AN: Hey y'all, how's it going.
So here's the new chapter, I actually got done with this one pretty quick, I don't know how that happened.
I've been hearing people complaining that Shisui is being a little creep, and I completely agree. But if you don't like him now, that means my writing worked! That's what we call a character arc, a character going through changes in personality over a course of time. I know most of the princes are probably so annoying, but that's what we're hear for!
So yeah, as I was saying, enjoy 3
At a time, once again in the dead of the night, she was at a place that wasn't quite in the human reach.
Trees twisted an old witch's fingers, dark sky, smoky clouds, and ash. So much ash that covered the ground in a thick blanket. Sakura looked around herself, seeing the air choked with the same ash floating around. She was in some kind of forest, dark and dangerous, with wicked, twisted trees, hanging thick vines that looked more like snakes with wide open mouths.
She started moving even when she didn't want to. Her body is never in her control in her dreams. The ash scattered around her every time she put down her feet and the deeper she went into the forest, the thicker the foliage became.
Her heart was beating an anticipating beat in her chest, the silence around her deafening. Her dreams, nightmares, hardly ever made sense. Sometimes she would find herself in some kind of wicked forest, sometimes in a dessert where the rivers bled red, sometimes under the water with a lost abandoned city. Places she has never been to, places that don't exist. This one seemed to be one such place.
Suddenly, something red caught her eyes before it flickered out before she could see for sure. Her feet kept up their pace as she walked deeper and deeper until she was walking through bushes laden with spider webs and no muddy ground. And Sakura felt her breath hitch when on one such bush, the silver spider web was stained red.
Here starts the nightmare.
The more she walked, the more she saw the bushes and then ever the trees, splattered with red and smelling of ash. The crimson was stark even against the dark. She felt too hot in her body, her breathing erratic and throat tight. She never wants to see that again. The time after time, she sees the red and it makes her want to crawl in a hole.
The blood, the ash, the heat. It's too much all at once.
Then she heard something, a slight thump of feet, a terrifying snarl that made her blood freeze. Sakura was still walking but she didn't have to think to keep walking. Another thump of feet and then it was all silent, like the calm before a storm.
And then, Sakura was knocked down on the ground when something hit in her full force in her back. A scream left her lungs but she didn't hear a single sound from herself. But she did hear the snarling behind her.
For a terrifying moment, Sakura considered laying face down and playing dead until that thing went away or her dream ended, but then, she was turning her head to look over her shoulder.
First, she kept her head low and didn't see anything other than the legs that looked more like talons morphed into claws. And with her heart beating in her ears, she trailed her wide eyes over to its head. The beast was towering, a bony and slick hairy mess with webbed fingers and long claws. It looked nothing short of hideous.
It was a monster with a body of nothing but bones and skin with slicked burnt red fur and a gaping mouth with teeth down its throat. Blood and mucous and slime and saliva dripped from its limbs and mouth, and then she looked into its two burning eyes, and felt her heart stop in her throat.
They were burning blue.
She was sure she had stopped breathing when the monster loomed over her, dribbling blood and saliva all over her and Sakura felt tears stinging her eyes. Its gaping mouth opened like a cave, mouth and throat full of teeth and let out a howl, the sound a terrifying and sick scream that rattled her bones and curdled her blood.
She watched with horror as it threw back its head and then dove in, right for her head.
Sakura jerked violently in her bed before her eyes snapped open, breathing erratic, drenched in cold sweat, heart hammering in her head and body paralyzed on her mattress.
She couldn't even open her mouth to take bigger gulps of the air and could only suck in breaths through her nose in short fits. Her eyes roamed over the ceiling of her chamber, over the lantern hanging in the center, the pattern highlighted by the little moonlight. She looked around the room as much as she can without moving her head, because she can't. Messy desk, the panes of the window, the almirah in one corner.
Anything to make herself believe she was safe.
With great effort, she moved one hand like it was made of lead. She felt around her mattress, desperately trying to clutch at anything, her pillow, her discarder haori, the scroll she was reading before she fell asleep.
Anything to ground herself back to reality.
She found something near her, it was soft and warm the familiar touch of her trusty cloak made her ease out her breathing a little more.
Breathe in, hold, out. In, hold, out…
Little by little, her breath evened out, her heart stopped pounding and her eyes stopped stinging. 'Just a dream. Just another stupid dream…' but the dream was so terrifying, not because of what she saw, but because of what it drew from her memory.
Burnt red hair, ocean blue eyes. Warm touches, and sunny smile. But the red hair was slicked and bloody, and the blue eyes burning. Those were on the monster.
She hasn't seen that in a long while, and she was hoping she would go the rest of her life keeping it buried in the deep dark confines of the memories she never visited, but looks like her dreams has other plans.
Your brain is such a strange organ, it longs to hurt itself with what was, what never was, what could've been, what will never be. When you would will it to stay quiet and not torture itself, it would manage to pull out words and images that would make you burn in agony. The mind is such a masochist.
When Sakura no longer felt like she would crumble into a pile of bones at the slightest movement, she sat up on her bed. Her thin robe stuck to her sweaty skin and she shivered slightly at the cold sweat her body covered itself in. Her hair had come undone from her braid and now stuck to her face haphazardly.
Atleast she didn't scream this time around. She was too terrified to anyway.
She rubbed a hand down her face, pushing her damp strands away from her face and shakily rolling out of her bed. There was no hope for catching any more sleep so she wouldn't just keep laying on her mattress. She didn't stand yet, not fully trusting her legs to keep up her weight, so she went on her knees toward the engawa door, sliding it open and letting the night breeze drift in.
She shivered under the breeze but felt much more awake and much less anxious. The moon was still high in the sky but considering the chirrups of the robins and tawny owls filtering through the trees, it shouldn't be too long before the first rays of sunshine peeked through the horizon.
Sakura closed her eyes, letting the gentle breeze air her locks and listened to the dawn chorus that marked the start of another day. After an anxious and fitful night, the light chirrups of the early birds was just what one would need.
She stood up on her own after a while, walking back inside her room and stripping her still slightly damp robe, instead putting on her usual house robe. She didn't wear her chest bindings or her undershirt and the partially open flaps in the front exposed way more than just some skin. But she was in her room with no one but the dark and the wind as the witness to her immodesty.
If someone accidentally walked in on her in this state, they would probably go into a cardiac arrest. Sakura raked a hand through her tousled hair, committing to brushing it out later and just letting it flow down her back for the time being.
She was tired. Who knew sleeping, something that's supposed to cure her exhaustion, would tire her out so much. And she didn't even feel like doing anything for her research or her studies, so instead she opened up the side pocket of her travel bag, digging inside to fish out a book she brought with her but never had the mind to start reading.
It was a novel. She was told that it was a novel about a woman getting lost in the roads to the realm of monsters and has to find her way back by defeating the monsters. It somehow involves a dragon somewhere down the road.
She flipped over the book, the small ink painting of a young woman walking down a road with tall trees and broken cobblestone paths on clover lawn, the shadow of a dragon peeking from beyond the trees on the front page greeted her. The touch of stars, it read in red on the bottom.
She lazed around on her mattress with the breeze fleeting in and out and the rays of sunlight coloring the sky little by little. Her eyes went over the words printed over the pages unhurriedly and she only looked away when a knock on her door drew her attention.
"Enter."
The door slid open and the smiling face of Ayame peeked through the crack. "Good morning Lady Sakura, I-" She faltered in her words and Sakura watched with a raised eyebrow as a dark flush colored her cheeks. She looked away shyly from her, hiding away a bit more behind the door. "U-Uh…"
"Ayame, are you okay?" Sakura asked with slight concern. She seemed fine coming in, what happened all of a sudden?
"Y-Yes, Lady Sakura." She dared a glance up and then looked away just as quickly. "Prince Izuna wants to invite you to his morning tea. He said he shall be waiting for you on his private balcony."
Sakura nodded at her, putting away her book and sitting up properly. "I'll be there."
Ayame nodded again and then made a move to take her leave but then gave her another shy glance. "L-Lady Sakura? I don't think you noticed it, but… you r-robe…" She trailed off and Sakura looked down at herself with furrowed brows but then understanding lit up in her eyes.
Oh. So that's why she's been stuttering. Sakura felt embarrassment creep up on her as she tried to tug in the front flaps as nonchalantly as possible. It wasn't true nudity by any means, but her front was open past her breasts and the curve of their shape peeked out. Thankfully, she didn't flash her.
Sakura cleared her throat. "Ah, I apologize about that. Thank you for stopping by, Ayame."
Ayame nodded again and hurried away, closing the door behind her. Sakura pushed away her book, giving out a sigh and walking to her bathroom. The water was cool in the warm weather and it woke her up pleasantly. She rubbed her skin clean with the basil soap, and then soothing it out with some rose oil.
Sakura pulled up her dark hakama up and legs and shrugged on a green shitagi shirt, tying it at her waist. She normally finds hakama pants too loose for her to comfortably wear while travelling, but it's just a morning tea so it'll be fine. Her hair was still wet, so let settled for tying it in a very loose ponytail at the base of her neck.
The morning was bustling like every other morning around the compound but Sakura made herself as unnoticeable as possible as she slinked around the hallway like an assassin to Izuna's room. Ayame is a good person, Sakura could trust her enough to not open her mouth about where Sakura has been about, but if some other maid sees Sakura slipping in or out of Izuna's room, she would not bear the storm of rumors that would fly around.
Sakura turned around and pretended to be busy looking at a house plant beside the pillar when she heard a pair a of maids walking down the hall her way. She fiddled with the wide green leaves until the giggling maids turned around the corner and went out of her line of vision, only then did she opened the door to the prince's room and slid inside.
"Why are you acting like a assassin, in broad daylight?"
Sakura looked behind to see Izuna sitting beside the table in his balcony, a cup of steaming tea in his hand and a smirk on his lips. Sakura shrugged her shoulder, walking forward toward his table at his inviting wave.
"Force of habit I'll guess."
She folded her legs comfortably, unrestricted by the hakama and Izuna slid an already filled cup toward her. "I didn't see you yesterday." She held the cup in her hand, taking a small sip of the tea and found herself surprisingly delighted by the slight flavoring in the tea. The taste was immaculate and the slight hint of lemon and rose was pleasant on her tongue.
Izuna gave a deep sigh. "I was called away by the Tsuma clan right after the banquet. Every time I wanted to get out, another thing would come in the way." He gently out down the teacup, folding his hands over his chest. "I came back just the evening before." He glanced at the pinkette with a slight smile. "Do you like the tea?"
Sakura hummed while taking another sip. "It's really good. I've never had this kind of tea back in Hiraisumi." She really hadn't. Tea back in Hiraisumi was less flavored and even slightly bitter. Though it still tasted good, it was nowhere near the exceptional quality of the Kuroshima tea.
"We have our own tea plantations a bit more ways up. I will take you to see that someday." Izuna offered it before he even thought any different. It surprised him a little how natural it felt to him to just offer Sakura to take her with him like it was a done deal. That's good thing he supposed, since she has been in his kingdom for way over a month.
Sakura seemed surprised first, and then a little hesitant and Izuna was almost wondering if he overstepped a line. But before he could retract his statement, she nodded albeit slightly reluctantly. "I would like that."
Izuna smiled before they lapsed into a moment of peaceful silence, but something about her answer seemed off to Izuna. It could be possible that she was hesitant to agree because she wasn't familiar with the area.
He observed her through his lashes as she sipped on her tea, looking over her comfortable posture and relaxed expression. She was warming up to him, surely. She would talk with him over tea or pastries, sometimes walk with him in the gardens, or even accompany him to the lake. But her words would be measured, a respectable few feet of distance between them, a polite courtesy on her tongue. It felt like she was keeping him beyond an invisible boundary around her. He respected it, of course, but it would sometimes still itch him the wrong way.
The sun rose higher from beyond the mountain tops painting the sky in pretty shades of oranges before the blue peeked out from the edges. Sakura put down her near empty cup but the teapot was hovering over it before it even touched the tabletop. Izuna poured the cup again to the brim, giving her a smile.
Sakura breathed in the steam of the tea. She could feel the bubbling silence between them, the silence that was peaceful for a while was teetering the edge to awkwardness. But she wasn't even sure what to say to him to break the silence. He was somewhat her friend, but not enough for her to talk to about her deeper thoughts.
The only one she's told anything of her past to was Ino. She wouldn't have told anything to her either but the night was late and she had taken one too many drinks, and in a moment of vulnerability, she revealed a sliver of her past.
But no more to no one.
Sakura took another sip of the tea, the taste suddenly stale on her tongue. She gulped it down and set the cup back down, attempting to stand back up to get moving with her day.
"Where are you going?"
Sakura looked at the prince that looked flabbergasted at her departure. "I would hate to hold you up any longer, I should probably leave-"
"Nonsense." Izuna waved away her attempts at leaving, motioning her to take her seat back down. "I'm alone the whole day with nothing to do but stare at boring scrolls and listen to nobles' listless chatters. Please provide me with some other entertainment." Izuna laced his fingers under his chin, eyes twinkling, "Tell me some stories."
"Stories?" Sakura asked with a raised eyebrow, "As in fairytales, or folklores, or history…"
"Anything." Izuna replied, an excited smile tugging on his lips, "Any legend or folklore from your kingdom is good enough for me. I have special interests in other culture's stories."
Sakura racked her brain for any story she might've overheard while out in the town. The old women of her kingdom sure loved exchanging stories over the bonfires, and Sakura loves sitting with them with a bottle of sake. You pick up a lot of interesting things from them when you bother listening.
"Alright, I have one story." Sakura folded her legs underneath her, tapping her fingers on the table to articulate her words better. "Several centuries ago, there was a kingdom of magic called Makishoka ruled by a sorcerer and his court of magicians. Every year, the magical court brings out a selection of criminals and allows them to choose how they die. Doesn't matter if they're a murderer or a pocket thief, death sentence is the only punishment."
Sakura looked at the mountain tops in the distance but saw through them, eyes distant as she recalled the story. It was a story she has heard when she was barely an adolescent and still struggling with her training with weak limbs and dull talent.
"Then one day, the court imprisoned a maiden from a servant house, bound and shackled and forced into a queue between a man who killed someone in a brawl, and a terrified old pickpocket." Sakura looked at the cup that was once again filled with tea and Izuna put down the teapot just in time. She offered him a smile and took a sip of the tea to wet her throat. "Bu it was all just for show. The sorcerer who ruled the court never actually cared about the justice, he just wanted to show the public the result of treason. What happens who someone who dares cross him."
Izuna listened patiently to her with his hands still folded under his chin. "There was a time, probably, when the people of were executed were really criminals or rebels or assassins. In the latter days however, he had to do with what menial preys the dungeons could offer. "
"The guards asked her what her crime was before she would be thrust into the execution platter. 'I hit the landlord of the farms with a washing stick. He tried to extort money I didn't own him and he was being a baby about it.' Treason, it seemed to the guard. Attacking a servant of law since the landlord answered to the sorcerer. It would look good on the list, and she was thrust in the arena."
Sakura knew Izuna's eyes were on her but she didn't look anywhere except the further mountains. "She tried to think of her preferred way to die. Something painless and quick. She could ask to hurt as much as the landlord did but she hadn't even broken a bone. But then again, she realized that the sorcerer would give her what had said she would do. She wasn't very keen on dying like that."
"For years people have tried to come up with things that the sorcerer will not be able to do. They wished to drown on dry land, be slain by a fantastical beast, die when the sun rose from the west. But it never worked. The sorcerer would choke them in quicksand, call upon a three headed wyvern, change the trajectory of the sun. The spectacle kept people coming, kept them afraid and made them believe in his power. If she had known she would be facing death, she would've killed the landlord and taken satisfaction in it."
"Then what did she choose?" Izuna asked midway, eyes blinking at the question.
"I'm getting there." Sakura threw him a sideways glance, lips tilting up slightly. "What do you think a sorcerer would look like?" Izuna rolled the question in his head before shrugging.
"I don't know actually. I've never thought about what a sorcerer might look like, but I would assume he would look evil."
"He didn't look evil, you were expecting gleaming eyes and wicked laughter. His face was the true evil. The face of a wealthy bureaucrat that has never seen the toil in sun with well groomed grey hair and soft hands that measures the worth of a human life by the service it can be to him."
"Every year there were seven prisoners, seven examples. The brawler was the fifth, he asked to die of old age. The maiden thought it was quite a fine idea, until the brawler reverted into a shivering, hunched man with a dying heart, and not a minute later, he withered away of old age in a pile of bones."
"So is there no way out?" Izuna asked with pulled eyebrows. With his face fixed in rapt attention at the fantastical story Sakura was reciting, he reminded a bit of Tobi and how he held onto each of her word with such reverence. "It seems like every choice they present forward always ends up meeting an end."
Sakura traced a finger on the rim of her cup, a melancholic kind smile on her mouth. "Justice, often holds different meaning for people who was desperate, and people who are not. The maiden was dragged forward, her feet kicked out from under her and forced into submission before the sorcerer. He looked so bored, it wasn't even amusing to him anymore after so many years, just another task for him on the roster. Taking human lives for what he deemed worthy or not. She realized what her death would mean." Sakura looked into Izuna's eyes with a look that said so much, "Meaningless."
"How will you die, the sorcerer asked her. The maiden thought for a good while, she refused to let her death be for just spectacle. I wish to die, she said, in the service of my people. A meaningful death, that would better their lot."
"The sorcerer was surprised, but he seemed to take delight in her request. A dramatic death, to show them the perils of their crime. He sparked up fire on his fingertips and the maiden almost cursed herself for not taking an easy way out. The fire roared high-" Izuna looked like he was holding onto his seat and her words, "And then it passed her like a warm breeze."
"What?"
Sakura smiled at his dumbfounded expression, eyes dancing in mirth. "The maiden reiterated, 'I said a death that serves my people, not one that serves you. A death that betters their lot, not one that keeps them in fear.' The sorcerer tried again and again, serpents with fangs dripping with poison, flood that could drown cities, mad bulls ten times her size, knives of ice that could tear apart hearts. Nothing could even scratch her. Then he called his guards, they came with swords and spears, but the weapons passed through her bodies like smoke."
"The sorcerer couldn't hurt her, not with magic, not with men. But she couldn't hurt him either, not with magic not with men. But she had neither magic, nor men. She leaped at him with nothing but her bare hands like claws and her teeth like blades."
"But he was a sorcerer." Izuna countered her decision for the story, "It wouldn't be the smartest idea to leap headfirst at someone who could spark fire from his fingertips."
"He was a sorcerer with magic up his sleeves but he was all but an aging man who has never worked a day in his life, and the maiden was young and strong, with muscles of a washerwoman and a heart full of fury. The crowd was silent while they tussled and she finally was able to wrap her finger around his throat. Whoever kill him dies, was the prophecy. And to the maiden, that was a very meaningful death."
Izuna was silent as he stared at her with his breath held and eyes fixated. Sakura remembered the satisfaction she felt when she heard the end of the story from the old woman who cursed like a sailor and drank like a fish, but the way she told the stories could put poets to shame.
"Heaven was a place that few people visited, but our maiden was guided to the doors by an angel made of clouds and sunlight. 'Was the sorcerer defeated?' Yes, the maiden was answered. It was a good death. Even decades, perhaps centuries later, a bronze statue was placed on a pedestal in the place where the executions were held. A young washerwoman, with her face covered with a cloth and hands raised in front of her face, a silver manacle on her wrists."
Izuna blinked when Sakura fell silent, realizing the end of the story. "Wow… so the maiden did die in the end. I was hoping she would stay alive."
"Sometimes death is a better choice, especially when it has meaning." Sakura smiled to herself, looking at the bottom of her tea cup with the last bits of tea leaves. No life without value, no death without meaning, that was what the old woman told her at the end of the story when the bonfire was dying and the alcohol was finished. It was something she kept close to her heart.
It was a story that kept Sakura together during the hardest nights on the battlefield. Whenever she came close to succumbing to the relieving abandonment that came with a swift death, she would make herself remember the washerwoman that refused to die without a cause, and Sakura refused to be anything else. She refused to die for something that will bring no peace to her people, dying for the greed of two people who thought they could conquer the world and had no qualms putting everyone's life on the line for it.
A death without meaning is the most pathetic way to die.
Sakura strolled back through the compound with her satchel strapped on her body, her hands digging inside for the silk bag that had the few leftover rose flavored sugar candies. She popped one in her mouth, sucking on it leisurely on the sweet candies.
She has just been back from delivering the joint pain balm formula to the town apothecary, making a reroute to the tea stall a few streets down. It was kind of unreal that it was getting closer to two months since she had stepped her foot on the soil of Kuroshima. And as uncomfortable as she might be to admit, there are some parts of the kingdom she's grown attached to. The tea stall few streets down the medical store that sold specialty peach tea, an old bamboo forest on the edge of the river, the lake Karasu a few ways down from the compound, and the botanical garden owned by a lovely old couple on the edge of the residential district.
She was getting attached to them, perhaps because she hardly stays in the same place for long periods of time.
Sakura turned the hallway to the main residential building, walking toward her side of the building but paused mid-step, turning her face toward the other side of the staircase. The king ordered her to visit the mental physician on her own leisure, she has some time to herself now. Hate as she might to do that, she has orders from the rulers of both her homeland and the place she is taking residency in.
She turned her feet toward the upper levels of the main house, tracing the path she vaguely remembered as the path to the office of the court herbalist. She got lost only once and had to turn a different corridor before she saw the doors to the herbalist. She heard flipping of pages and the grinding of stones even before she knocked on the door. When she did, the grinding paused for a moment before a gruff 'enter' gave her permission.
The court herbalist was a stout man with broad shoulders and a perpetually annoyed expression. He looked back at Sakura in question when he saw who it was. "Oh, it's the newcomer. Did you need something?"
"Do you know where the mental physician's office is?" Sakura cut straight to the chase. They weren't exactly on friendly terms, but she had a hunch that it was probably nothing personal to her. He was like this with most of the people.
He grunted before going back to his grinding. "His office is right above mine."
Sakura nodded before shutting the door and taking to the stairs again. She was at the upper level, standing in front of an identical where there was an engraving of a moth instead of rosemary. She didn't hear any voices through the door, so she knocked. Noone answered the first time, but when she knocked again, a somewhat startled voice told her to enter.
The man that was supposedly the mental physician looked like someone who might need help of his own. He looked like he has been taking a nap before Sakura's intrusion woke him up. He was slightly frazzled but still alarmed enough to be standing with his rod-straight spine.
"May I help you?" He asked with a cautious voice, slightly rough from his nap. Sakura nodded, taking a quick head to toe of the man. Straight silver hair, dark teal eyes, and a tall build.
"You're the court mental physician I assume." At his nod, she continued. "I'm Haruno Sakura, court medic of Hiraisumi. I was told by the king that he has appointed you to me." The better introduction would be to introduce herself to him with her military status, the chief commander, but she didn't deem it important. She hardly took pride in a title stolen by shedding unnecessary blood.
Realization lit up in his eyes. "Oh, yes. I'm Kimimaro, the court mental physician. Please have a seat." He waved toward the elevated cot the was used mostly by medics to check up on patients. He meanwhile busied himself with straightening out his appearance. "I was made aware by his majesty that you have been having some sleepless nights."
Sakura felt her lips curl a bit but held in hidden. "That would be… an understatement." She tilted her head a little to the side, looking at the man that was shuffling through his scrolls he kept splayed on his table. "What do you work with?"
"Soldiers, knights, mostly." He answered without looking back. "War stricken, without families or support, haunted by ghosts. My job is to just listen to them and help them keep it subdued." He finally turned around and took a seat on a bamboo stool in front of the cot. "What has been haunting you?"
Sakura pursed her lips, sizing him up but then sighed in resignation. If he had been appointed by the king, in turn appointed by her queen, then she is resigned to do something.
"It's nothing much, just…" Sakura tried to shrug as nonchalantly as possible. "Just some memories."
"Memories can sometimes be your biggest enemies." Kimimaro replied but Sakura refused to add more. They stayed silent for a long moment where Sakura refused to say more and Kimimaro tried to be patient. When he saw his patience to be futile, he sighed silently.
"Look, Lady Sakura, I know you don't trust me. You're guarded, you've probably built a thousand walls around yourself. But I just want to help you." He looked into her eyes, and even though he was practically a stranger, his eyes were earnest. "You don't even have to tell me everything, but let's start somewhere."
Sakura was still cautious and careful, regarding him with mistrust in her eyes. She didn't trust him, that he was right about. She's supposed to be sharing her deepest fears with a stranger who does not know her, who she does not know. And she's supposed to trust him.
Sakura thought about just making up a lie as to why she was having nightmares. "It's just… something that happened in my childhood. I had some friends, we went on a mission together, only I came back." It wasn't a complete lie and maybe that's what made it so easy to tell him.
"Would you like to elaborate?"
Sakura released a breath that sagged her shoulders. "I had two friends back home when I was a kid. We were sent on our first mission out of borders, encountered some bandits on the way back. Those two never stood a chance against the bandits. One lucky dagger was the only reason I made it out alive."
Three little kids, was a truth. They went on the war out of their borders, truth. Encountered enemies, truth. One lucky dagger to the chest of Masashi, truth.
Sakura stubbornly kept her arms crossed over her chest and her lips sealed beyond that. Kimimaro silently looked at her for a long while, teal eyes seeing things she was terrified of knowing. Finally, he ended his silence just when Sakura was getting queasy in her seat.
"I know you're not telling me the truth. Or at least the whole truth." Kimimaro straightened in his seat. His eyes were impossibly perceptive and it made her bristle in agitation. "But I won't force you, today. This is just our first meeting."
He got up from his seat and went to one of the cabinets in the case near him, opening the drawer and pulling out a small jar with small green pills. She watched him pack some into a cotton pouch and take something else out, another jar with some white powder inside it. He distributed some of it into ten equal doses and wrapped them in paper before throwing it in the bag with the pills.
"Take the pills twice every day to help with your body suffering from the lack of sleep. Mix the powder in your tea before sleep every night, it'll help you with calmer sleep. I've given you the dose for the next ten days, we'll have our next meeting in ten days from now."
He handed her the pouch and saw her out of his office. Sakura looked at the shut door and then back at the cotton pouch, the faint herbal scent making her gag even before she tasted any of them. Will any of this even help, she's doubtful.
There was another specialty tea in front of her but this time it was in her chambers. Sakura looked at the chamomile tea in deep concentration, following the bits of petal floating through the liquid before she thought of dumping the powder in it and clouding the clarity. She shook her head, taking the tea just like it was and taking a sip.
The doses are for ten days but because she visited the physician when it was already much later in the day, she would start her dosage from tomorrow.
She looked out in front of her from her engawa, the tea saucer by her side. The night breeze played through her tresses and Sakura closed her eyes to enjoy the feel of it before walking back to her bed, but then she looked at her satchel laying beside the chabudai and sat beside it.
She opened up her satchel to her day's foraging and emptied it out on the floor. Most were just some pretty flowers she saw that she planned on pressing flat between her pages, or some wild herb she found. But out of all the leaves and petals, there was one particular thing she liked.
It was a fungus, a mushroom to be exact, with a bright yellow umbrella head and a rubbery stalk. On asking around the local about the thing, she was told it was called the Death cap. One kid from the milkman's home ate one of them and the town physician barely kept him alive. No one went near one of those ever again after that.
As terrible as that was, it made Sakura only more curious about the strange fungus. Such an interesting thing it was, unassuming at first glance and easily confused with the edible ones, and that only made it all the more deadly.
She wanted to try it on someone.
Someone might call her psychopathic, she's probably not far off, but she really wants to see what happens when ingested. She looked at the two small buds she collected, the rubbery cap was smooth under her finger pads. Maybe she should feed it some animal first and see what happens, maybe it'll help her also work on an antidote for it.
She wrapped the fungus in an old parchment, keeping it inside a bag for later use, before putting the rest of her things in designated places. The wild herbs go in the jars in her trunk, the flowers go between the pages inside her herbarium.
With the things in places they should be, she felt good enough to attempt to get some sleep, hopefully her brain will be forgiving on her and let her get at least a few hours without terrors. She carefully straightened out the sheet on her bed before getting inside, the sandalwood incense burning in the corner of the room letting her brain fog with blissful buzz of incoming sleep.
But it seemed like the chamomile tea wasn't working fast enough for her and Sakura continued laying on the mattress with crickets chirping outside her door and light breeze from her engawa lulling her to sleep.
Wait, breeze?
The sleep suddenly left her in a jerk when she felt the cool breeze hitting her back. As sleep deprived as she was, she was not crazy enough to not remember closing her engawa door.
Every little sound was carefully registered in her brain and Sakura made sure to keep her breathing evened out and eyes closed in feigned sleep. She even went the extra mile to shuffle a little to adjust her position before going back into her comfortable slumber. She kept her ears trained and sharp, and then she heard it. The slightest of padding of feet and the lightest of the rustle of fabric, but it was enough for her.
Someone was definitely in her room.
Sakura almost started moving to reach for something, but then forced herself to stay down with her eyes stubbornly closed and breathing low and slow.
What would she even fight with, she had nothing but her bare hands to defend herself with. And who even was it that got past all the guards around the campus to sneak into her room, and why? Then a slight creaking reached her ear, almost inaudible had she not been listening so keenly.
She cracked an eye open just a little, still laying on her side away from the intruder's view and saw a shadow on the floor against the moonlight. She saw a flash on the shadow too and realized with a jump in her heart what it meant, a blade.
Then bare hands it is.
Sakura shifted on her back as naturally as possible as if she was adjusting in her sleep. Her heightened senses felt the movement above herself again and she drew her body like a bowstring and then she felt it. A sharp, almost inaudible whistle of drawing of a blade.
Her eyes flew open, and maybe that surprised the attacker because it gave Sakura the window to lunge without a second of doubt, kicking with her feet right at his wrist and knocking the blade away. But the attacker seemed quick on his feet when he steadied himself fast, reaching for a different blade tucked in his waistbelt.
Sakura lunged again but then jerked back when he slashed with his blade, ducking under his swipe to grab a hold of his wrist. The attacker tried to jerk his hand free but Sakura followed his movement, curling a hand into a fist and striking. The attacker dodged her, ducking down and releasing the blade from his captured hand, catching it in his free one and then lashing again.
'He's fast.' Sakura cursed in her mind before she decided to hell with it and tackled the attacker to the ground, knocking away the second blade too before trying to pin down the thrashing man. It was definitely a man. He kept thrashing under her, blocking her incoming punch before locking his leg with her bent one, flipping them over but Sakura kicked him straight in the guts before he could do that.
Sakura screamed at him, jumping up to attempt to tackle him again, but he ran. He jumped out of the open engawa door and Sakura gave chase, in her flimsy night robes and open hair and barefoot in the cold grass but she didn't care. He ran out into the compound court yard and Sakura sped up her legs faster, turning around the short bamboo trees but then skidded to a stop.
There was no one, not a single soul. Sakura panted harshly, whipping her head side to side and eyes trailing keenly over the tall trees and hedges and the darkness that followed and the rooftops of the surrounding building. She could not see a single movement.
She stood barefoot and confused in the cold yard for a long while, minutes escaping her but she couldn't bring herself to leave. 'Who was that?' but the bigger question would be, 'who sent him?' She could make a guess, and she might even be right. But wouldn't point fingers just yet.
She slowly trudged back to her room, senses still high to her surroundings and made sure to securely lock her door this time, putting on wood latch so it wouldn't open without making noises. Her room bore marks of scuffle with the two blades lying around and the papers she kept on the floor strewn all about when she knocked back into the stack.
She picked up one of the blades, looking over the details with attention. The handle was a sturdy wood bound in leather and the blackened iron blade was thin and sharp, almost like the type she uses for emergency surgeries. Frustratingly, there was no detail or feature to the blade that could maybe clue her what region it belonged to.
She picked up the other identical blade, wrapping them in a cloth and putting them in her trunk beside the herb jars. She straightened out her bed again but sat on it, closing her eyes and taking in deep breaths to calm down her jittery nerves as much as possible.
No way she's getting a blink of sleep now.
AN: All done, how fun. How did y'all like this chapter?
The only really consequential thing that happened only happened in the last section, but that leaves you only interested for more I would hope. I know this chapter didn't really have much of the "romantic" angle to the characters, but some chapters just need the organic friendship buildup.
Credit where credit is due, the story Sakura tells Izuna is not my original story. It's by the tumblr user "dycefic" and I really liked the story and I just thought that it would fit really well in her character. I actually found the screenshot of the post on pinterest, so yeah, if you want to read the whole thing go to tumblr.
I'll see y'all next chapter, and just cause I like torturing people I'll give y'all a bit of a spoiler. The people who have been interested in Shisui's character or have been annoyed with him, are going to really like the next chapter ;)
Anyway, until next time 3