Chapter 5.: Usuratonkachi
"Sakura!" Naruto shouted excitedly as he opened the front door and gave her a bright smile. "You have finally arrived!"
The Uchiha casually leaned his back against the opposite wall, his arms crossed over his chest, wearing a snow-white shirt and black pants, his raven hair tousled. The moment the blond said her name, his eyes scanning the floor by his boots looked up to bore into the daughter of the goddess of love.
The pinkette stood in the doorway, the blond host stepping back to make room for the three girls to enter his small house comfortably – she stood there like a statue, unable to move a single muscle, her brain refusing to cooperate as she stared into the onyx eyes. It felt like she had gone back in time; she was a little girl again, like when she first looked into those eyes - when she drowned in the deep black sea and couldn't escape it until today.
Sakura didn't know how much time had passed because the blonde's voice brought her out of her reverie.
"Sakura-chan, are you all right?" he asked worriedly with a slight frown as he noticed her absent look and that she was a ghost in a completely different place, not on his doorstep.
As his words reached her ears, she jerked away from his direct gaze, only to find the blonde, sentient, young vampire looking at her blankly. She shook her head to break out of her trance, giving the blond a small smile to reassure him that she was okay.
When the blonde and the dark-haired girl entered his house, the jade eyes of the daughter of the goddess of love traveled to the same place again, to the opposite wall, against which the still mysterious black-haired man was leaning with his arms crossed on the chest of the fabric of an elegant and white shirt. At that exact moment, the black-haired man looked down, and the pinkette could have sworn that with her not-so-sharp and reliable far vision, he saw him smirk - just before he bounced off the wall with a gentle movement of the muscles in his back, he let his crossed arms drop to his hips, he slipped them into the pockets of his dark pants. He strode off to somewhere where he disappeared from her sight among the teeming young people.
"Drink?" Naruto yelled to drown out the voices of the people having fun nearby; only then did the pinkette realize that she couldn't count them, let alone count them on the fingers of both hands, even if she added her toes. "I have one, especially for you..."
"I'll be glad to," she cut him off with the polite phrase Hinata had taught her on the way here, though she wasn't focusing on her friend as her emerald pupils darted from side to side as she tried to spot the raven hair in the crowd.
The blond boy got to work, taking a glass in one hand and a ladle in the other from the huge bowl on the table in front of him; using the tool in his right hand, he scooped up a few sips like soup, which he poured into the glass in his other hand - Sakura found herself shaking her head the thought crossed her mind that the gesture reminded her of preparing potions.
She remembered the small moment Tsunade had taught her that the lid on the top of the container had to be appropriately closed; she'd rather make sure a few times - just to be sure because if its fumes were accidentally released into the air, it could cause disaster. She remembered how her mother had told her to be extra careful with the insanity potions, their scent affecting the mind with even a gentle breath.
"You better hurry," Naruto remarked with a naughty smirk as he poured the last ladle into the glass for the pinkette, to which she shook her head and turned her attention to him, frowning in confusion. "Sasuke is an anti-social cock. I doubt he'll be around for more than ten minutes," he explained curtly, snorting in annoyance, she couldn't quite tell from the tone of his voice if he thought it was a joke or the truth. Still, she assumed, she was almost sure it was a little both.
The pink-haired girl understood where he was going. She didn't know if she was excited at the thought of the blond thinking what he thought - and Sakura being in love because she wasn't - she couldn't be. But she knew that contradicting or trying to mislead him would be complicated and involve much explaining that she didn't have the energy or mood. What's more, the conversation could devolve into questions that Sakura either couldn't answer or didn't know how to answer in a way that wouldn't make her human friend suspect something was wrong with her. That she is not normal. She was pressed for time as she wanted to get out of there as soon as possible and get back home where she could spend the rest of her life trying to forget the existence of the black-haired Uchiha.
The moment she was determined to go into the crowd of people and find the goal of her mission, she was stopped; she did not expect her gaze to rest on so many people that, at times, it seemed to her that there were even more than a few minutes ago, as if they were still it only increased, and the capacity and space of the small house increased proportionally with the increasing number of visitors.
"How many did you invite?" she asked her question in astonishment; the pink-haired girl stood with her back to the blond man who was operating the makeshift bar and serving drinks to the other guests; she looked at the crowd running in front of her, behind her, to the sides, she only turned her head to her blond friend who laughed happily and shrugged slightly.
"Just a couple of friends," he replied innocently, winking at her before returning to his bartending duties and sliding the glass of her drink across the table, which she tentatively reached for but didn't pluck up the courage to take a sip.
*.*.*.*
It was futile.
The pink-haired girl's head was spinning from the people around her, from the crowd having fun, drinking drinks, drunken people dancing - she rather tried to push the memory (and the current situation) out of her head of a half-naked Naruto, shirtless, only in pants, dancing on the table, while the people standing around clapped, whistled and cheered him; except for Ino whose scream was the loudest of them all and Hinata's embarrassed clapping to the rhythm of his singing and her pink face looking at him in such a state.
A slight smirk curled her lips as she thought that the parties were wilder than she had imagined, and she was almost 100% sure that if her mother had been here, she would have long ago been competing with the blonde for who would drink the most alcohol and the table would cry under the weight of Naruto and Tsunade singing and dancing on its surface; she could almost see it as the blonde's mother put her arms around his shoulders and they bowed their heads together to the high notes of the music.
The pinkette decided that it was suddenly too much for her, and to continue her search for Sasuke, who had disappeared from her sight some time ago, she needed some time in the air, away from the noise, to think about what to do next. She discovered the house's back entrance, considering this door an escape exit. She immediately took advantage of the moment of inattention when the blond didn't point his finger at her during his singing and when he didn't dedicate part of the words of the current song to her; she took advantage of her two companions not wagging their fingers at her seductively to join them and Ino not throwing an invisible rope at her and pulling her to her; she slipped unnoticed through the crack between the doors.
Her green eyes widened in surprise. She did not expect at all to get into a garden that looked like a dream - a neatly manicured surface of the lawn, an abundance of different garden flowers, the colors of which beautifully matched each other and complemented each other; a small lake, over which stood a wooden bridge and tiny fireflies flying around, which completed the magical and romantic atmosphere.
When the pink-haired woman half woke up from the awe of the magic of her surroundings, she noticed that on the wooden bridge over the moonlight-reflecting pool, a tall figure was leaning on its railing with both forearms. She squinted her eyes to focus her unable vision into the distance - she realized that the person leaning on the railing and looking into the clear pool was the target she had been looking for all along; she impulsively stepped one foot forward when she stopped immediately.
Wait. What was she supposed to tell him? How was she supposed to start?
She was a nobody to him, just an annoying insect, just like any other human, and her status got worse when the black man knew she had befriended Naruto. Sakura assumed he had concluded that she was just as loud and annoying as the blond. On the other hand, if they were truly best friends, shouldn't Sasuke appreciate the qualities his blond friend possessed?
Her annoying voice rang out in the pink-haired girl's head – a voice she hated occasionally because it forced unwanted thoughts on her; 'And maybe he didn't forget?'.
Sakura shook her head, knowing that was impossible. Right after that event, the memory of her was removed and erased from his mind. She knew that this foolish and childish hope was pathetic of her. She was the daughter of one of the most respected goddesses of the Cloud Land; she couldn't think of a mortal like that; she shouldn't even think of an ordinary person like that.
She glanced at the dark-haired man, his face and posture relaxed. The pink-haired girl could almost sense the calmness around him that filled the magical atmosphere with something she couldn't describe; she couldn't assign any feeling to it, a hallmark to compare it to... She knew the garden's surroundings were beautiful, but she couldn't help but think that the magic was not in the pond, the evening gloom lit by the fireflies and the moon in the sky, but in the presence of the black-haired man she was looking at.
Onyx eyes looked up from the surface of the lake; for a small moment, the black-haired man raised his head, causing the strands of raven hair that fell into his eyes to move to form a perfect field of vision. He turned his head to look absently and dispassionately at the pink-haired girl who froze at that moment. She suspected that she had disturbed his oasis of peace with her arrival; she knew she shouldn't have been there. She felt a lump forming in her throat, her hands sweating as she drowned in the hell of his black eyes.
Blinking, she took a few steps towards the black-haired man, who looked away from her and returned to watching the pond's reflection with several fireflies flying over it.
She stepped slowly, trying to keep her steps quiet and careful not to break the spell, as if approaching a shy animal that she didn't want to frighten with her presence, as if she was afraid that if she made a sudden movement, the black-haired man would disappear from her sight.
Her fears turned out to be just her wild imagination – as usual, for which she mentally felt like slapping herself. She walked over to the railing, where she placed her tiny palm gently but still at a reasonable distance from the man; she wasn't entirely sure if he was paying attention to her or ignoring her because she was simply annoying to his pleasant solitude.
They just stood there in silence for a while; the pink-haired girl took a few minutes to think of what to say; she hesitated for a long time - and even just before she spoke.
"It's beautiful here," she whispered.
She realized sadly, perhaps disappointedly, that the Uchiha was not acknowledging her presence despite her voice. Again, she felt the urge to slap herself for not saying something better, something other than what she first thought of.
What should he say to her? What did she expect him to answer?
She turned her emerald eyes away from the black-haired man, redirecting her gaze to the object he was watching. However, to get a perfect view, she had to take two more steps to approach him, and it didn't escape her notice that the dark eyes moved as she moved, moved to the corner of his eye, and watched her until she stopped - then returned to its original position. The pinkette lowered her head, leaning over the railing, a sight she doubted she would ever experience - see - in her home.
Only then did she understand what had captured and fascinated the attention of the man next to her; she was almost sure that she would still like to trade the noisy party inside the house for the silence that reigned in this place, just a few meters from the madhouse.
A small gasp of astonishment escaped the pinkette's lips; the clear lake looked like a mirror to her, reflecting the sky above, only the gentle ripples in it, caused by the pleasant wind that ruffled her hair and tickled the nape of her neck, disturbed the perfect picture. The water below reflected the dark sky, millions of stars, and a nearly round moon peeking out at the edge. A few fireflies were playing with the water's surface; Sakura almost felt like they were enjoying looking into the mirror's reflection, falling in love with their ability to give off light and touch the distant stars. She felt the urge to take off her tight shoes and walk on the water's surface, imagining herself walking across the night sky and touching the stars.
"Wow," came out of her mouth as she finally understood what the black-haired man had been looking at since he had disappeared from her sight; she could spend hours here alone.
As the pinkette's gasp of astonishment reached the Uchiha's ears, he must have decided this time that it wasn't just a polite phrase but an actual charm. She noticed his lips form into a slight smirk that didn't last more than a few seconds before his face returned to its original, familiar stone mask. This didn't last too long, though, as the first horrified scream came from the house, followed by several more.
The pink-haired woman involuntarily flinched, her entire body tensed as she turned towards the house at the sound of the voice's desperate cries; she instinctively turned her head to the other side again to look at the black-haired man only to find that his unreadable face and relaxed attitude as he still casually leaning against the railing of the bridge, they did not change at all as if he did not register the screams and despair in them at all or instead ignored them.
However, he disproved her assumptions when he snorted in annoyance at another scream in which Sakura could perfectly identify the call of Naruto's name.
The pink-haired girl looked at the house again. For a moment, she just looked at his wall, standing on the threshold of a decision - she didn't know what to do; she had never found herself in such a situation. She should have concentrated on her task; she knew that clearly, but what about Naruto - her friend?
The screams of his name grew more intense, and she saw the silhouettes of figures running from side to side in the window.
"Naruto!" she heard the last cry, the last straw to make up the pink-haired girl's mind.
She turned one last time to the black-haired man whose onyx eyes were looking at the stars in the pond. She was determined to make a decent apology, to say she had to leave - she was already opening her mouth to speak.
However, she stood stunned, and her voice caught in her throat when the black-haired man unexpectedly looked up at her. Onyx eyes met emeralds for a few silent seconds. Then his gaze moved to the house behind her and then back to her as he slowly nodded wordlessly and without any sign of emotion.
The pink-haired girl turned on her heel and ran to the back entrance of the house, gripping the door handle, looking over her shoulder only to see the black-haired man with his hands in the pockets of his long black coat walking across the bridge, but not in her direction - his best friend's house, to find out what was happening to him, but in the opposite direction - he was leaving. The pinkette found herself regretting for a moment that he didn't look back as well, but she shook her head in disapproval to dismiss the thought and focus on the blond who needed her help. She pushed down the handle and burst into the house.
Who knows, maybe if fate hadn't messed with her, perhaps if she'd held the doorknob for a few more seconds – just maybe if she'd stayed a little longer, she'd have seen the onyx eyes mirroring the color of the black darkness watching the pink-haired girl disappear behind the walls of the house.
.*.*.*.*.
The pink-haired girl was dumbfounded as the white-haired older man herded people like cattle out of the house, still wearing party hats and drinking glasses. The guests filed out of the main door in a single file. Still, she and her two companions stayed where they were, looking at the blond who was sitting on the ground, his back against the wall with an absent look; next to him, kneeling on one knee, was Jiraiya, whom he put one hand on his shoulder and whispered something in a low voice. Sakura could only assume that he didn't want her to hear his words, that they were only addressed to the blond, who was nodding jerkily with a confused expression and a dull blue-eyed gaze buried in the white-haired man's chest.
"Naruto-kun…" Hinata whispered, looking carefully at the blond, her eyes showing fear and anxiety; she put her hands to her lips.
The blonde sentient moved over to the dark-haired vampire, placing a hand on her back between her shoulder blades, and began soothingly stroking her from top to bottom, telling her not to worry, that Naruto had a firm root. She even tried to make a joke when she said that the evil weed wouldn't just die out, but she immediately regretted her sarcastic remark as Hinata's terrified look intensified.
"Jiraiya-sama, we should take him to the hospital," Sakura announced firmly.
The two girls looked at her in surprise as she stepped forward and walked towards the two men, exchanging meaningful glances.
Jiraiya turned from the pinkette back to his charge. Naruto's sky-blue eyes looked up, and he shook his head in disapproval. He ignored the urging of the pink-haired friend, who was worried he might get hurt and wished he understood the importance of figuring this out before something terrible happened.
"No need, Sakura-chan," Naruto said in a hoarse voice, coughing slightly and giving her a smile that wasn't convincing enough for the pinkette. "It's nothing," he assured her.
"Naruto-baka," Sakura chided him. She was about to start an argument, but the white-haired man raised his hand, cupping her palm to stop her. She tried to argue again, to which Jirayia stood up from his knees and glared at her.
"You should go," he advised them, gesturing gallantly to the door. "Naruto needs to rest,"
The pink-haired woman suddenly felt two tiny hands on her arms; when she looked back, she found one belonged to a vampire and the other to a sentient standing behind her. Both women were looking at her intently, one confidently, the other a little unsure but still determined. She understood that they were giving her a clear signal that they should leave like everyone else.
The pinkette sighed in defeat, taking one last look at the dejected blond as he and the two girls made their way to the front door.
Sakura could have sworn that even though she didn't turn around as she left the blonde's house accompanied by the two girls, she heard the back exit door open.
*.*.*.*
" Sakura-chan! " the blonde's voice resonated in the pinkette's head for days as she clumsily held the miraculous device that her friend's voice was coming from to her ear.
"Hello, Naruto," she greeted him, smiling softly even though she knew he couldn't see it. "How are you?"
"Great!" he exclaimed again cheerfully, and Sakura had to pull the device away from her ear slightly to keep from losing her hearing. "I guess I drank a little too much,"
The pink haired girl worried about her boyfriend every day. She didn't know how to contact him, so she went to his house the next. She was unpleasantly surprised when, instead of blonde hair, her eyes landed on Jiraiya, who was frowning. The white-haired man was standing in the doorway so as not to allow her access inside. His figure was so tall and massive that her plan would have failed even if she stood on her tiptoes and tried to peek inside to glimpse her friend for a moment to make sure he was all right with her own eyes.
She tried again the next day, but unfortunately, it was the same.
The pinkette was sitting on the couch reading one of the many manuals to keep her mind focused on her mission and not worrying about the injured blond; she had no idea what had happened to him and the strange and magical moment with the Uchiha when she heard the annoying a humming sound coming from her room. Reluctantly, she made her way there, slumped against the hard mattress of the bed, and with less trepidation this time, picked up the device as she was surprised to find a familiar name flashing on the tiny screen.
"You think so?" the pinkette said with a muffled laugh, then sighed in relief as she realized her friend's voice sounded enthusiastic and energetic. "When will we see each other?" she asked hopefully, wanting to see for herself about his condition and be sure he was okay, even if she didn't understand where she was getting so worried about a person she'd barely known for a few days.
She could almost hear the blonde's reluctance and distaste when he answered no in the sad murmur on the other end of the line.
"I'm going!" the blond shouted, a little annoyed - the pink-haired woman understood that since his voice was slightly muffled, he had to pull the device away from his ear, put the microphone to his chest, and only when he spoke to her again, his voice was clear again. "I have to go, Sak. See you later," - she wanted to snort at him, but given that the blond was in a hurry to end the call, she didn't have the chance to do so.
The pinkette nodded timidly and reluctantly, her face sour, not wanting to end the conversation. His voice reassured her because, at least this way, she knew he was safe.
"Okay," she finally whispered.
The blond said his last goodbye, and Sakura was about to press the icon on the screen with the red color and the phone icon pointing down when she heard another voice in the background, not Naruto's. She assumed her friend thought she had already ended the call, but the pink haired girl couldn't place this different, foreign voice on anyone.
"Usuratonkachi." was the last word she heard coming from the device, the last word spoken by an unknown, cold, and harsh male voice that seemed to be standing near Naruto - before the phone started beeping. She looked at his screen to see that the call had ended, as the blond had noticed it was still ongoing.
*.*.*.*
Sakura blinked in confusion and looked around but still didn't recognize the dark room, which was only dimly lit by candles.
Various cabinets, wooden shelves, tables, racks, experiments... the pink-haired woman took an unsteady step closer to the nearest shelf, bending down to get a better look at the various containers. A disgusted grimace contorted her face - she would have sworn she saw a human finger floating in one of the transparent containers!
"Please," she heard a desperate whisper in the same room. "Help me,"
She took a few steps around a few shelves of similar abominations, organs, and limbs floating in a liquid she couldn't identify; she chose not to pay too much attention to them so as not to expose the contents of her stomach to the light of day.
Emerald eyes narrowed dangerously as she saw two figures standing on opposite sides of a small round table that held an orb with other magical items - a unicorn horn, a shark's tooth - that were only used by a single tier of downworlders. Warlocks.
Sakura's intuition told her that the golden-robed figure was likely a woman; she couldn't be entirely sure about the latter. The latter, whose body was hidden in a gray cloak, had a male figure, but long strands of jet-black hair peeking out from under her hood reached waist level. She only noticed this person's unnaturally white, almost chalky - deathly - white skin.
The pinkette rubbed her eyes; she felt like her vision was foggy; everything was blurry. She felt herself under a spell; no, as if someone had poisoned her with a potion of insanity and her senses had been deliberately dulled.
"As-s-s you wish," the gray-cloaked figure hissed.
The pink haired girl's stomach turned several times at the sound of that voice. She felt as if her organs were doing somersaults in disgust, and she didn't know if it was just her imagination, but something in the back of her mind whispered to her that the person was licking the area around her lips disgustingly with a long, slimy tongue.
Sakura gasped as the golden-cloaked figure revealed his identity by removing the hood from his head with a graceful movement of his right hand; her long gold-laced hair swirled in the air, her floral perfume wafting into the air, assaulting the pink-haired senses as Sakura recognized her mother Tsunade in her.
"Wake up, Haruno!" she was awakened from her sleep by the sound of a textbook landing on the wooden bench very close to her face. Professor Asuma clucked his tongue in displeasure as he looked at the confused and sleepy pink-haired student, who yawned and rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand.
Sakura shook her head; she couldn't remember a moment when sleep overcame her - she couldn't remember a time in her life when sleep overcame her like this when she didn't feel any signs of tiredness at all. She shook her head slightly once more as she sprawled out on the surface of the wood again, on top of the only notebook she had on it.
It had been a few days since Naruto hadn't shown up. Not only that, but he didn't even call her like she had hoped; she longed for that pesky little machine to scare her again. For the past few days, she had been paranoid that she wouldn't be able to take his call because he would call just when she wasn't at her residence. It was because of this that the pink-haired girl began to always carry the miraculous communication device with her, sneaking glances at the ever-off screen, almost begging it to turn on to announce an incoming call from her blond friend, who would gleefully yell at her until listening to his shrill voice she got a headache.
An arrogant snort reached the pinkette's ears from behind her. Out of the corner of her eye, she looked behind her, slightly to her left, only to see dark eyes turning bored away from her to the window. Sakura felt as if he was mocking her, as if he was showing and implying how stupid she was with this small but sufficient and obvious gesture of contempt, that he thought she was more intelligent, that she would figure it out sooner. Only then did she finally realize how strange this whole situation was, more and more each day.
Every day, someone was decreasing.
First, it was Naruto; the absence of the hyperactive and loud blond was almost palpable as a deafening silence filled the room full of students, broken only by the soft murmurs and casual conversations of fellow students.
The day after that, not even the black-haired girl showed up.
Hinata didn't even let the blonde sentient know why she was absent from the lectures, which Sakura found out when she asked about it, and Ino just shrugged absentmindedly. To be honest with Sakura, that was what she took from the blonde's annoyed remark, 'And how should I know that, forehead?'. The pink-haired girl didn't even have time to start digging into it or let other arguments go through her head because she didn't have anyone to ask for the next day - Ino was next in line, who didn't show up again, following the example of the blonde boy and the black-haired girl.
"Before the next lecture, please study from page 355 to page 378," Asuma announced, reaching for the leather jacket hanging over the chair. During his last steps out of the room full of students, he pulled out a pack of cigarettes, one of which he placed in his mouth until he disappeared from the students' sight in the corridors of the faculty.
Sakura was not a stupid woman; she was the great Tsunade-sama's proclaimed best student for nothing - not because of her position, not because she was her daughter. Thanks to her wit and sixth sense, she was often able to put the puzzle together in her mind so that it finally made sense. She was sure something was wrong. Naruto, Hinata, and Ino's absence wasn't a coincidence; it couldn't be, and besides, Sakura didn't believe in coincidences. And she was also aware that the black-haired man showed no signs of uneasiness or fear for his best friend, or even if he had, the pinkette secretly mistook him for an excellent actor, a master at hiding his emotions; after all, what person wouldn't naturally worry? Sakura had too many of them for only knowing the blond for a short time.
The students gradually began to pack their things into their bags and made their way to the exit. Sakura repeated their first gesture, but her steps were not directed toward the door but toward the black-haired man's bench, who had an unreadable expression. She stood across from him; he still sat impassively looking out the window, ignoring her presence.
Sakura shook uncomfortably as the black pupils shifted on her, boring into her emerald eyes. She swallowed the lump in her throat, trying to make her stance seem as composed as his; she tried not to pick up on the signs of uncertainty bubbling up inside her as she struggled to force any sound out of her throat.
"Where's Naruto?" the pink-haired girl asked, her voice stuttering for a moment as she strained her vocal cords to make her voice sound firm, so she repeated her question once more and a little louder.
The Uchiha frowned slightly. The pinkette thought wryly that a smirk and a frown were the only facial expressions he was capable of and made a mental note to put it in his file later for future reference.
"You know where he is," she stated after a short silence in which the emerald pupils fought with the onyx ones, although she vehemently did not want to admit that she was losing. His gaze was too intense; she felt he was trying to break through a concrete wall with his bare hands. The pinkette braced her hands against the square piece of wood that separated them as she leaned slightly but still well away from Uchiha's face.
His dark eyes narrowed dangerously as he stared at her momentarily. He slowly leaned towards the pinkette - Sakura judged this movement to give her enough time to back away - until he stopped millimeters from her face, their breaths mingling. She could almost feel his breath caress her nose.
Sasuke examined her; she felt him sinking deeper and deeper into her; for a moment, she thought that if this moment lasted a few more seconds, the black-haired man could recite the names of all her ancestors without a single mistake. She couldn't stand the young Uchiha's murderous and intense gaze any longer, so she looked away for a small, almost invisible moment and immediately returned to her original fighting position.
The black-haired man smirked weakly at this short signal, symbolizing her defeat. However, it was only a slight movement of the left corner of his lips that Sakura would have barely noticed if she hadn't analyzed every detail of it.
The pink-haired woman caught a nagging thought running through her mind, 'You've lost,' which she tried to push out of her mind.
The arrogant sneer faded from his face, which once again took on a stone and icy undertone; he stood up in silence, bracing his hands on the bench in front of him, copying the stance of the pinkette in front of him.
Now, the mysterious black-haired man and the pink-haired woman were standing on opposite sides of the wooden board, their hands resting on its surface and staring intently into the other's eyes. The black eyes hardened in battle against the emerald ones, their faces barely a few millimeters apart; at that closeness, Sakura's heart skipped a beat, and she held her breath for a small moment. The tension was almost palpable, the electricity that pulsed between the millimeters that separated their hands charging the atmosphere.
The pink-haired girl couldn't guess how long this second round of the onyx and emerald eye war lasted until she was brought to her senses by the sound of two extended fingers bluntly hitting her forehead. Her green eyes opened wide, full of unspoken surprise at this act.
While she was lost in thought, the black-haired man raised his dominant left hand while still locking himself in the same spot with his right hand, lifted it into the air in a gentle motion, and jabbed the pinkette in the middle of the forehead with his index finger connected to his middle finger. She felt the one-hit point pulsate slightly; she was almost sure she would be left with an ugly mark.
"You're annoying," growled the black-haired man with a triumphant smirk as he noticed the chaos in the green eyes that his simple act had caused.
Not breaking eye contact, he grabbed a leather briefcase, then dispassionately turned his face away from the still confused and embarrassed pinkette and headed for the exit; he was almost at the door when the melodious voice of the girl he left behind made him stop.
"At least tell me if he's okay," she mumbled, her low whisper mixed with anxiety, sadness, and genuine concern for the blond boy she'd seen a few days ago, devastated, sitting on the ground and leaning against the wall, panting and looking around in confusion, as if he were disoriented.
The black-haired man was showing her back as her words reached his ears; he smirked cynically at the inexperienced young pink-haired girl's predictability. He turned to her, standing sideways to her this time so she could see him in profile - only now did she realize how tall he really was.
"Please," she whispered.
Sasuke took one last brief look at her through the black strands that fell into his eyes, nodding slightly as he returned to his original plan of leaving the room.
'You just lost,' the annoying voice in her mind made its presence known again as it mocked her for losing the fight.
A bitter smile appeared on the pink-haired girl's face, and she thought sarcastically that in addition to frowns and smirks, she had to add a nod to the list of controlled facial expressions of Uchiha Sasuke.
*.*.*.*
"What the..." cursed the pink-haired girl for the millionth time on the last day of lectures.
It was Friday afternoon, the sixth day since the drunken meeting, the so-called party, which the students still talk about to this day. It was referred to as the party of the year, and she later learned from overhearing the conversations of several students at the following table in the cafeteria that each of the blonde's parties outdid the last. The pink-haired girl sadly looked around the large room where several young people her age were having lunch, green eyes hypnotizing the front door as if she could conjure up the presence of a blond boy, a black-haired vampire, or an impure blonde seelie.
This situation hadn't happened again since her last – and actually first real – conversation with Sasuke. Their conversations were silent, literally.
They exchanged a few glances, yes - a few times even when the black-haired man appeared and sat down in his usual place, and even before his black eyes locked onto the view out the window, he glanced at hers. Sakura raised an eyebrow curiously with an unspoken question as to whether her friend was okay, as she was sure the Uchiha had an update on his condition, to which he either gave her a heartless nod or looked away and ignored her for the rest of the day. Although their communication was wordless, the pink-haired girl had a strange feeling as if it wasn't bad; on the contrary, she felt that a unique, something special bond was forming between them, consisting of a brief exchange of glances that only they could understand; from which no one else could read the conversation.
Perhaps if the pink-haired girl hadn't refused the spy training her mother had arranged for her in the past, she would have noticed - or sensed - a pair of piercing onyx eyes staring at her back, scanning every fiber of her being, examining every strand of black hair, from which an unprofessionally omitted pink trickle peeked out here and there. The black-haired man, on the other hand, was alert. Always a few seconds before the pink-haired woman turned on an unpleasant hunch, perhaps a sixth sense, in his direction, he averted his gaze, absently glancing at one point - a point where there was no better view than from the window to his left hands.
"Oh," a male voice responded to the pinkette's rude words as their bodies collided, and she stumbled back two steps; she nearly fell as she balanced on her heels, but his strong arms deftly grabbed her forearms to help her regain her lost balance.
Sakura rubbed the bump on her head, cynically hoping she was causing the blond boy at least that much pain by giving him a headbutt at his inappropriate remarks when her emerald eyes looked up, and her breath hitched somewhere between her throat and mouth. Her pupils narrowed suspiciously as she scanned the familiar face in front of her: black eyes, narrow lips, a tall figure, and raven hair. For just a brief moment, her mind was able to make a connection between this person and Sasuke, but she shook her head as his fresh perfume hit her senses, so she scanned him once more to find the slight yet so significant differences - this was not Sasuke, she convinced herself as she looked into the black eyes.
This man was only a few inches taller than her black-haired classmate; his jet-black raven hair was the same shade, the same texture, but when she took a closer look, she noticed that, unlike the short locks that defiantly caught her target's eyes, they flowed elegantly down this man's back in a long tail that was delicately tied with a rubber band. It wasn't until the few seconds she took to properly observe his eyes that the pinkette noticed that these too showed signs of difference - these eyes, while equally deep and black, were slightly older, calmer, and humbler and around them, near the bridge of the nose, two long scars were visible up to the corners of the lips.
The pinkette was shaken by a gentle breeze; she wasn't sure if the wind or the sight of this man gave her goosebumps. She blinked to make sure her eyesight wasn't deceiving her - no, he really did look like him, with slight differences; he was looking at her, but to Sakura's surprise, he wasn't frowning; the muscles in his face were relaxed, a small smile on his lips and sparks of amusement dancing in his eyes.
He knelt on one knee to pick up a few books and notebooks that had fallen to the ground when he collided with the dark-haired girl, biting her lip gently, wondering why she had to be so unlucky. This situation was perfect, almost exactly according to the instructions of the books she had studied, but it had one flaw - it didn't happen with him. The pink-haired woman doubted - no, she was sure - that if she did manage to do it and bump her forehead against Sasuke's chest, he wouldn't act like the black-haired man before her who, like her, got down on one knee and copied her movements, helped her in arranging the dropped things.
"Sorry, I wasn't looking where I was going," he smiled as they stood up, handing her the last anatomy book.
'Sure,' flashed through the pink-haired mind involuntarily, but she shook her head to prevent the thought from surfacing in her voice. She was aware that she must not create the character of an unpleasant and disgusting woman; these were the least attractive to men. And Sasuke was definitely a man – even more than a man in the pinkette's humble opinion. No! He was just a mission, that was all, she repeated to herself over and over until she was snapped out of her thoughts by the voice of the man standing in front of her.
His smile was so… natural that the pinkette found herself relaxing her stance and smiling softly as well, the corners of her lips unconsciously pulling up. This man, in a strange way, evoked a calm in her that she hadn't found in years; she could feel the doubts about the absence of the sentient and the vampire evaporating from her system, the worry about the missing blond boy, the uncertainty of completing the task her mother had assigned her, the thoughts of reaching Sasuke suddenly not so bleak and dark... What?
The pink-haired woman realized that all of her thoughts were beginning to drift towards Sasuke -and for some reason, they weren't the same as they used to be; they were cleaner, more pleasant. Not that the thought of him was ever unpleasant, but there was still frustration associated with it. She also noticed that the slightly older, black-haired man put his hand on her shoulder and looked straight into her eyes.
"Bugger off, Itachi," the young Uchiha's voice snapped the pinkette out of her reverie as he walked up to them and knocked her hand off of her shoulder with a rude swing of his arm.
The older dark-haired man took a step back, smirking haughtily as he looked into the scowling face of his younger copy for a brief moment. At that moment, the pink-haired girl was 100% sure she hadn't gone crazy and completely lost her mind when she saw them standing next to each other.
Itachi smirked, but it wasn't the arrogant expression Sasuke often gave to those around him; no, this one was... different, winning. On the other hand, Sasuke didn't look that amused; he scowled, his muscles and body tensed; he clenched his fists and stood across from Itachi, taking a position in front of the pinkette, looking at his broad back.
"Don't be possessive, little brother," the older black-haired man laughed in a melodious voice, adjusting the strap of his shoulder bag and shoving his hands into the pockets of his inky pants; the similarity of this gesture between them did not escape the pinkette's attention. Itachi looked over his younger brother's shoulder, meeting emerald eyes and giving her a sweet and welcoming smile. "See you," he said as his black eyes moved to the others and then turned to leave.
The black-haired man turned to face Sakura, repeating the gesture of leaving, still clenching his fists, hiding them in the fabric of his black coat. She watched his graceful movements in awe as if watching a moving work of art.
The black-haired boy bent down to pick up the last page that had escaped their attention, taking it in his hand between the tips of his fingers, glancing over its contents as he placed it in front of the confused girl's face. With a timid movement, she took it over, uncertainly looking up to look into the black oasis of damnation.
The Uchiha seemed to be lost in his own thoughts, and it wasn't until her soft voice brought him out of his thoughts that he gazed intently into green eyes that held a thousand unspoken questions. Under normal circumstances, he might have snorted as much as possible; maybe he wouldn't have even shown a willingness to answer; he would have walked away. However, the look on her confused face, the feelings that were mixed and too incompatible, did not allow him to do so.
He didn't answer her unspoken question, finding the answer too obvious; it was no secret that he and his brother were more than alike, at least in appearance, which could not be said at all of their natures, characters, and hearts. The same blood in their veins was undeniable, almost as bright as the sun. Itachi, unlike him, was a pleasant type of person, thoughtful, reasonable, and calm, showing no signs of impulsive behavior like the younger version of him who, seeing his older brother near the pinkette, threw himself between them to prevent further contact between them.
"I don't expect you to answer me," she mumbled, breaking eye contact and examining the toes of her shoes. "Is Naruto okay?" she finished timidly; with a gentle head movement, she looked up to show him sparkling eyes.
At that moment, the young Uchiha knew he couldn't just look away and walk away.
Sasuke wasn't stupid either, and he knew one thing for sure - having questions without answers was frustrating, even more so when those doubts were about concerns for loved ones. He knew that the little pink-haired girl had grown into his best friend's heart; there wasn't a day he didn't talk about her. At first, listening to the ramblings of the loud blond annoyed him; then, he found himself unconsciously listening with an unexpressed interest that his attention would instantly increase without showing it on his stony face whenever the blond said her name.
The black-haired man nodded; he allowed the pinkette to peer into his world, drawing the conclusions she needed from his all-too-ordinary act so that her heart could sleep peacefully today.
*.*.*.*.*.*
Thanks for reading this chapter! Do you like the story so far? Don't worry; we're just getting started. Let me introduce you to the characters who will play critical roles in this book. Thank you for giving this story a chance. Reviews?
And as always, I apologize for any grammatical errors.
Kisses
M.