Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Breakaway ❯ The Arrival of Premonitions and Danger ( Chapter 9 )

Breakaway

 

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Chapter 8: Arrival of Premonitions and Dangers

 

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New Beginning by Trapt

 

The pressure is building I want to break away
Motivation is lacking the point starts to fade
I look to the bottom still empty still the same
I'm waiting for something to show me the way
To the path that I should take, it's just too real to go ahead and fake
Every step that I make
Name your price I would give anything
I want to start over again
What do I want I have nothing to say
Whatever it is I want it today
Do we choose our own ground Do we choose to stay
Well I've seen too many throw it away

Do I see just one small chance to be myself to try and make it last
Every step that I take

 

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The weeks had flown by for Sakura in a blur of aches and pains. Not from physical activities mind you, but from the simple act of sitting still for hours on end. As time progressed, the chakra expansions did indeed start taking longer. Her last session had been almost 10 hours, and Gaara had looked so exhausted when they had finished, she thought he was going to pass out.

 

Along with all of the chakra expansion that Gaara had been doing, Sakura had been doing her own physical workouts. She could now do about 200 normal push-ups without use of chakra and run miles at a time without getting overly exhausted. Her flexibility was amazing too. She could bend in ways she never could before and her balance was almost perfect.

 

She felt feline grace being etched into the very core of her being. Fluidity was her game. She bent and swayed in ways to make willow trees jealous and walked with such quiet that she was now able to sneak up on Temari and give the blonde a couple of scares a day.

 

Sakura also felt the need to exercise her newfound grace upon the unsuspecting male populace of Suna. She found a sick amusement in distracting men to look at her while they walked into walls or other people.

 

Of course, no male could see the whole of her face due to the face mask she never took off. She'd wear normal civilian clothing while not training, but the mask never came off anymore except to eat, and she only ate in the privacy of Gaara's home. They already knew who she was, so there was no reason to hide from them.

 

In those few weeks, Kankuro had emerged from his room. When Sakura first saw him, she saw, not so much of a broken look, as a completely haunted, possessed look. He took minutes to respond to questions asked of him. It took both Sakura and Temari restraining Gaara to keep the vicious red head from ripping his brother's limbs off when he failed to respond to a question for two whole minutes.

 

Gaara took to ignoring Kankuro, while Temari kept sending her puppeteer brother to the hospital. The doctors were mystified to say the least, and had no clue how to cure the tattooed youth. The most they could do was offer to keep him there and out of the Kazekage's way, as the date approached for a far off clan to visit. Deep down, something was warning Sakura that she needed to be on her guard, something was coming and it smelled of disaster.

 

Her response was to double her efforts in training, going days without sleep if she could help it.

 

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Gaara sat back, soaked through and through with sweat as he finished the last of the chakra expansions. He could barely believe that he had done it, but Sakura's own chakra reserves were as vast as his own. This last expansion had taken a whole day, and taken all he had to pump his chakra in.

 

If anything, he was proud of his work, and the effort Sakura was putting in on her own towards taijutsu. Her grace rivaled his own, though she was certainly more flexible than he. She had also earned a certain awe in his hidden village. All would stop and stare as the patchwork girl with a mask on floated by, a deadly air radiating from her form. But the look was still there.

 

Gaara couldn't make her shake off her apathy. She was still dead in one way, alive in another. Occasionally he would see the heated spark of passionate hatred enter her eyes as he watched her train on her own.

 

The far off look while that hate lingered in her eyes indicated exactly who was driving her to perform better. Konoha. She was going to find a way to exact revenge on her old village. And Gaara was beginning to wonder if he would be able to stand in her way when she went in for the kill. They way they treated her was inexcusable, but his village was allied with Konoha, so he couldn't just set her loose to do as she wished.

 

He sighed and helped Sakura stand up from the floor. There were bruises on her knees from kneeling for so long, but it was over now. Her chakra stores were complete, ahead of schedule even, for the visiting clan still had a few days before they arrived.

 

Rearranging his sweaty clothes on himself, Gaara sighed in his head at all the preparations that had yet to be done to accommodate his traveling guests. Suna still had a couple of buildings that needed finishing touches and the suites to house the lord and his entourage were no where near being ready.

 

Seems that civilians and other nin were incapable of getting all the sand out of the carpeting. This is where he came in with his control over the cursed substance. He'd use his sand to clean out all the other harsh, ordinary grains from the tan carpeting and from all the nooks and crannies of the room. This was in order to not upset the softer nature of those who did not normally live in the desert. Grains of sand easily chafe those who are not used to it. He was not at all happy to be doing menial tasks such as cleaning rooms, but he guessed that if he told the visiting lord that he had cleaned it himself, it might give him a few more kudos.

 

Gaara snorted at his thought. What the hell was he thinking, trying to impress another? He didn't need to prove himself to anyone.

 

He stalked out of the dojo with quick, angry strides, leaving a mildly amused Sakura behind.

 

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Sakura sighed internally. This was always one thing she'd rather avoid if she could. But much to her irritation, Gaara always forced her to go. Threats of breaking her fingers in ten different places- and actually breaking one occasionally- was effective in making her go.

 

But it was so pathetic, she couldn't even describe…

 

“You have a clean bill of health Miss Sakura. Your physical therapy with me is done. I'm glad to see you so well. You've gained considerable weight, though I'm afraid that the scarring on your face, legs, and arms is beyond my ability to repair.”

 

Sakura shrugged uncaringly. She just wanted the idiot doctor to stop trying to flirt with her and let her go. These were minutes that could have been better spent trying to remember her basic jutsus from gennin school, or practicing taijutsu before Gaara owned her in that.

 

She had no time for mushy, sappy civilians who didn't know any better.

 

Tai couldn't figure out her expression due to her new mask, but he thought that he had her devout attention. And now that she was no longer his patient, now was the time to make his move.

 

“Miss Sakura, are you free this evening? I was wondering if you wouldn't mind joining me in dinner at the Ramen stand a couple blocks away.”

 

Sakura swore in her head. She didn't want his attentions. Her goal the whole time she was being rehabilitated by him was to make him loathe her. Attempt failed.

 

“I must check with the Kazekage. May I go now?”

 

Tai looked a bit disgruntled at her answer. Here he was, a handsome well-paid doctor who had every nurse in the building falling at his feet without him so much as trying, and he couldn't get a simple patient to go out with him. It wasn't like he was asking her to sleep with him. He wanted to win her over. There was something about her that drew him to her like a moth to the flame.

 

She was like gravity sucking him in.

 

He nodded though, understanding that the woman did have responsibilities placed upon her by the Kazekage.

 

“Get back to about whether you can or cannot when you get word okay?”

 

Sakura shook her head. “I have no guarantees. The Kage is hosting a very important guest soon, and things have become very busy as of late. He was reluctant to send me even today.” Lies…she had the broken fingers to prove it. But no one had told her that she had to tell the truth, and wasn't a shinobi all about deception?

 

Eager to be out, Sakura fled the hospital in mere seconds before Tai could open his mouth again. Once out in the open streets and the Suna sun, Sakura waltzed down the main strip. For once she actually bothered to take in her surroundings. Most of the shops had new fronts, mainly due to the reconstruction after the Sasuke ordeal.

 

As she padded silently down the packed dirt road of Suna, Sakura could feel eyes tracking her every movement. It wasn't a feeling that set her on edge though. Instead, each gaze was filled with wonder and awe.

 

Walking past a tiny hair salon, something brought Sakura to a dead stop. She turned and looked at it, seeing that it was one of the few stores that had survived the aftermath. Something inside her told her that she needed to go in there…and she couldn't ignore the sensation though she tried.

 

With out glancing around, Sakura strode into the salon with no hesitation in her step.

 

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Temari growled viciously to herself. She had just been subject to a chewing from her brother. Who was amazingly displaying a lot of worry for someone who was not a sibling.

 

Sakura had gone to the therapists over two hours ago and should have come back by now. Temari knew that no actual therapy would have been done today because she had surpassed the need for it a while ago. It was supposed to have been an in-and-out ordeal.

 

Temari herself was not that worried, but she had made the observation a half hour ago to her brother that Sakura had not returned yet. If she had known how quickly that would have set Gaara off, she would never have said anything. Besides, Sakura could take care of herself again. And she was free to wander around Suna as she wished, though she did have some work to do right now.

 

Temari had finally convinced Gaara to calm down a bit and sit back down behind his desk. He was now taking his worry and anger out furiously on unsuspecting paperwork. It was the fastest she had ever seen him go through a stack. He should be angry more often.

 

A hand landed on Temari's shoulder out of thin air, and Temari bit back a girlish scream of surprise. She whirled around to find Sakura…only it took her a few seconds to register that it was Sakura. Temari sat back, struck silent by her surprise at what she saw.

 

Sakura did a shallow, but polite bow to Temari.

 

“I apologize for my lateness, but I got a little sidetracked. Does the Kage know of my lateness?”

 

Temari struggled to find words, but none issued forth. Instead, she dumbly pointed to the large double oak doors that guarded the way to the Kazekage's office.

 

Sakura nodded and walked silently to and through the doors.

 

`Oh man…Gaara's gonna shit kittens when he sees that…' Temari thought.

 

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It took three seconds flat for Gaara to see and process what Sakura had done. Though this shouldn't have bothered him normally, he had been fretting over her welfare in secret for the past half-hour. Any way to vent his anger out on her without giving away his worrying about her was welcome.

 

“What the hell did you do to your hair Sakura?”

 

Sakura didn't even flinch at his question and drew a breath to answer his question, but was quickly interrupted.

 

“That is what has kept you from returning immediately to your post for the past two hours? You have work to be getting done for the arrival of the clan tomorrow, and here you are, dying your hair black?! You think I saved your ass for free Sakura? You have a debt to pay back for both me saving your life, and teaching you to be nin again.”

 

And sure enough, Sakura's hair was black as night, with only a single multi-pink chunk that remained like Ino's bangs out of her high ponytail.

 

Sakura bowed lightly in apology. “If I have worried you in my absence, it was unintentional. I was driven by impulse to walk into the salon on my way back. It was one of those urges that you cannot ignore at the time, almost like instinct.”

 

Gaara snorted. “I wasn't worried. I was furious that you would blow of work that I offered you out of the almost non-existent kindness in my heart.”

 

Lies…you were worried…kukuku…the great and powerful Gaara, caring for another being enough to be worried.

 

`Shut up you stupid beast. You were no help either, nagging me about promises I didn't make to you about keeping the girl safe.' Gaara snarled to his caged awareness, unhappy that it was right.

 

Don't talk slanderously of what you don't know. You have no clue what this girl is or what she stands for do you? Stupid vassal. It's not worth my time to explain to you, just make sure that nothing happens to her until she is ready. And her hair…just know that she did the right thing when she did that. Until later runt. Kukukuku…

 

Gaara was now red in the face, looking like he might spontaneously combust into flames. Sakura was amused at his antics as he had suddenly grown quiet and inwardly focused. She knew he was talking to the monster that was hidden in his soul. Ironic that the one thing that gave Gaara his vast power was the one thing that Gaara couldn't tear apart when it insulted him.

 

Seeing a raised eyebrow and a ghost of a smirk hidden by her mask, Gaara realized that Sakura was laughing at him in her own way.

 

“Demons haunting you today Kazakage?”

 

Gaara's frown deepened, and his one handed grip on his desk managed to snap through the thick oak. His other hand pointed deliberately to his door, and he dared not say a word.

 

Without complaint or resistance, Sakura took her leave of Gaara's presence and headed straight for Temari's desk for some work to do.

 

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The next day there was a frenzy in Suna. It would be the first time since the Sasuke incident that the hidden village would be presented as whole. Shop keepers swept the sand from their store floors and using precious water, scrubbed everything they could. Wives were out in the street beating rugs free of dust and sand, and children were dressed in their best for when the procession arrived.

 

Gennins or those still being schooled- as they were the highest students Suna had at the time besides Gaara and family- were practicing for when the visitor would tour their school. No one wanted to look bad.

 

Sakura however was uninterested in all the activity going on around her. She went about her daily life as usual, though was thoroughly entertained by a spazzing Temari who wondered if the beige or the white shirt looked more professional. Gaara seemed to be on edge also, though not as noticeably as his sister. His was seen in how he let some things that usually bothered him slide, and others that usually didn't bother him drive him nuts.

 

It appeared that her apathy towards upcoming events also ticked off Gaara, which only increased her amusement, and she made sure to smirk at him from beneath her mask, or mock him with a bare smile at dinner. What was wrong with taking a walk on the wild side and taunting the most dangerous person in all of the hidden villages? It added a little spice to her life.

 

When the time came for the traveler's appearance, Sakura felt spooked as something inside her resounded like a huge bell. She was suddenly set on edge, and her insides quivered in anticipation and her muscles were taut like rubber bands, ready jump into motion at a moments notice. It was strange, this feeling…it's like she'd felt it before…

 

The village was now lining the main road and the first parts of the traveler's entourage were arriving. Cheers and hellos were shouted and exchanged. Sakura stood next to Gaara, and she could tell that he knew she was on edge.

 

He gave her his patented smirk, and she was being taunted in retaliation of her taunting earlier.

 

Giving him a scowl from beneath her mask, she kept her eyes focused on the trail of foreigners, looking to see if any moved with hidden grace. That posture of a ninja. And she could spot a few openly, and some she questioned.

 

The procession was fairly opulent for being in the middle of the desert. Many of the travelers were dressed in the bright colors of the house they served, and were too heavy for the heat which was marked by sweat spots around the armpits and neck. Banners bearing the crest of the house were everywhere, a black lion set in front of a gold lightning bolt.

 

Again that feeling struck her and set her insides quivering…there was something about that symbol…

 

Then came the main part of the procession, all mounted on magnificent horses of all colors. At the head sat a proud looking young man with long, beautiful white hair and stunning purple eyes. All the female voices immediately set to murmuring in the Suna crowd as they caught sight of him.

 

Because she was standing on one side of Gaara, and was part of the welcoming committee, she and the strange man locked eyes for a moment of appraisal. For the one second that their eyes were connected, Sakura was filled with a bone deep hatred and terror. It was the most emotion she'd felt since Konoha. She didn't think that anything could compare with what she had just felt in that moment.

 

The man gave her no extra interest as he completed the approach to the Kazekage. Dismounting his tall bay horse, he walked gracefully over Gaara and nodded his head in greeting.

 

Sakura kept her eyes locked onto the man, not trusting him in the least now. Though she was not as good as Gaara, she would protect him to the best of her ability if this man tried anything funny. Her body was practically humming with distrust. She'd never experienced such an immediate hate and dislike for anyone. Not even Naruto had warranted this response.

 

Gaara however held no such reservations or distrust, or at least didn't openly display it. He returned the wordless greeting.

 

“Welcome to the Hidden Village of Sand, Suna. We are honored with your presence and are happy to see that you made the trip across the desert safely. You must be tired. Let us show you to your rooms.”

 

The white haired man nodded, a light smile on his face.

 

“You are most gracious Kazekage, to open your village to us, especially after the disaster of the rogue nin tearing through your village. I am happy to see that Suna appears to have recovered well.”

 

Gaara gave no response, but gestured for the man to follow him. As Gaara and the man stepped off, a small group of servants bearing trunks and other accoutrements immediately followed along, with the empty-handed Temari and Sakura following after. Temari had a secretive smile on her face. Sakura knew she was laughing at how her brother was now forced to be diplomatic even if something happened or was said that he didn't like.

 

It was going to be a most interesting week.

 

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Though Sakura had an instinctive hate and fear of the man, she refused to leave Gaara alone with him. Some protective streak in her had been ignited upon eye contact with the man now known as Hattatsu Chudoku of the Tenkan Clan.

 

Something was awakening in her, or struggling to.

 

Gaara had showed the modest surroundings of Suna to his guest after showing the servants to his guest's room for them to start unpacking. Suna was by no means the most beautiful or elegant of places in all the countries, but it had a rough beauty. The type you respected.

 

Sakura, through out this whole endeavor, managed to remain relatively unnoticed for always being present. Temari didn't say anything about the strange behavior Sakura was displaying, but when she was dismissed to continue her work elsewhere, she shot Sakura an odd look.

 

The sun was finally setting, and dinner had been eaten in a manner that was garish for even Temari, for Chudoku's cooks had commandeered the kitchen. Foods that were otherwise unavailable had appeared on the table and food was strangely spiced. Sakura had only eaten food that she recognized and that remained relatively unspiced.

 

Chudoku was finally retiring to his quarters when he had stood up from the table. Before he said his goodbye's though, he turned and looked at Sakura, but addressed Gaara.

 

“You have a very loyal bodyguard here Kage-san. She has not left your side at all this day. I did not catch her name when I first arrived.”

 

Gaara opened his mouth to offer up information, but Sakura quickly interrupted, spurting out “Hakuchoyami Tsugihagi, sire.”

 

Gaara glared but did not chastise her in front of Chudoku, realizing why she had interrupted.

 

“Ah. Patches. It suits you I guess from what I see of your skin. How did you come across such scars?”

 

Sakura let a second hang between them before she answered.

 

“A penance sire. A price paid for a new start.”

 

He glanced at the single strip of pink hair that remained amongst Sakura's hair. “And how about that odd color among your black hair? How'd you come about that?”

 

“Every nin who wishes to make their mark on the world, needs that one thing that will let their victims know who has struck them down. Mine is a stripe of pink amongst black. Rather fashionable too, though it is a pain to dye the hair white before adding the pink.”

 

Chudoku seemed to take this answer and tuck it away to analyze later as he nodded at Sakura. “Nice to have met you Tsugihagi.” He turned back to Gaara and nodded. “I must retire for the night. Traveling so far has taken some of its toll on me along with today's activities. Will I get to see your new academy tomorrow? I would greatly enjoy that.”

 

Gaara nodded his affirmative and started to walk down an adjacent hallway to the clan leader's quarters. Chudoku gave Sakura a final glance, one that was searching and suspicious, then turned and followed Gaara down the hallway.

 

Sakura let loose a breath she didn't realize she had been holding. This was going to be a long visit. And she got the sneaking suspicion that something bad was going to happen. And it was going to happen soon.

 

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A/N: And end chapter. I apologize for taking so long, but I have a lot of other things I have to take care of, along with a relatively high maintenance, emotional boyfriend. (**whispers conspiratorially** I thought women were supposed to be the easily offended, moody ones…) But here it is. Not the best, but the best I could manage. Also, if you wanted to know, the name of the clan leader stands for `poisoning growth' and Sakura's name stands for Patches DarkSwan. I wanted to do one that stood for ragdoll, but it sounded silly. And I can't speak or write Japanese, so forgive me if the names don't work out as names in real Japanese. This is the art of imagination and the author ignoring the rules of language and doing what she wants. **laughs**