Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Owari Nai Yume ni Tamesarate mo ❯ The Child Known Only as Hopeless ( Chapter 3 )
[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
By: ragnarok-the fallen angel 
Anime/Manga: Naruto Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Action / Angst / Romance | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 08.15.2006 | Updated On: 10.10.2006 | Pages: 2 | Words: 2.5K | Visits: 483 | Status: Work In Progress
Anime/Manga: Naruto Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Action / Angst / Romance | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 08.15.2006 | Updated On: 10.10.2006 | Pages: 2 | Words: 2.5K | Visits: 483 | Status: Work In Progress
The Child Known Only as Hopeless
Her eyes were dead; they held no emotions and no thoughts. Her body was sprawled out on her lacey pink bed; face turned up to face the baby blue ceiling and her normally immaculate pink hair was hanging in greasy strands over her face. Her pillow was soaking wet from the tears that fell from the girl’s eyes the previous days and her clothes were worn and soiled. Her ears picked up some muffled talking from behind her door and, as if on cue, walked in her best friend, Yamanka Ino.
“Ohayo…Forehead…girl,” greeted Ino in awe. Her friend had never looked so bad in her life. “Sakura, you have to get up.”
‘I’m hopeless, just like he said I was. I can’t even get over his death. I’m so damn messed up it’s not even funny.’ Sakura’s eyes just stared plainly at the black clad Yamanaka girl.
“It’s almost time for his funeral; get up, take a shower, and get dressed,” commanded Ino; Sakura didn’t move. Ino then pulled her off the bed by her arm, Sakura giving no resistance whatsoever, and her body fell onto the floor with a loud thumping noise. Ino became incredibly pissed at the fact that her friend, her best friend, couldn’t get over the fact that her childhood crush died and refused to even go to his funeral.
“Damn it Sakura! Can’t you just get over it? He wouldn’t want you to be this miserable; he’d want you to be happy. And he certainly wouldn’t want you to not go to his funeral. So get up off your ass and live before I make you live!”
‘He was right; I’m hopeless. I’m weak and I can’t do anything without help.’ Sakura just looked back at Ino with the eyes of a broken soul; empty and alone with no purpose in life.
Ino just glanced disgustedly at her friend. “Fine, Sakura. Don’t come, but I won’t pity you if you feel bad about it later,” threatened Ino. She whipped around and walked out of her friend’s room, slamming the door behind her.
‘Hopeless…weak…worthless…hindrance, that’s all I am. A weak, worthless, hopeless, hindrance.’ Sakura shakily got onto her feet and stumbled into her bathroom. She then undressed and took a shower. She then exited, still damp, and put on a long black gown. It had black embroidery lace around the waist and silver, shining silk outlined the entire gown, making it appear to be shining. Sakura then put on a necklace, a silver chain with a sakura flower made of white gold, so that it draped right above her chest. She then impassively left her room and made her way towards the front door, where her mother was waiting for. She smiled sadly as she observed that her daughter was wearing the same gown she wore to her father’s funeral.
Haruno Kyoshiro (a/n: not sakura’s father’s real name. I don’t know what it is so I made it up) had died in his sleep a year prior. He had been thirty eight years old and was a respected man in the community. Both Harunos were depressed for at least a month afterwards, hardly interacting with other people unless it was necessary.
The two Harunos walked side by side to the funeral, basking in the sound of silence. Sakura carried with her a bouquet of black roses, her mother with a bouquet of crimson roses. Her mother looked unbreakable in body and spirit with her simple black dress, pearl necklace, and hitai-ate wrapped around her arm, while Sakura looked like a fragile China doll with her elegant gown, silver sakura necklace, and hitai-ate worn on her arm.
It seemed as if the Harunos were the last of the villagers to arrive at the funeral as they saw the small congregation of people paying their respects to the Uchiha ninja. The only person who wasn’t there that knew Sasuke well was Konoha’s #1 Hyperactive Knucklehead Ninja. The two Harunos waited on a surprisingly long line to pay their respects for the Uchiha. Finally, it was Sakura’s turn to pay her respects. She laid her flowers directly under Sasuke’s photograph.
“I love you Sasuke, but you were a selfish bastard, even after death. You said that the thing you wanted most in life was to avenge your family. But was that your true motive, or did you just want to prove that you were stronger than your brother? You left us, Naruto and me, you left us here, all alone without a second thought and hardly even a good bye; leaving us to wallow in our sorrows and fears about you. We’ve waited, and now you’ve come back to us after all of these years. But somehow even in returning you mock us, Sasuke,” whispered Sakura softly so that only she could hear the words she spoke.
She stood over his grave for several minutes before leaving to find her friends. After several minutes of searching she found the remainder of the rookie nine minus Naruto and Gai’s team minus Lee.
“So you decided to come after all, Forehead girl?” teased Ino.
“Sakura-chan, you look so…graceful,” complemented a morose Hinata, an emotion not seen often on the Hyuuga heiress’s face.
“Thank you, Hinata. You look pretty good yourself,” thanked Sakura softly.
The group stood together in silent remembrance of the Uchiha, whether in respect, love, or disdain; Sakura in all three of these.
‘Hopeless…weak…useless…’
‘Before he died, he told me to tell you that he always thought you were beautiful…’
‘I’ll prove it. To me, to them, to him, that I’m not useless, that I’m not weak, and that I’m not hopeless. I always used to think that he would be there for us, and that eventually he would come to love me, but that was just a naïve wish of a child. I’m stronger now, and damn it, I’ll show him, even if it kills me. But first, to discover the truth.’
“Neji?” quietly asked Sakura.
“Hn,” replied Neji.
“What…what were his last words?” asked the pink haired kunoichi.
“His final words…were to make sure that Itachi dies and that his sacrifice to help kill Orochimaru and Kabutowould not be in vain,” spat Neji.
‘So it was a lie; I thought that it sounded out of character for him.’
“It was that monster’s fault that the Uchiha prodigy is dead. If it weren’t for his presence, he would’ve come back, and he probably would never have left in the first place,” disgustedly said a voice.
“I can’t believe that he’s still alive; and a ninja at that! He should have been killed the second the Yondaime sealed the Kyuubi in him.”
After hearing these horrible words, the ninja lapsed into angry silence.
‘ How dare these closed-minded people who never even tried getting to know Naruto talk of him as if he didn’t deserve to live!’
The Rookie Nine and Gai’s team had ignored those people, whose population grew smaller by the day as they came to the realization that they were wrong, but now, speaking about him like this at a funeral, Sasuke’s funeral especially, crossed the line, and the first person to become unable to contain themselves from punishing them was the person no one expected, not even that person; Sakura.
“How dare you talk about Naruto like that,” whispered Sakura. “After all he’s done for this village, and after he had to persevere through all that this village has made him suffer through how the hell can you possibly talk about him like that?” Sakura’s voice level rose with every word, until she was almost screaming out the words. Then she started get control of her voice, and what she proclaimed shocked everyone. “Sure, he’s not Sasuke. He’s not the smartest person, or the strongest person, but he’s everything that Sasuke wasn’t: happy-go-lucky, cheerful, respecting, acknowledging, and he never goes back on his promises. That’s why, I forgive him. Naruto, if you can hear me, I forgive you! I forgive you for killing Sasuke! In fact, I’m sorry! I’m sorry that I wasn’t there for you, that I made you make promises you couldn’t keep, and for making you so damn sad!” she cried.
She then sank to her knees and sobbed, and for probably first time in her life not out of self pity, but out of pity for another, Naruto. The clouds then released their own tears at the funeral of Uchiha Sasuke, quickly leaving everyone wet. The villagers who had insulted Naruto fled the second that Sakura started shouting out apologies, for they didn’t want to be attacked by one of the strongest kunoichi in the city. Sakura stayed on her knees in the mud seemingly unfazed by the downpour.
However, she snapped back to reality as a strong hand firmly grasped her shoulder. Her tear filled emerald eyes met the blank canvas of Hyuuga Neji’s eyes. He then extended a hand towards the mourning woman, and she gladly accepted it. She then rose up from the mud and walked along side her friends to go get some food at a nearby barbeque restaurant.
‘I will become stronger, I promise you that Sasuke-kun. I will become stronger, and then I’ll be able to rightfully mourn your death.’
And at that moment, the clouds stopped their deluge, and returned to being the fluffy and innocent incarnations that they were.
Two weeks later
Sakura had changed.
She now gave every thought towards how to better herself as a kunoichi and a person, and this had its effects. She was now considered the best medic-nin in Konoha, besides Tsunade and Shizune of course, and she found that after all of those years of obsessing over Sasuke, she failed to recognize the traits of everyone around her. She found out that Shino was actually quite sociable when he was dragged into a conversation that interested him, that Chouj was one of the kindest and most considerate people she has ever met, and that Kiba is actually quite sympathetic and encouraging, given the chance to be so; she had become close friends with all three of the shinobi since Sasuke had died.
Also, she had done something that she should have done years ago; she stood up for someone too weak to defend themselves. Earlier that week when she was departing from the hospital, she had found several of the older academy students beating up another younger one. She only had to alert the students of her presence before they flew off like vultures from a carcass. She mentally gasped as she bent down to examine the younger child’s wounds. First off, he had several broken bones and injuries to his lungs and pancreas, and second, he was the Uchiha Sasuke reincarnation. They had the same hair, the same build, and the same eyes, except this boy’s was filled with trepidation and apprehension of the medic-nin crouched above him instead of condescension and authority. Sakura just smiled, and that was all the recognition the boy needed before he fell into bliss unconsciousness. She had healed the more serious wounds and had taken him to the hospital, where she placed him into a room to be held overnight.
When the boy awoke the next morning, the first thought in his head was to thank the pink haired ninja.
Sakura was brushing her shortened hair when she heard someone knocking on the door. She sighed and reluctantly left her vanity and walked off in a low cut red t-shirt, baggy navy blue pants and black sandals. When she opened the door, her eyes met those of the person she had not seen for over two weeks; Uzumaki Naruto.
“Hey Naruto, what brings you here?” cheerfully asked Sakura.
“Before I say anything, Sakura-chan, it’s…it’s okay with me if you detest me for what happened,” morosely stated Naruto, hanging his head.
“I don’t hate you Naruto, in fact, Sasuke’s death, has, helped me in a way, but I doubt you came all the way to my house just to tell me that,” prompted Sakura.
“Hinata-chan’s in labor (1),” happily announced Naruto, flashing off his trademark fox grin.
“What?” asked Sakura, she was completely caught off guard by the blond haired shinobi’s announcement.
“Ugh…I said, Hinata-chan’s having her baby. Now can we go so I can see my godson (a/n: once again, I know that it’s used mainly in Christianity, but I don’t know if there is an equivalent for that for whatever religion the Naruto peoples practice)?” asked Naruto, obviously very anxious to leave. By the time Naruto had finished complaining, the pink haired kunoichi had already left her house and was on her way to the hospital.
“Come on slowpoke, you’ll just slow me down if you just stand there!” half-hollered, half giggled Sakura. Naruto grinned widely again and ended up running after Sakura to catch up to her.
‘To think about it; Hinata bearing Neji’s child. I would never have believed it if I wasn’t at their wedding, and I still thought that the wedding was unreal when I was there. Well, if anything, I’m happy that they’ve grown on each other and that they get to experience being parents. For now, I can only dream of raising a family. I’m only just reaching my prime as a kunoichi and I’m still recovering from Sasuke’s death; I’m not going to have a family. But I swear to you, Uchiha Sasuke, that I will live long enough to have a child, no, several children and live happily with you in my, which is what I hope you would’ve wanted.’ And with that thought, Sakura looked back, grinning at her foxy friend and looking up to the clouds that were ever changing; so not even Kami (2) himself would know what their next actions.
(1): Naruto still thought that Hinata was still in labor, because he had been searching for the remainder of the rookie nine and informing them.
(2): Kami is the Buddhist equivalent for spirit
Her eyes were dead; they held no emotions and no thoughts. Her body was sprawled out on her lacey pink bed; face turned up to face the baby blue ceiling and her normally immaculate pink hair was hanging in greasy strands over her face. Her pillow was soaking wet from the tears that fell from the girl’s eyes the previous days and her clothes were worn and soiled. Her ears picked up some muffled talking from behind her door and, as if on cue, walked in her best friend, Yamanka Ino.
“Ohayo…Forehead…girl,” greeted Ino in awe. Her friend had never looked so bad in her life. “Sakura, you have to get up.”
‘I’m hopeless, just like he said I was. I can’t even get over his death. I’m so damn messed up it’s not even funny.’ Sakura’s eyes just stared plainly at the black clad Yamanaka girl.
“It’s almost time for his funeral; get up, take a shower, and get dressed,” commanded Ino; Sakura didn’t move. Ino then pulled her off the bed by her arm, Sakura giving no resistance whatsoever, and her body fell onto the floor with a loud thumping noise. Ino became incredibly pissed at the fact that her friend, her best friend, couldn’t get over the fact that her childhood crush died and refused to even go to his funeral.
“Damn it Sakura! Can’t you just get over it? He wouldn’t want you to be this miserable; he’d want you to be happy. And he certainly wouldn’t want you to not go to his funeral. So get up off your ass and live before I make you live!”
‘He was right; I’m hopeless. I’m weak and I can’t do anything without help.’ Sakura just looked back at Ino with the eyes of a broken soul; empty and alone with no purpose in life.
Ino just glanced disgustedly at her friend. “Fine, Sakura. Don’t come, but I won’t pity you if you feel bad about it later,” threatened Ino. She whipped around and walked out of her friend’s room, slamming the door behind her.
‘Hopeless…weak…worthless…hindrance, that’s all I am. A weak, worthless, hopeless, hindrance.’ Sakura shakily got onto her feet and stumbled into her bathroom. She then undressed and took a shower. She then exited, still damp, and put on a long black gown. It had black embroidery lace around the waist and silver, shining silk outlined the entire gown, making it appear to be shining. Sakura then put on a necklace, a silver chain with a sakura flower made of white gold, so that it draped right above her chest. She then impassively left her room and made her way towards the front door, where her mother was waiting for. She smiled sadly as she observed that her daughter was wearing the same gown she wore to her father’s funeral.
Haruno Kyoshiro (a/n: not sakura’s father’s real name. I don’t know what it is so I made it up) had died in his sleep a year prior. He had been thirty eight years old and was a respected man in the community. Both Harunos were depressed for at least a month afterwards, hardly interacting with other people unless it was necessary.
The two Harunos walked side by side to the funeral, basking in the sound of silence. Sakura carried with her a bouquet of black roses, her mother with a bouquet of crimson roses. Her mother looked unbreakable in body and spirit with her simple black dress, pearl necklace, and hitai-ate wrapped around her arm, while Sakura looked like a fragile China doll with her elegant gown, silver sakura necklace, and hitai-ate worn on her arm.
It seemed as if the Harunos were the last of the villagers to arrive at the funeral as they saw the small congregation of people paying their respects to the Uchiha ninja. The only person who wasn’t there that knew Sasuke well was Konoha’s #1 Hyperactive Knucklehead Ninja. The two Harunos waited on a surprisingly long line to pay their respects for the Uchiha. Finally, it was Sakura’s turn to pay her respects. She laid her flowers directly under Sasuke’s photograph.
“I love you Sasuke, but you were a selfish bastard, even after death. You said that the thing you wanted most in life was to avenge your family. But was that your true motive, or did you just want to prove that you were stronger than your brother? You left us, Naruto and me, you left us here, all alone without a second thought and hardly even a good bye; leaving us to wallow in our sorrows and fears about you. We’ve waited, and now you’ve come back to us after all of these years. But somehow even in returning you mock us, Sasuke,” whispered Sakura softly so that only she could hear the words she spoke.
She stood over his grave for several minutes before leaving to find her friends. After several minutes of searching she found the remainder of the rookie nine minus Naruto and Gai’s team minus Lee.
“So you decided to come after all, Forehead girl?” teased Ino.
“Sakura-chan, you look so…graceful,” complemented a morose Hinata, an emotion not seen often on the Hyuuga heiress’s face.
“Thank you, Hinata. You look pretty good yourself,” thanked Sakura softly.
The group stood together in silent remembrance of the Uchiha, whether in respect, love, or disdain; Sakura in all three of these.
‘Hopeless…weak…useless…’
‘Before he died, he told me to tell you that he always thought you were beautiful…’
‘I’ll prove it. To me, to them, to him, that I’m not useless, that I’m not weak, and that I’m not hopeless. I always used to think that he would be there for us, and that eventually he would come to love me, but that was just a naïve wish of a child. I’m stronger now, and damn it, I’ll show him, even if it kills me. But first, to discover the truth.’
“Neji?” quietly asked Sakura.
“Hn,” replied Neji.
“What…what were his last words?” asked the pink haired kunoichi.
“His final words…were to make sure that Itachi dies and that his sacrifice to help kill Orochimaru and Kabutowould not be in vain,” spat Neji.
‘So it was a lie; I thought that it sounded out of character for him.’
“It was that monster’s fault that the Uchiha prodigy is dead. If it weren’t for his presence, he would’ve come back, and he probably would never have left in the first place,” disgustedly said a voice.
“I can’t believe that he’s still alive; and a ninja at that! He should have been killed the second the Yondaime sealed the Kyuubi in him.”
After hearing these horrible words, the ninja lapsed into angry silence.
‘ How dare these closed-minded people who never even tried getting to know Naruto talk of him as if he didn’t deserve to live!’
The Rookie Nine and Gai’s team had ignored those people, whose population grew smaller by the day as they came to the realization that they were wrong, but now, speaking about him like this at a funeral, Sasuke’s funeral especially, crossed the line, and the first person to become unable to contain themselves from punishing them was the person no one expected, not even that person; Sakura.
“How dare you talk about Naruto like that,” whispered Sakura. “After all he’s done for this village, and after he had to persevere through all that this village has made him suffer through how the hell can you possibly talk about him like that?” Sakura’s voice level rose with every word, until she was almost screaming out the words. Then she started get control of her voice, and what she proclaimed shocked everyone. “Sure, he’s not Sasuke. He’s not the smartest person, or the strongest person, but he’s everything that Sasuke wasn’t: happy-go-lucky, cheerful, respecting, acknowledging, and he never goes back on his promises. That’s why, I forgive him. Naruto, if you can hear me, I forgive you! I forgive you for killing Sasuke! In fact, I’m sorry! I’m sorry that I wasn’t there for you, that I made you make promises you couldn’t keep, and for making you so damn sad!” she cried.
She then sank to her knees and sobbed, and for probably first time in her life not out of self pity, but out of pity for another, Naruto. The clouds then released their own tears at the funeral of Uchiha Sasuke, quickly leaving everyone wet. The villagers who had insulted Naruto fled the second that Sakura started shouting out apologies, for they didn’t want to be attacked by one of the strongest kunoichi in the city. Sakura stayed on her knees in the mud seemingly unfazed by the downpour.
However, she snapped back to reality as a strong hand firmly grasped her shoulder. Her tear filled emerald eyes met the blank canvas of Hyuuga Neji’s eyes. He then extended a hand towards the mourning woman, and she gladly accepted it. She then rose up from the mud and walked along side her friends to go get some food at a nearby barbeque restaurant.
‘I will become stronger, I promise you that Sasuke-kun. I will become stronger, and then I’ll be able to rightfully mourn your death.’
And at that moment, the clouds stopped their deluge, and returned to being the fluffy and innocent incarnations that they were.
Two weeks later
Sakura had changed.
She now gave every thought towards how to better herself as a kunoichi and a person, and this had its effects. She was now considered the best medic-nin in Konoha, besides Tsunade and Shizune of course, and she found that after all of those years of obsessing over Sasuke, she failed to recognize the traits of everyone around her. She found out that Shino was actually quite sociable when he was dragged into a conversation that interested him, that Chouj was one of the kindest and most considerate people she has ever met, and that Kiba is actually quite sympathetic and encouraging, given the chance to be so; she had become close friends with all three of the shinobi since Sasuke had died.
Also, she had done something that she should have done years ago; she stood up for someone too weak to defend themselves. Earlier that week when she was departing from the hospital, she had found several of the older academy students beating up another younger one. She only had to alert the students of her presence before they flew off like vultures from a carcass. She mentally gasped as she bent down to examine the younger child’s wounds. First off, he had several broken bones and injuries to his lungs and pancreas, and second, he was the Uchiha Sasuke reincarnation. They had the same hair, the same build, and the same eyes, except this boy’s was filled with trepidation and apprehension of the medic-nin crouched above him instead of condescension and authority. Sakura just smiled, and that was all the recognition the boy needed before he fell into bliss unconsciousness. She had healed the more serious wounds and had taken him to the hospital, where she placed him into a room to be held overnight.
When the boy awoke the next morning, the first thought in his head was to thank the pink haired ninja.
Sakura was brushing her shortened hair when she heard someone knocking on the door. She sighed and reluctantly left her vanity and walked off in a low cut red t-shirt, baggy navy blue pants and black sandals. When she opened the door, her eyes met those of the person she had not seen for over two weeks; Uzumaki Naruto.
“Hey Naruto, what brings you here?” cheerfully asked Sakura.
“Before I say anything, Sakura-chan, it’s…it’s okay with me if you detest me for what happened,” morosely stated Naruto, hanging his head.
“I don’t hate you Naruto, in fact, Sasuke’s death, has, helped me in a way, but I doubt you came all the way to my house just to tell me that,” prompted Sakura.
“Hinata-chan’s in labor (1),” happily announced Naruto, flashing off his trademark fox grin.
“What?” asked Sakura, she was completely caught off guard by the blond haired shinobi’s announcement.
“Ugh…I said, Hinata-chan’s having her baby. Now can we go so I can see my godson (a/n: once again, I know that it’s used mainly in Christianity, but I don’t know if there is an equivalent for that for whatever religion the Naruto peoples practice)?” asked Naruto, obviously very anxious to leave. By the time Naruto had finished complaining, the pink haired kunoichi had already left her house and was on her way to the hospital.
“Come on slowpoke, you’ll just slow me down if you just stand there!” half-hollered, half giggled Sakura. Naruto grinned widely again and ended up running after Sakura to catch up to her.
‘To think about it; Hinata bearing Neji’s child. I would never have believed it if I wasn’t at their wedding, and I still thought that the wedding was unreal when I was there. Well, if anything, I’m happy that they’ve grown on each other and that they get to experience being parents. For now, I can only dream of raising a family. I’m only just reaching my prime as a kunoichi and I’m still recovering from Sasuke’s death; I’m not going to have a family. But I swear to you, Uchiha Sasuke, that I will live long enough to have a child, no, several children and live happily with you in my, which is what I hope you would’ve wanted.’ And with that thought, Sakura looked back, grinning at her foxy friend and looking up to the clouds that were ever changing; so not even Kami (2) himself would know what their next actions.
(1): Naruto still thought that Hinata was still in labor, because he had been searching for the remainder of the rookie nine and informing them.
(2): Kami is the Buddhist equivalent for spirit