meet the pained opalescent orbs of the Hyuuga prodigy.
"So you have fallen in her trap as well." Neji mused and Shikamaru felt his ears flush warm.
"It's a pain in the ass." Shikamaru drawled and stretched. So the Hyuuga felt the same way. Shikamaru was actually not surprised. He wouldn't even be surprised if he found out that Sakura and Neji had explored each other more intimately, since Sakura couldn't help herself - this was a cause by her violent side and Shikamaru had triggered it. He had told her to release pressure and she had. When she did, the violence ebbed from her sharp eyes and she became softer and the tension in her shoulders disappeared. When she had noticed herself that she had almost become addicted to fucking, she had stopped abruptly, never touching neither man again. She had sealed herself and gave no fruition to her sexual inhibitions anymore.
"Tell me about it." Neji agreed. It was certainly strange, how the two of them agreed on the difficult hardship in loving Haruno Sakura. But there was no helping it.
"Maybe we'll grow out of it, some day." Shikamaru suggested and Neji shrugged.
"I doubt it." The Hyuuga breathed heavily and moved a piece on the shogi board he had produced earlier. Shikamaru saw his own pieces already in position and he moved one.
"Yeah. I know, just tried to be optimistic. She's got us caught alright." Shikamaru sighed.
"She's just that evil." Neji smiled and there was too much hollowness in his voice.
"That won't stop me from trying, though. I will make her see me." The Nara said and gave a slanted smirk to the Hyuuga. He was greeted with a similar one.
"Expect a bit of a fight from me too, then." Neji quirked the side of his lips into a gentle yet twisted smile and moved another piece on the board.
"Boys, boys. She's not a piece of fucking candy. Give it up, will you?" Ino groused and stretched on the couch behind them, cracking a few joints in the process. She had apparently crashed at his place, Shikamaru mused, not really remembering what had happened last night. Ino wailed and slumped over the couch's edge and yawned as she hung her head over the edge. Then she knitted her eye brows and groaned, pressing her hand against her forehead. "God, I can't believe you two. I'm hungover as shit and you two drank like two barrels of ale yesterday - and you look like you just got blessed by the heavens with all that sparkling freshness and prettiness. What's wrong with you?"
The Snotty Brat Sarutobi Konohamaru
When he sneaked away from the Hokage's Office, on his way through the hidden small passage within the walls, he heard something. Someone was shouting inside a room just next to him. His interest peaked and he shuffled along the small passageway and got closer to the room's wall. There was one source of light shedding the passageway's muddy darkness and Konohamaru saw a small hole in the wall. He slid up to it and stretched his head up a bit and covered his eye with the hole. What he could see was limited since the hole was small, but what he saw was the blond and busty Hokage wave with her hands in an angry manner, shouting and yelling at someone.
And then suddenly, the Godaime slapped someone with a loud flesh ripping sound.
Konohamaru widened his eyes. He had never seen the Godaime display a serious violent side to her, she had only been lightly and comically smacking people that annoyed her around, but that slap had been real. With emotion. With pain. With ill-intent. Then when the Godaime turned around and stomped away from the room, Konohamaru could see the person she had slapped. Pink hair strands flowed down her shoulders and Konohamaru suddenly stared into the sapphire eyes of the girl who had helped him in the alley with the affinity papers a long time ago. She moved fast. One second she stood with a stinging cheek, the other she poured a milky yet clear liquid into the Godaime's saké from a small container she had produced from her chest binding. His heart leapt out of his chest and he saw her eyes and they were so pale, so pale, so pale and he was scared, so he bristled and then shuffled away fast, away from the strange scenario. And her hard, pale green eyes that locked on him.
The Man with a Borrowed Eye Hatake Kakashi
There was a huge commotion inside the Hokage Tower, with ANBU everywhere and hurrying shinobi that swept past him in the corridor. Kakashi wrinkled his eyebrows as he held his Icha Icha comfortably in his hands, walking towards the Hokage's office to receive information on the A-ranked mission for the morrow. He just hoped Tsunade hadn't found the bottle Shizune had stashed away in the locker behind the painting, since the Copy Nin knew that his gift to the Hokage was one of the strongest in the Five Nations. He slumped his shoulders.
"What's up?" Kakashi asked as he read the last few words in his Icha Icha. The ANBU that he had caught with his question froze and his eyes were blank and shiny, as if he refused to let tears fall. Kakashi saw this and put his beloved book back into his pocket as he raised an eyebrow. The ANBU, donning a bloodied owl mask, cleared his throat and his voice was thick with emotions as he spoke.
"Oh, you haven't been told?" The owl mask was hurriedly forced to the side of his messy brown hair, his eyes wide eyed and hollow. His voice was strange.
"The Hokage was assassinated tonight." He told Kakashi and he looked down on his feet. "Tsunade was stated dead a few hours ago by the paramedics. Her heart failed her due to a sword injury to her chest's vital organs and poison in her veins."
"Wh-what?" Kakashi sputtered. A passing receptionist heard this, jerked his head back and he dropped the stack of papers in his hands, the thin papers of reports and files gently falling to the ground. He stood still, eyes wide and unbelieving.
"Tsunade... is dead?" The Copy Nin asked and he couldn't believe it was true. The ANBU bit his lip hard and he nodded, approving this fact to be true. Another shinobi from T&I joined them, muttering curses as she pressed back tears.
"I can't believe it. It's not true." The T&I interrogator whispered and bit her lip.
"She's gone? Just like that?" The receptionist asked, bewildered and shocked. He didn't pick up the papers.
"Yes, she is... gone." The ANBU with the mask of an owl said so quietly Kakashi had almost not heard it.
Silence pressed. The receptionist started to cry, sobbing and whimpering. The kunoichi from T&I clenched her fists in unconcealed rage. Kakashi still couldn't quite believe it. It just couldn't be. Tsunade was strong, he knew it. She wouldn't have fallen. She couldn't have.
"Who killed her- who fucking was it?" The T&I kunoichi seethed and shook almost.
"Was it Orochimaru? It must have been. That fucking snake bastard!" The receptionist yelled with tears in his eyes, unashamed and with flushed cheeks.
"Or was it the Akatsuki?" Kakashi added, his eyeopening thinning and a vein thumped on his straining neck.
The ANBU who had given the news of Tsunade's death looked down on the ground, frowning with so much turbulent emotions visible in his eyes.
"No. From what I have heard, the killer, it's been confirmed... I can't-... from Konoha..." He breathed, cleared his throat and then looked every person in the corridor of the Hokage Tower in the eyes.
"Haruno Sakura killed Tsunade-sama. And she's gone from the village."
Kakashi felt his heart freeze into oblivion.
Author's Note
Hmm.
Everything I have written in chapter 14 will have a purpose later on. I know last chapter was harsh and dirty. I know I suck at writing sex scenes and I didn't want to be too explicit so I left a lot unsaid. Some of you might not agree with a Sakura that has sexual desires, but mine has. She became addicted to the release and her mind was clouded due to Danzō's punishment. It won't have a recurring role, though.
To Luci:
I would also like to know specifically what you did not like in last chapter. You don't exactly give me any clues when you say it was simply bad. How am I to proceed if I don't know what I did wrong according to you? Sorry if I sound grumpy, but I sat seven hours straight writing chapter 14 and 15. It leaves a bad taste in my mouth receiving de-constructive criticism when I have put so much time in writing these. Reviews are meant to criticise of course, but bloody hell please say WHAT was wrong. Haha, I need coffee, god.
Love you guys still, but some reviews kicks puppies, even though it's not intentional.
I hope this chapter was better. A cliffhanger, yeey. God, now I'm not even sure I should post this. Maybe it's just as bad as last chapter - but what do I know? I can't even see the bad things.
Have a lovely day! (grit through teeth but I still need to be optimistic lolz)
fascalia