Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Pink Thread Of Silk ❯ Ninja Failure ( Chapter 6 )

Pink Thread of Silk

 

Chapter 6: Ninja Failure

 

“Wake up!” Ino called out as she slid Sakura's fusuma door open and stuck her head in for a mere second to take notice of the cherry haired woman.

 

Sakura's emerald orbs fluttered open as she sat up slowly. Her groggy voice found the intruder. “What time is it?”

 

“Five in the morning, now come on!” Ino called out as she ran down the hall on her way to wake up the third Geisha.

 

It had been a week since she had last seen her target and she was slowly getting used to the peace of her new life. She was starting to leave her horror filled past in the back of her mind. Sakura was going to enjoy every second so she could have at least some positive memories. But it was hard concentrating on forgetting her past, when all that she did everyday, was to bring herself closer to the one thing linking her to it.

 

Uchiha Sasuke was a slippery customer, or that was how Sakura had concluded her analysis of him. He got what he wanted, when he wanted it and if he didn't, there was no chance of her you could force him, or even try your luck.

 

She had tried, in vain, with her fellow geisha to find him and once again get his attention. But the man was more elusive than it seemed at first. He had apparently taken on the duties of being the anbu that he was, and it didn't leave much time to socialise. Sakura's fears of going home early were slowly dwindling.

 

Sakura looked up to her door where the head of the blonde woman was once again scowling at her. “I said, GET UP!”

 

With a small grumble of words such as `stupid Ino-pig' and other random things Sakura's mind concocted, Sakura washed, dressed and was making her way downstairs in a plain yukata, tying her hair up in a plain fashion, when two small girl obviously in a hurry, slipped past her and almost knocked her right off her feet.

 

“Watch it!” She snapped, her anger already getting the better of her. She had once been a morning person, but that girl was long since dead, and now, she detested the idea of an early morning. In this situation, she had no choice. So she settled on second best, making the lives of those around her, as unpleasant as she felt.

 

Sliding open the doors leading to the kitchen, Sakura acknowledged three people. Ino, who was currently setting the brunt of her own morning temper at one of the servant girls who had spilt some tea on her yukata. Temari was sitting a little away from Ino and was trying to ignore whatever she could. And last but not least, the face she had been dying to see since he disappeared after the meeting with Sasuke.

 

“Kakashi!” Sakura grinned forgetting all of the anger she had been feeling before.

 

The man in question looked up at her from his dirty reading material and raised him arm whilst showing her an eye crease. A dead give away that he had smiled.

 

“Where have you been all this time?” She continued, just because she was glad he was there, didn't mean she would forget his sudden absence.

 

“Anbu recon mission.” He replied and Sakura instantly gave up. For one, he couldn't and wouldn't indulge in any highly secretive fire country information from any of his mission. And two, he would never explain just how he could still manage to be the anbu of a town he was apparently working against. How could a missing nin work in the town he was missing from?

 

But the pink haired woman had never bothered to press the issue. She honestly didn't want to know the answer. If it was to try and kill her captor, then she wouldn't stand in Kakashi's or the villages way. If it was to kill her, then she couldn't exactly protect herself with the vague memories of her past ninja life.

 

Sakura, remembering why it was exactly that she was up at the crack of dawn, turned to Ino with a full blown glare.

 

“What's the big idea?! It's five in the morning!” Sakura growled. She was comfortable around these people, so she allowed herself to relax, to trust those around her, because she knew that they wouldn't let a bad thing happen to her.

 

Kakashi was obviously getting paid for his efforts, but Sakura hoped in a little part of her heart, that he would protect her anyway, even if he wasn't being paid the fortune that was waiting for him at the end of the very long tunnel.

 

“Training.” Ino replied as she took her own glare off the terrified servant girl and replaced it on the rose haired woman.

 

“Training? I don't need more training, I have my geisha skills up to scratch.” Sakura replied confused. If there was anyone that needed to hone her geisha skills a little more, it was the blonde in front of her.

 

“No geisha training, ninja training.” Ino replied with a roll of her cerulean orbs.

 

Sakura gaped.

 

Ninja training? She hadn't known that she would be forced to fight. She was sure that Itachi didn't plan on that happening either. Unless he was playing one of his frequent mind games that he loved to inflict on her and only her. Even when he was miles away, he still knew how to worm himself into her heart and mind.

 

“Ninja training?” Sakura repeated her first thought out-loud.

 

Ino nodded. “I'm not just a pretty face you know! I can kick some serious butt.”

 

Sakura's brow rose in disbelief. If Ino could stamp on an ant in some of the footwear she wears it would be a miracle, let alone a full grown ninja.

 

“I'm serious Sakura, both me and Temari have trained to not only be the perfect geisha, but also to be the perfect kunoichi.” Sakura's brow rose higher.

 

She was left in the dust again.

 

Without letting her thoughts be read too much by her companions, especially the silver haired nin who had started watching her intently since the words of `ninja training' popped out, Sakura cleared her thoughts and asked the question she had slamming in her head at said words.

 

“Who's training me?” She asked, to which Ino kept silent.

 

“I'll be partially taking care of your ninja education.” Kakashi said, his head in his book as Sakura's attention turned to him.

 

“Who's doing the other part?”

 

“Uchiha Sasuke.” Kakashi finished and Sakura could already feel the ground beneath her shaking. The devil in hell was about ready to rid her of her sins and let her pay for each and every one of them.

 

“You have got to be kidding me.” Sakura muttered as she sat in a daze at the table in front of the breakfast she suddenly didn't feel well enough to eat.

 

“No joke Sakura, this is the perfect opportunity to place the plan in action.” Kakashi said coolly not taking his eye away from the book in his hand. “Neither of the other two geisha will be there, so you're going to have to go at it alone.”

 

Sakura sighed. If it wasn't one monster, it was his brother. Sakura guessed that it was just her destiny to live the life of a puppet between two extreme forces.

 

“He won't hurt you, so use your time wisely Sakura.” With the and a puff of smoke, Kakashi had disappeared from his seat. Sakura was now sure that he didn't act like any missing nin that she had met back at her prison. He may just be a unique individual, or more likely, he had a hidden truth that she wasn't willing to know or accept.

 

“You better eat that.” Ino said quietly as Sakura's eyes rose from where Kakashi had been sitting, to the woman who spoke. “You going to need the energy,” Sakura offered her only confusion. “Your first lesson with Sasuke-kun starts today.”

 

Sakura could already feel the bruises.

 

***

 

“You look fine.” Ino announced as Sakura gave herself a cautious look in the mirror, one eye squinted as she looked at her reflection critically.

 

“This looks so revealing though.” Sakura replied as she tried to push up the black jounin figure hugging top so that not the whole of the top of her breasts were on show. The fish net finishing at the top didn't help in conversing anything.

 

“If you think this is bad, then you should look at the anbu clothing Kakashi got.” Ino commented as she pulled a smirk.

 

Sakura wasn't convinced, but she guessed that this clothing was for a reason. Two in fact. To help her learn how to fight quickly, and to lure Sasuke in whilst doing it. She just bloody hoped it worked.

 

Taking a last glance at her reflection she turned away from the mirror and left through the room door, Ino on her heel as they entered the hall where Kakashi was waiting. Perverted book in one hand, and two kunai spinning expertly in the other.

 

He looked up when the two women were in front of him, his dark eye roamed down the rose haired figure as he suppressed the urge to compliment her on her appearance. Instead, he coughed shakily before offering the impatient woman an eye-crease as he put him book away and led them to the exit door of the Yamanaka Geisha house.

 

Slipping on her sandals she once again thought about how completely different she looked. She had always been dressed in comfortable (looks wise) clothing, that never revealed too much of anything. But now, she was stuck in a very figure hugging jounin uniform that she wouldn't have been caught dead in in the Uchiha prison only a week ago. But Sakura just guessed it was part of what she had to pull through, and she didn't really mind looking like a kunoichi, they were everything that she believed in, though she knew she never would be.

 

With a hug and a small wave to Ino, the two left made their way towards training area 4 where obviously Sasuke would be waiting for her.

 

“Why aren't you training me today?” Sakura asked as the thought popped into her mind. The silver haired nin seemed like he had nothing better to do and it would save her a lot of panic attacks.

 

“Sasuke requested for the lesson with you, I'm not about to go denying him the… pleasure, now am I?” He asked as Sakura's eyes narrowed from the obviously amused crease of the eye from the older nin.

 

“You just want to see me get thrown around by a prodigy and look like a goof.” Sakura muttered under her breath as the man beside her chuckled.

 

Within ten minutes they had entered training area 4 and weren't surprised to see Sasuke already waiting for them there.

 

“Are you stinking around to watch?” Sakura asked, looking up at the man before they got into ear shot of the Uchiha genius.

 

Kakashi shook his head. If there was anything that he needed to stay away from at the moment, it was anything to do with Sakura getting filthy and been thrashed around. What he needed most was some peaceful time with his beloved book.

 

Before Sakura could even argue, the silver haired nin had pulled a few seals and disappear in a puff of smoke.

 

“Bastard.” Sakura cursed as she glared at the spot the older nin had occupied a moment before.

 

“Excuse me?” Sakura's head snapped up to gaze into onyx and she mentally slapped herself for not noticing the proximity of the Uchiha as well as her language in the proximity.

 

Laughing nervously she offered the Uchiha a wavering smile. “Nothing.”

 

Sasuke's dark brow rose slightly but he let the comment pass as he suspected that it hadn't been aimed at him.

 

“Have you ever had ninja training before?” He asked, straight to the point as always.

 

Sakura nodded her head. “When I was twelve I had been training for my academy exam, but I never managed to complete it.” Sakura said trying to look calm and collected.

 

“Why?”

 

Sakura stiffened. She hadn't been expecting that comment to backfire on her.

 

“Em, my parents died and I was sent off to the cloud village and enrolled in geisha school.” Sakura replied a little too hurriedly for her liking. But the story matched the truth rather well; the only thing missing from the story was the older brother of the man before her.

 

Sasuke already knew the truth and was rather taken aback at how well she could lie to him. He was almost impressed at her abilities when they hadn't been trained for so long. A ninja never divulged more information than needed, and always knew what to keep their traps shut about.

 

Sakura wasn't going to crumble easy.

 

“Show me.” Sasuke said in monotone as Sakura offered him a confused brow crease.

 

“Show you what?” She asked.

 

“What you know, attack me.” Once again, Sakura could already feel the bruises.

 

***

 

Please let me die! Sakura screamed in her head as she got shot to the ground yet again. It was the millionth time and she could sense Sasuke getting impatient. Maybe she wasn't meant to know any of the stuff! Maybe she was just meant to live the meaningless life she had been living the past few years as a geisha with no emotions and early death as destiny. She wouldn't have been surprised if it was.

 

“Up.” Sasuke barked at her as screamed bloody murder in her head. She had enough of his orders of his impatience, of… HIM! How could she ensnare this man when she couldn't stand him.

 

“I can't.” Sakura replied, trying to keep her vicious tone in order, though she knew Sasuke wasn't fooled.

 

“Up.” Sasuke repeated. Sakura merely groaned. She couldn't believe how far away this image of her compared to the geisha image she had given him in first meeting. She was anything but graceful now.

 

“No! You're just going to slam me down against the ground again and not teach me a single bloody thing.” Sakura argued as she looked up to merely glare at the Uchiha prodigy who looked as calm as always.

 

“Up.” The single word that left those perfect lips of his just sent Sakura into fresh waves of anger. Didn't he think she was worth more than one word?

 

“Bastard.” Sakura muttered under her breath as she got steadily to her feet, her legs shaking slightly from the strain of the rough training the Uchiha was putting her through.

 

“Come.” Sasuke said in the same tone as the previous word. He turned away from her and began walking deeper into training area 4. Narrowing her eyes slightly at the onyx eyed genius, Sakura followed with no arguments. This was different; anything that didn't involve getting slammed into the dirt but the anbu captain had to be better. She at least prayed it would.

 

Sakura gazed over the Uchiha's shoulder as he stopped in front of the gate leading to training area 5. Her brow rose in surprise, the land was giving way to water that came crashing down from the waterfall just ahead of her. There were a few boulders that barely grazed the surface, but apart from that and the forest surrounding the large lake like landscape, there was no escaping the water.

 

“What's this sensei?” Sakura asked as she backed away from the Uchiha and smirked as she watched him form stiffen at the addition to the comment.

 

“Don't call me that.” He said simply and Sakura smirked wider.

 

“Why not, you are are you not?” Sakura asked innocently. All of the previous face in the dirt incidents had slashed all her earlier nervousness of the Uchiha's presence. If Sasuke touched her, he would be dead faster than he could say `sorry' though she doubted that even through torture, no soul would force the man to utter that cursed word.

 

Sasuke merely glared at the rose haired woman before pointing at the lake and smirking. “Walk on it.”

 

Sakura's brow rose again. “What?”

 

Sasuke shrugged but inside his head his Cheshire smirk was widening. “I would get you to climb trees but your chakra moulding skills are more advance than that, so we'll skip that bit.”

 

Sakura wasn't too sure if she should take that as a compliment and a blessing in disguise, or curse her natural talent.

 

“Try it.” He finished as he strolled onto the water, his chakra moulded perfectly after years of training and practicing.

 

Sakura's looked down at the water unsurely but `what the hey'd' and formed a seal with her slender hands before closing her eyes and focusing her chakra to her feet. She took an unsteady step on the water surface and felt it holding her weight. She smiled slightly as she let her other foot leave the safety of dry land and take a step on the moist surface of the skin of the water. She took another step, her full concentration fully on her chakra management. Her eyes fluttered open as she began to gain confidence and walk a little faster towards the Uchiha genius. With merely a few steps left before she stood directly before him, she couldn't help the smirk that fell on her lips as her orbs met onyx.

 

She hadn't counted on the smirk being reflected on the smooth and handsome face of the Uchiha prodigy. Her concentration cracked and as she began being submerged by the ice cold water, she could have sworn she heard the water beneath her cackle with mirth and glee.

 

With a last “Bastard,” said before she was swamped by the ice cold hands of the water that had just been itching at the chance to teach her a lesson, she began to doubt her own skills and talents, as well as the mission.

 

The best she was doing right now was getting the junior Uchiha to hate and despise her company. Hardly even close to the doggy paddle that he should have been doing for her.

 

What was the point of her being here anyway? Sakura was sure that Temari and Ino would do a much better job than she could ever do. She was just annoying the hell out of Sasuke, annoying the hell out of Kakashi, though she doubted he had noticed that much since his mind always seemed to track along the lines of a certain orange book that the rose haired woman despised.

 

Sakura hadn't even realised she had been sinking deeper and deeper into the depths of the, by looks of things, bottomless lake. She was merely watching the light of the surface begin to get smaller and more distant as she thought about her failures.

 

Even if she managed to run away from her prison and from this, with a character like Itachi, she was bound not to get very far before he would come and kill her for her betrayal.

 

Sakura's hand slowly reached out the light but had not energy left to propel herself to the top.

 

She would be lucky if Itachi came to kill her in person. More likely he would send one of his groupies to kill his slave woman. He didn't need to dirty his hands with the likes of her.

 

The rose haired woman watched as the bubbles holding her last breath began to rise to the surface, they we're out to save themselves.

 

She could almost laugh at how ironic the was, finally death was at her door and she wasn't in the least bit scared. She had lived a life of pain and suffering, she had learnt to hate herself in unimaginable ways. She had been tainted, raped and scarred. She was wasted goods, who could want her now?

 

A strong arm wrapped around her waist as Sakura's eyes began to close sleepily. She felt her chest hit another, a hard muscled chest, though her arms had no energy to grab hold of him, whoever he was. But her eyes flew open when she felt a pair of warm lips crash into her own cold ones. She felt oxygen being forced into her mouth as her body didn't refuse it. She let her burning lungs take in the gift as she allowed the man to press her against him tightly before he propelled them both to the surface. As both heads broke the surface of the water, both took large gulps of oxygen that both lungs had been deprived of.

 

“What the hell were you doing?!” Sasuke yelled as he still held her firmly against him so as not to let her try that stunt again. She had taken him by surprise, almost shocked him to the point of panic. She had tried to drown herself.

 

Sakura coughed and spluttered, but didn't reply, she merely let him hold her in his arms, where for the first time in years she felt safe. She didn't know what she had been doing, the best words her mind was offering her was `giving up'. But she would be damned before she would utter those words to any living soul and especially not the Uchiha before her.

 

Sakura felt herself being lifted as Sasuke had, still holding her waist in one hand, slipped out of the water to stand on it and then pulled her up bridal style. She hadn't been sure quite when they had reached dry land, but she felt the grass beneath her and was mentally thanking the Uchiha for not allowing her such a cowardly death.

 

Sasuke looked down at the rose haired woman. Her once sparkling emerald orbs were dull and half closed as she gazed up into the sky. Her rose hair was cling to her face as was her jounin uniform clung to her even tighter than it had before. Sasuke once again couldn't deny her beauty; he could never deny her that. But there was something broken about her, she looked like a puzzle with most of its pieces missing.

 

Maybe she was like him…

 

Itachi Uchiha, had and always would be a manipulative bastard that would get what he wanted, when he wanted and he didn't give a fuck about how it broke others in the process of getting it. Maybe, just like himself, Sakura had been manipulated, broken and moulded into what the older Uchiha wanted them to be.

 

Sasuke's onyx eyes took in her pale complexion, sickeningly pale. Her teeth had begun to chatter and Sasuke made the decision to take her back, he wouldn't be training her for another week, Kakashi had his first training lesson in three days time. Sasuke just prayed that the older nin would be able to straighten out what ever broken emotion the woman was feeling enough to just give up in the water situation.

 

The onyx eyed nin picked up the shaking woman and shared his own returning body heat with her, she snuggled into his chest, he could feel her light breath on his collar bone as she slotted her head under his chin. But what took him more by surprise than her actions, were the words that spilled from her lips as her eyes shut and she fell lost in the land of sleep.

 

“Thank you…” She had muttered. “Bastard.”

 

Sasuke smirked. She was fine, she just needed rest and a little time to get her head in order. He just wondered if the silver haired nin could help her do that.