(Tim Seltzer, seltzer@seltzerbooks.com) Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. I do not own Wedding Peach.
I do not own any great quantity of money or property. I'm a STUDENT; that's
why I'm poor, okay?
"Sakura-oneechan... are you really going away?"
Sakura looked up, and saw a blue-haired sprite standing in the doorway.
The kunoichi was beginning to pack her traveling gear for the journey into
the Rifts. She, Minoru and Potamos would set off in a few days.
Sakura gave a sad smile. "I'm going on a trip, Umi-chan."
"When are you coming back?"
"I don't know... The trip could take months... maybe even a year."
Three seconds after she uttered these words, the kunoichi found the
short girl embracing her waist in a tight grip. "That's too long, Sakura-oneechan!!"
Umi exclaimed.
Sakura could tell that the girl was very, very upset, although not on
the brink of tears. At Umi's age, a year seemed like forever. The older
girl returned the hug, and then began to stroke Umi's blue hair.
"I'm sorry Umi. I really am. But I have to do this. Besides — you don't
need me. You have your parents, family, and friends. And," Sakura tapped
the sprite's nose, "you're growing. You're getting stronger."
'That's why you'll get over it,' Sakura commented inside, 'even if I
don't come back.'
Sakura, Minoru, and Potamos stood in front of a glowing portal — the
only connection between Minerva and the Rifts. The hole itself was swirling
with colors. It was not open yet, but it regularly opened and closed every
other week for about an hour's duration. A number of guards stood by, just
for security reasons.
"Take good care of her, Minoru," Yousuke said as he shook the elf's
hand.
Minoru answered with a curt nod. "Of course, Viento-sama."
Yousuke made a face. "Ugh... I keep telling you not to call me that."
Minoru had his green robes on, yet he also was armed with a bow, a quiver
full of arrows, knives in various places of his body, and a pack of supplies
on his back. Potamos still wore her revealing, red fairy-dress with purple
shorts and purple gloves, but now wore a black mantle. Sakura was armed
with Tennyo on the left side of her waist, her shuriken holster on her
right leg, and a pouch of other supplies behind Tennyo's scabbard. Her
red, Chinese-style dress remained ever-so-durable, and she wore it with
pride along with her traveler's cloak.
Momoko hugged Sakura. "Sakura, be careful out there. Protect each other,
and fight for each other: that's what makes a perfect team." The half-angel
then turned to Potamos, and hugged her as well, much to everyone else's
amazement. "Potamos, I'm glad that you agreed to come along with Sakura.
I can tell that she is very lucky to have a friend like you."
The water-demon blushed and giggled.
Meanwhile, Scarlett took her pupil to the side. "Sakura, I just want
to tell you to be very, very careful out there. Minoru has done this trip
many times before, so you must listen to him. And Potamos... well, convince
her to do the same if she doesn't."
Sakura smiled. "Don't worry, Scarlett-sensei. I won't let my guard down."
She touched the hilt of Tennyo, now firmly strapped to her waist. "Thank
you for teaching me so much."
"There are still a few things you could learn, but maybe when you get
back," Scarlett said with a grin. She lowered her voice. "And be careful
with your aura. If you go off inventing crazy things, Minoru can help only
to a certain point. And don't go showing your magic off to the common folk
there; they have a tendency to inflate and spread stories that somehow
manage to seep into the angel and demon realms."
"The portal is opening!" Yousuke called out. Sure enough, the sea of
color began to mix together, until a white mist was left.
One of the more important-looking officials walked over to the wall
of mist, put his staff in it, and pulled it out, much like a thermometer.
The orb on top of the staff changed from red to blue. "You may go in now,"
he announced.
"I'll go first," Minoru said. He stepped into the portal, and disappeared
through the mist.
Sakura was a little nervous. She also was intrigued by the portal —
'What is this MADE of?' — and was about to examine it. Yet she had no time:
Potamos grabbed her hand, and pulled her along into the white cloud. "Let's
go Sacchan!!"
Sakura yelped with the quick jerk. The last thing that passed through
was her silky, pink hair.
Yousuke gave a sigh — whether it was of relief or frustration, no one
could tell. He turned to Momoko and Scarlett. "I do hope that you're sure
about this, Scarlett-san."
"Quite sure." Scarlett walked away. "I have some work to do now. We'll
keep in contact with Minoru, once they reach an elfin village."
Tsunade tapped her fingers on her desk. She could not help but be nervous.
Who wouldn't be? Jiraiya and Naruto were out on a long training trip. With
all the calm around, it was a shame to leave the enthusiastic ninja caged
in the village. He agreed to put off taking the Chuunin exams, as long
as he trained with Jiraiya.
(( "Don't worry! Once I come back, I'll kick ASS!!"
"Just train with Jiraiya."
"Gotcha!" ))
But it was precisely this calm which made Tsunade nervous. The Sound
was still in existence, under Orochimaru's command. Their attacks against
Konoha were decreasing in frequency, true. Yet questions remained. Were
they growing weaker, while the Leaf was holding more or less stable? Or
were they growing stronger and stronger by the second? True, Orochimaru's
village was still termed a minor village, but Konoha was dubbed likewise
with such a title, only less than a century ago.
Moreover, Orochimaru had Sasuke on his forces. It was bad enough that
one Uchiha was with the Akatsuki, but the other with the Sound... Just
what happened to Sasuke? It was nearly a year since he left, and there
was yet no sign of him.
'Orochimaru may have possessed Sasuke's body... but this is highly unlikely.
If that were the case, he'd be much more active. Hell, he would attack
Konoha the next second. At least I can order the ANBU to capture Sasuke
alive, instead of just killing him. He's too valuable of a soldier, and
hasn't earned the title of an S-rank criminal.'
There was also another Konoha genin whom Tsunade had not heard from.
Sakura had been missing for a whole seven months.
Tsunade recalled one encounter with slight amusement.
(( Workers were beginning to chisel Tsunade's face next to the other
Hokage — on 'that damn mountain', as she liked to call it. Yet it was the
village's tradition; even the Hokage herself had no power over its construction.
When Tsunade took her first look at the initial stages, she wanted to
turn away in disgust. It embarrassed her to see her face inflated a thousand
times over. 'I'm just Tsunade,' she wanted to insist. But then, she noticed
a pink-haired girl climbing the mountain, completely ignoring the fact
that she was in a work zone.
"What are you doing up there, young lady?!" Tsunade called out. "That's
dangerous!"
Sakura groaned, not recognizing the person's voice. Yet another person
was yelling at her. "I'm training!" the kunoichi shouted in frustration.
"Don't stop me!!"
Tsunade opened her mouth to say something, then stopped. The girl was
determined — she wanted to prove herself. She was very much like Tsunade
when she was younger.
"What's your workout?" the Hokage decided to ask.
Sakura still did not look down. She had to concentrate with this exercise.
"Climb up, climb down, three times — and make sure to enjoy the sunset."
Tsunade laughed. "I suppose that you got that from Gai. Only he would
come up something so insane and romantic at the same time."
Sakura froze. It finally dawned on her: she just yelled at the Hokage!
Sakura gulped as she looked down. Indeed, it was the Fifth. "I am in SO
much shit now," the pink-haired girl mumbled to herself.
Tsunade examined the girl hanging on the rocks. Was she so desperate
that she was going to Gai, of all teachers? Well, Kakashi was pretty lazy...
He did his normal missions impeccably, but he always managed to waste other
people's time in some way.
"Kakashi told me that you're good with genjutsu — and Gai is a taijutsu
specialist. Why go to him?"
"I need to get stronger," Sakura explained. Her fingers shook: a little
in fear, a little in nervousness, but most of all, in shame. "I can't rely
on genjutsu alone."
A smile tugged at Tsunade's lips. What a simple, yet powerful answer.
Perhaps she could do something for the girl. ))
Tsunade sighed. 'Sakura, where the hell are you? I cannot worry about
you forever. And neither can your parents.'
Sakura looked at the wonderful scenery. She and her two companions had
stepped on the side of a mountain, with a dramatic view of the valley and
plains below. "Wow," she breathed as she followed Minoru down the slope.
"These are the Rifts?"
"Don't let appearances deceive you," Minoru said. "It's not all peace
and quiet. Many things here are a bit unstable. You see that forest patch
over there, right at the foot of that mountain?" He pointed southwest,
and Sakura's eyes followed his finger.
"What about it?" she asked.
"By this time tomorrow, that exact forest and mountain will be around
a kilometer apart from each other."
"Excuse me?" his pink-haired friend asked. "Are you saying that trees
MOVE here?"
"The ground moves," Minoru corrected. "Not in a jerky way like Earth,
with volcanoes and earthquakes — it's just smoother, and faster. The only
places that remain in one piece are the magically-enforced villages, and
the energy springs."
"How does that work?" Sakura asked. "The moving, I mean?"
"It's the aura between the different realms!" Potamos answered cutely
and intelligently. "The Rifts act like a wetland, absorbing and cleaning
the energy from the angel and demon worlds before they get into the human
world."
"Minoru-san... Would we be able to get into the human world?" Sakura
was curious about the human realm of this dimension. She read in the Minerva
books of their advancement in technology. Magic was forgotten in that realm;
they did not need it — they even could blow their whole world up, several
times over, if they wanted to.
"There are a few random openings between the human realm and the Rifts.
Slave-traders here always look for them."
Sakura almost tripped over the rocky ground. "There are SLAVE-traders?!"
Minoru sighed. "Of course — the books in Minerva fail to mention that
particular fact. Intentionally, I think. Whenever a poor soul falls into
the Rifts from the human realm, their identity is forgotten at home. So
they often end up as servants or slaves to other beings living in the Rifts."
"That's... terrible!"
"Yes, it is. For this reason, some runaway humans form gangs. Some of
the freed ones become volunteer protectors of their villages. A number
even work with elves to learn magic — it sometimes takes them a lifetime.
The less-patient ones sell their... souls to a powerful spirit or two,
in exchange for instant magic." The elf glanced to his side, where Potamos
was humming to herself. "Do not skip so enthusiastically, devil-child;
you have to preserve your energy."
"Okey-dokey!" Potamos reduced herself to a moderate walk, but she kept
a bounce in her step. Sakura grinned. The water-demon had a wonderful skill
of complying with people's wishes, while still pleasing herself.
"Ero-sennin, are we there YET?"
"The inn is somewhere around here. And I have a name, boy. It's Jiraiya."
"I have a name, too! It's Uzumaki Naruto!!"
"Nevertheless, you're still a brat."
"You're still a pervy old man."
Thus was the daily ritual between master and pupil. Well, not exactly
master — and the pupil was far from the perfect student. Both were stubborn,
had eccentric personalities, and insulted each other in public so much
that it was hard to believe that both were ninja. Then again, any freak
could be a ninja nowadays...
After three hours of walking in a circle, the two finally reached an
inn. It wasn't anything grand, but at least it was clean. But Naruto could
figure out exactly why Jiraiya chose this particular place.
There was a bathhouse next door.
After checking in, Jiraiya handed Naruto his bag. This was also common
practice. "Boy, you can go to the room and amuse yourself. Mold chakra,
or something. I'm off to do research."
Naruto grimaced. "Yeah, sure. Research."
Jiraiya trained Naruto, of course, but not until he was done satiating
his less-than-noble endeavors. If it were not for the fact that the sennin
helped Naruto so much during the Chuunin exams, the blond teen would have
asked for a different person to tutor him. But Kakashi was needed in the
higher missions back in Konoha, and Tsunade had gone through so much trouble
just to give Naruto this opportunity to study, without being bogged down
by low-rank missions.
The blond fox-boy slammed the traveling bags on the floor. An angry
yell sounded from below. "Sorry, person on the second floor," Naruto called
through the tatami mat, not meaning the apology at all.
Naruto decided to study one of the scrolls Tsunade gave him. He opened
a bag — and discovered that he grabbed the wrong one. It was Jiraiya's
stuff. There were several notebooks.
To be more precise, they were manuscripts. For a certain, very popular,
adult series. 'Wow,' Naruto thought. 'So he actually WORKS now and then.
I wonder how much he makes writing this trash.' Curiosity got the better
of him, and he opened one of the notebooks.
'Hey, this isn't so bad,' he thought. 'It doesn't even seem that dirty.
What's Kakashi blushing about when he reads this stuff?'
He did not know the characters, or the story — he had only opened the
notebook in the middle — but that made no difference to a boy like him.
He just imagined himself in the place of the hero. Heck, there was no real
plot except getting the girl.
He decided to read further. Naruto suddenly became interested in a certain
chapter. Needless to say: it was turning graphic.
Naruto was currently going through a growth spurt, growing taller. His
voice cracked now and then, and his facial appearance grew more handsome
and mature by the second. He also was becoming more curious in... well,
the opposite sex. It was different from his crush on Sakura. He wanted
to know more about relationships, and — let's face it — anatomy.
He gulped. One part of him was saying: 'No, no! This is fake; it's phony;
real love is MOST probably not like this; that pervert wrote this; YOU
MORON, WHY ARE YOU CONTINUING TO READ?!'
Yet his teenage hormones were driving him to go further. Pretty soon,
Naruto was blushing furiously. He did not understand every single detail
and word, but he wanted to learn. Hey, he wanted a girlfriend, right? Maybe
if he kept reading...
He felt something very, very hard slam down on top of his skull.
Sakura washed a smooth, flat stone near a creek. Using it as a block,
the pink-haired girl sliced the herbs and vegetables Minoru picked up on
the way. She crushed them with the flat side of the kunai, and scraped
off the wad into a simmering pot of water. Potamos, meanwhile, was learning
from Minoru how to skin a rabbit. The three were surrounded by two cliffs
facing each other, near a creek.
Sakura was a bit disappointed with the lack of excitement in this trip.
She had hoped that there would be more of the Rifts' monsters she read
about in the library — something to fight against. Instead, the only creatures
they encountered so far were cute, furry little animals.
It was driving Sakura insane.
It was already four o'clock in the afternoon on the first day of the
trip, and she still had not touched any of her weapons. She did not necessarily
have the urge to bleed something, but she wanted to practice with her katana
and various jutsu.
Minoru walked over with the clean pieces of meat, and put them in the
pot of water. He helped Sakura kindle the fire with more wood and a touch
of magic.
The elf noticed the restlessness of his ninja companion. "Sakura-san,
you may practice your magic and kendo over there," Minoru said. "I'll take
over the cooking from now."
The kunoichi gave Minoru a suspicious look. "Okay... thanks." She walked
over to a more spacy area to review her sword moves.
Minoru sighed as he watched Sakura wobble off. 'Don't worry, Sakura-san.
You'll get the practice you need soon enough.'
Sakura looked up into the cloudless, darkening sky. 'Oh well. I guess
I can put something into practice.' Her hands made the seals, and she drew
out Tennyo. The green was becoming more prominent. Glowing sword in hand,
she danced through her moves.
The kunoichi still could not find a sequence that brought out as much
pink chakra. In fact, she still could only bring out a line of the angelic
ki through Tennyo. It was strange: when she first received the katana,
Sakura had an easier time manifesting the pink, angelic aura than before.
Now, it was as if only the green agreed to show up.
It was probably because Sakura still could not find a sequence to go
along with the angelic aura. After all, Sakura just drew from what she
learned about wind-style jutsu, and experimented with different (and fairly
safe-looking) sequences before she actually used them with Tennyo. That
was basically all she did to bring out her wind-demon blood.
It was frustrating: one part of her was incomplete. What irked her more
was that before she left with Minoru and Potamos, Scarlett did not even
help her student in bringing her angelic aura to the level of the demonic
aura. The angel taught Sakura kendo and iaido, but what about some hard-core
spells? Scarlett herself was an angel — so why wasn't she helping to balance
things out? Did she have no faith in her student to go the distance?
'Maybe I'm thinking too much in terms of human relationships,' Sakura
thought. 'I'm a little too obsessed with those. I have no choice but to
trust my instinct.'
Sakura deactivated her aura in Tennyo, and slid the katana back in its
scabbard. She then walked over to a patch of sand near the creek, and picked
up a long stick. With it, she began to write in the sand.
Potamos walked over. "Sacchan, dinner's ready!" The water-demon glanced
at what Sakura was doing. "What's that? It looks like a really... messy
diagram."
"It's a jutsu-equation," Sakura explained. What she drew looked like
an abstract painting. Various kanji of the hand-seals were written in the
sand, connected with lines and pointing arrows. "It's incomplete, though.
And maybe doing it in sand is not such a good idea."
Potamos' yellow cat-eyes widened in amazement. "Wow... I had no idea
it was so complicated. Usually you just force something out in your own
language if you use a spell. But Sacchan, Mino-chan made a really good
stew. Come on; let's eat!"
"It's true, your eminence. Haruno Sakura is nowhere to be found in Minerva.
She has left the Fuuma residence."
"If she's not in Minerva, then WHERE is she?"
"I do not know, sir. Nothing is reported on the matter. There was nothing
in the data about a human entering the angel or demon realms... The only
place left would be the human world."
"...That's probably not the case. She has no reason to go there. She
did not even grow up there — I know this for a fact." The man ground his
teeth. "Let's leave it alone for now. At present, she is no threat. But
if we find word of her again... we'll see what we can do."
"Of course."
The man exhaled in a tense manner as his servant walked out of the room.
He would do anything for peace. But in his heart, he also wanted vengeance.
Revenge, for the pain and humiliation his family suffered.
It was only fair — after all, his little brother was no different from
her.
Oh, yes. He wanted Sakura dead. It would be sweet, and just.
Notes:
Due to popular demands, I think I should put a pairing in — at least
for the sequel. I plan it to be either Sakura/Sasuke or Sakura/Minoru.
Please vote!
If you have questions, comments, or suggestions, please tell me! If
I suck, by all means tell me. In an intelligent manner.
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