Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Echoes of the Mind ❯ Prologue ( Prologue )

Echoes of the Mind: Prolouge

 

"Come with me."

 

Three simple words.

 

Come with me.

 

Three common, everyday words. Children used it to beckon their buddies to something cool; Parents used it as punishment; Sometimes it was used to trap people.

 

Had it trapped me?

 

She was confused, didn't know the answer.

 

And questions just seemed to bring to life more questions.

 

But whatever the case, she froze, even though all of her being screamed at her not to. This man... She had heard about him a long time ago, after coming across an old book- The massacre of a clan.

 

The Uchiha Clan.

 

By one single, thirteen-year old boy. It was an insane, maniacal probability- and it had happened. He had destroyed an entire bloodline just to... "test himself out", was it? She couldn't remember. She swore at herself for forgetting one of the things Sasuke had told her, one of the important things.

 

But the task at hand had nothing to do with the past, she reminded herself, at least, not remembering it. What was important now was the missing nin in front of here, who could snap her neck effortlessly, who was S-ranked in the bingo book, who was... Who was...

 

Beckoning her to himself.

 

'What in the hell!?' Inner Sakura screeched. 'What the hell are you doing, say something or DIE!'

 

Sakura flinched at her brash psyche, still staring at Itachi in consternation. He stood, hidden underneath his cloud-print cloak, watching her with those unnnerving Sharingan eyes of his- Eyes that spoke without needing a sound. Come with me, they said. Echoing those three words that had her in such a stupor. Why? Why come? Why... Why her?

 

"I..."

 

Sakura's voice seemed to abandon her, as she and Itachi met eachother's gaze, and she stood frozen in place. Even Inner Sakura had shut up; If ths was any other time, or place, or person, Sakura would've hugged him.

 

But all she had was reality.

 

Or was it real?

 

She felt her legs begin to move, one foot after the other, across the small clearing in the woods toward the elder Uchiha. Inner Sakura started up again, screaming at her, yelling at her physical and dominant self for betraying what was right. She couldn't be walking toward him now, she couldn't!

 

'Are you even thinking about Konoha?'

 

Sakura continued on, undaunted by her alter-ego's cries.

 

'What about the team, huh? Kakashi-sensei, Naruto-kun?'

 

Step, step, step..

 

'Sasuke!?'

 

Left foot, right foot..

 

'Sakura! Snap outta it! SAKURA!'

 

She reached her hand toward Itachi's now outstretched one, just another step or so and-

 

"Saku-ai!"

 

... That sure as hell wasn't Inner Sakura.

 

The rose-haired girl froze, arm outstretched, eyes still locked with Itachi's- he hadn't been affected in the slightest by the cry. The Kyuubi-holder ran up to Sakura, eyes full of worry and confusion.

 

"Saku-ai! What're you doing, what're you doing with this Uchiha-bastard?!"

 

Sakura was still frozen- in a trance?- as was Itachi, both oblivious to Naruto's booming voice. A kunai snapped all three of them out of their current states of mind, six eyes turning to where the kunai had stabbed the tree just beside Itachi. They all blinked, and suddenly, Naruto tackled Sakura, tearing her away from her dazed world.

 

"Naruto-kun, what the he-"

 

There was a loud boom then, drowning out the rest of her outburst, as the kunai exploded. Naruto grimaced, looking down at her with a sheepish grin.

 

"I like this point of view, Saku-ai."

 

Blushing furiously, she shoved him off, sitting upright in the dirt. "How many times do I have to tell you, quit calling me that!"

 

He replied with only a slightly weaker grin, rubbing the back of his head.

 

"Naruto, Sakura-chan!"

 

They both turned to their silver-haired teacher, who appeared late on the scene as he usually did. Sasuke had been examining the rubbish and the nearby trees, but confirmed that Itachi had disappeared. He stood beside Kakashi, glaring daggers at his two teammates.

 

"Everyone al- Oh, Naruto..." Kakashi's eyes widened as he strode over to Naruto and moved his head forward, putting in plain sight the kunai-sized piece of wood imbedded just below his shoulder blade. Sakura gasped, emerald orbs widening.

 

"Ohhh...! Naruto-kun, I... I...!"

 

"It's... Nothing," he ripped out the wood, giving it a look-over before carelessly tossing it away. It hit a tree with a hollow thunk! before thudding to the ground. Kakashi blinked as the demon chakra easily knitted together Naruto's punctured skin.

 

"Well, now that Naruto's alright, I'd say we can continue our trip back to Konoha and report our find-"

 

"Kakashi-san," Sasuke interrupted, a solemn look gracing his features, "we have something we need to discuss."

 

`~o0o~`

 

Sakura kept her head bowed, glaring at an unfortunate tile of the Hokage's office floor. When the Fifth referred to her with only her surname, it wasn't good.

 

"An S-ranked criminal... You didn't have a chance, yet you went off on your own- You even told your teammates that you were going to tend to an animal you thought was in pain! That's lying to your teammates, Haruno! Hasn't the Leaf taught you anything about trust?"

 

The roseate-tressed girl remained silent, guilt burning on her cheeks.

 

"And not only that, but you were going to go with him! Uchiha Itachi! Of the Akatsuki! Do you know what that means?"

 

'Yea, idiot. You know what that means?' snarled Inner Sakura.

 

"He could've been gathering information from you!"

 

'Espionage!'

 

"You were selling out your team!"

 

'Perfidy!'

 

"And you were betraying the Leaf!"

 

Sakura flinched then. She was, wasn't she? Even Inner Sakura knew that. But she hadn't paid it any attention. She hadn't even thought about her teammates when she went to meet with Itachi, and Naruto took a piece of wood in the back for her. She hadn't even thought about...

 

Sasuke.

 

Stupid Inner Sakura, why would she even try to use Sasuke against her? Was her inner self in a coma when it had happened? Or had her alter-ego reverted back to her twelve-year-old state?

Whatever had happened, Sakura was sure of one thing.

 

She didn't feel any guilt.

 

"We're putting you under round-the-clock surveillance, Haruno. You'll be confined to a room in the hospital, and have daily appointments with a psychiatrist." Tsunade planted both elbows on the desk and wrapped one hand around a fist, resting her chin on them. "We cannot afford to have an unstable mind on such fragile missions. You are dismissed."

 

The younger medic-nin nodded and rose, quickly turning away from the Hokage and walking out of the room, letting herself be escorted by the guards to her new home. Tsunade kept her eyes trained on the doors to her office, a frown curling the corners of her lips.

 

"I'm disappointed in you, Sakura."

 

`~o0o~`

 

The room was white.

 

Or an off-white, as some would comment. Maybe an eggshell-white. Or an ashen-white.

 

Never just "white" anymore. It refused to be simple.

 

And, yet it was.

 

They had made the room as simply cliche as they possibly could have managed. Just a plain, white-ish coat of paint covered seemingly everything, the bored floorboards, the modest ceiling, the ancient-looking futon, and the short little tea table. To top it all off, a faint layer of dust.

 

'Geez! We're, rather, you're weak of mind, not senile!' griped Inner Sakura.

 

The tangible version of her shared this thought, surveying the room with a grim face. They hadn't even given her a window- Why? What good was it to keep her alone in the same place for who knows how long? Her mind was supposed to be weak, wouldn't this just deteriorate it further?

 

Speaking of which, since when did they have the right to mock her mind? Maybe she knew exactly what she was doing, maybe she wanted to betray Konoha, maybe...

 

'Ahhh... Shut up.'

 

Her seperate psyche was right. She didn't want to betray Konoha, not a fibre in her being wanted to double-cross her homeland, but still... That couldn't stop her. So what had she been thinking?

 

Scary thing was, she couldn't remember. And she was cooped up in this generic room, left with only her thoughts as companions, to drive herself insane. She didn't want to be like this, trapped like a bird in a cage- But maybe it was for the better. Or maybe they were out to get her.

 

It was a horrible way to die.