(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?
Author's Note: This coming chapter is based on the short story
"Vor dem Gesetz" (trans.: 'In front of the Law'), a chapter in Franz Kafka's
novel Das Schloss (trans.: The Castle OR The Lock). It's an awesome story
in itself.
A vague sasusaku moment is here. It's nothing to get excited over...
or is it?
Sakura had softened her opinion of Momoko and Yousuke somewhat. They
took Sakura into their home, which was a large mansion bustling with children.
The couple had adopted various orphans who lost their parents because of
the Great War. While the children were off at school, Sakura did small
household chores, such as vacuuming or grocery shopping. She became good
friends with Mrs. Suzuki, the human cook whose angel husband died in action.
The mansion itself was imbedded on a forested hill overlooking the city
of Minerva, the center of all inter-celestial diplomacy. In which realm
Minerva truly belonged, no one knew. The population was split between angels
and demons for the most part — a few pure-blood humans lived there because
they were either related to, or had married, a supernatural being. The
foundation of this city rested on the relative peace between angels and
demons. If a small rebellion broke out, earthquakes would occur in Minerva.
If an all-out war broke out, the entire city would completely disintegrate.
As a symbolic gesture, the fighting tournaments were always held in
this city. Like the Chuunin examinations in the Shinobi world, Sakura found
out, these tournaments were a celebration of the peace-treaty between Demon
and Angel. The event also helped to satisfy the blood-lust which flowed
in the veins of some.
A guilty feeling pricked her heart. The Chuunin exams. When Sakura left
the Shinobi world, the exams were two weeks away. How could Naruto now
attend them, considering that both of his original teammates were gone?
Sure, he could get placed in another team, but Kakashi's beliefs in teamwork
would probably hedge Naruto from going. After all, both Sasuke and Sakura
were gone, and no matter how good a ninja Naruto was by himself, Kakashi
would not even sign a recommendation if Naruto didn't have a close team
with him.
Although comfortable, Sakura wished that there were some way to tell
her friends and family in the Shinobi world that she was okay. Of course
Sakura wanted to return to the world of ninjas — that was her home, where
she was raised at had her life. But the wormhole closed off, and Sakura
was stuck here. Everybody at home was probably worried sick or thought
her dead.
"Sakura, here's some tea." Momoko placed a cup of iced tea and a slice
of cake in front of Sakura.
Sakura smiled. "Thank you, Momoko-san."
"Please, just call me Momoko."
'At least she's not asking me to call her Mother,' Sakura thought to
herself as she ate her cake.
"Sakura, there's something Yousuke and I want you to do," Momoko said.
"What is it? Did Akito-kun throw up in his room again?"
"No..." Momoko knew this would upset the girl, but better tell her now
rather than wait until the last moment. "Yousuke put you into the junior
tournament that's coming in a month."
Sakura choked on her cake.
She began to cough. "WHAT?!" she managed to say.
This was too sudden. And way too dangerous. One week in a new dimension,
and she had almost been killed by, so far: one unknown demon, one young
fire-demon, and moving blobs made up of an unknown substance. Were Sakura
not trained as a ninja, she would be extremely paranoid by now.
"Yousuke and I know that you can do it," Momoko said with a smile. "Don't
worry, unlike the official fighting tournament, no killing is allowed."
"Killing!" Sakura exclaimed. "That's the least of my worries! They can
do a lot worse, you know! I only have average taijutsu skills and limited
supply of shuriken, kunai, and Kanshaku-dama, whereas everybody else will
have powerful magic skills and who-knows-what-else at their friggin' disposal!
I saw Yousuke's Demon Breeze: it's enough to blast away anything!" Sakura
paused for oxygen. "WHAT WAS HE THINKING when he put me in!?!"
"Yousuke had no choice. The Safety and Security Committee, and the Committee
of Public Relations... both want it that you to prove yourself worthy to
reside in Minerva and its associated lands."
Sakura groaned. "So this is a bureaucratic thing."
"Unfortunately, yes," Momoko said with a sigh. "Even full-blooded humans
can live in Minerva, but only if it is because they are related to, or
have married, an angel or demon living in the city. Only very few people
actually know that the daughter of an angel and a demon lives — and a child
from such a union is strictly forbidden."
Sakura caught on. "So... to the city council, I'm just a human who somehow
landed into the Dead Zone, where Yousuke just so happened to save me and
put me under his wing."
"Yes. Because Yousuke and I have the status of the legendary warriors
Viento and Wedding Peach, the committees are hesitant to take you out of
our household too quickly. So we're safe for now. Yet... if they can prove
that you are totally helpless, then they would have enough political power
to transfer you to the human realm. That's why they asked to see you in
the tournament."
Sakura's bit her lower lip in frustration. She was starting to get comfortable
in this new environment, and some random committees wanted to kick her
out already? 'Those narrow-minded bureaucrats!'
Sakura thought the matter through, looking at her tea. She watched the
thin line of steam threading upward.
"Momoko, is there any possible way that I can get my chakra back?" Sakura
asked.
Sasuke pulled his kunai out of the training doll. His aim was off today.
Orochimaru was irritated, thus getting more creepy than usual — he didn't
expect his best student to be this sloppy.
"Sasuke-kun, I think training is over for today," Orochimaru said with
a cool smile. "I can see something is bothering you."
The two had grown a strange sort of relationship. At first, Orochimaru
wanted Sasuke only as the next vessel for his soul, to continue his quest
for knowing every jutsu ever created. Simply knowing that he could use
so many techniques, and manipulate and see through any person and anything...
it thrilled Orochimaru. And Sasuke's body, with its Sharingan, beauty,
and strength at such a young age, would give Orochimaru a second queen
in his chess game for absolute knowledge, truth, and power.
There was a complication, however. The moment Sasuke arrived at Orochimaru's
hideout that fateful night, Orochimaru decided to transfer his soul not
into Sasuke's body, but in one of the lesser-able ninjas he had at his
disposal. Poor bloke; he probably didn't know what was coming to him. Sasuke
seemed quite naïve as well, thinking that Orochimaru merely wanted
him as a soldier in his Sound army. Maybe the boy only saw the relationship
as a mutual trade-off: Orochimaru trained Sasuke, and Sasuke served him.
Perhaps Sasuke knew Orochimaru's true intentions. he had already seen
a few jutsu which involved corpses, and was fully aware that his master
could kill him on a whim. That night in the Forest of Death was just a
test.
But something held the snake-man back when Sasuke came to him seeking
power. Maybe Orochimaru wanted to make sure Sasuke fully developed the
Sharingan before he took control of his body. Or maybe,Orochimaru wanted
to have, just one more time, the experience of teaching a talented student.
"There's nothing bothering me," Sasuke said with irritation.
"Your lying skills are getting terrible, too," Orochimaru sighed.
'Gods, he's creepy and I hate his guts,' Sasuke thought as he took a
shower. He dried himself, changed into his yukata and went to bed.
It was a little over five years since that night he saw Itachi standing
over the corpes of his parents. That scene never faded away from his consciousness.
He had to avenge the murder of his clan. He had trusted and admired
Itachi — his perfect, powerful, genius older brother. And then one evening,
Sasuke came home to find his family totally massacred by his idol. Because
of Itachi, Sasuke lost not only his family, but most of his trust in people.
The only reason Sasuke was here was that he needed Orochimaru's knowledge
and training. 'People are either tools or roadblocks for my own goals,
one or the other. That's just how it is.'
But today, thinking about Itachi wasn't what was making Sasuke lose
his normal cool. He thought about Itachi everyday, afterall. Now memories
of Konoha were resurfacing, albeit it was already six months ago when he
left it.
There was a nagging feeling at the back of his head, telling him that
something was missing from this world.
A cherry blossom tree was standing outside his window. He saw that its
flowers were wilting. He narrowed his eyes and closed the curtains.
'Okay, so Momoko didn't know. Go figure. The library has to have something,
though.'
Sakura added a little skip on her quest for a holy chakra guide. Or
a holy ki guide. Whatever that could give her back her array of jutsu.
Sakura reached the public library. The building was huge. She entered
it hesitantly, and her jaw dropped at the number of books. This library
probably was ten times bigger than that of Konohagakure. Sakura feltsmall,
but she was also a little excited at the same time. The bigger the library,
the greater the chance for her finding what she needed. Sakura had a gleam
in her eyes, mixed with a little insanity, as she walked up to the head
desk.
"I need some scrolls on chakra!" she demanded the head librarian.
The librarian cocked an eyebrow. "Scrolls?"
Sakura realized her mistake. This library had books, not scrolls. She
laughed nervously. "I mean, books. On chakra — I mean, ki."
"Okay. The section on the science of spiritual energy is..." the library
read the monitor, "third floor, section M, stacks 4-10." She scribbled
the information down on a slip of paper, and handed it to Sakura.
"Thank you!" Sakura took the paper and dashed up the stairway.
She reached the third floor and entered section A — only to realize
that each section meant a single room.
She walked through the section, glancing at the rows and rows of books
passing her by. At last, she reached the door which went to section B.
In front of the door stood a guard. Sakura could tell that he was an
angel by his folded wings. He also held a spear in his hands. He looked
rather bored.
"Um, excuse me. Could I please go in?" Sakura asked him. "I'm trying
to get to section M."
The angel did not move, save his mouth. "Sorry, miss, it's not open
now," he said in a firm tone.
'What the heck?!?' Sakura was confused. "What, section B or section
M?"
"Both."
The kunoichi crossed her arms, her green eyes scrutinizing the angel.
"Why would a couple of sections of the library be closed when the rest
of it is open?"
"I don't make the rules."
"When are these open, then?" she demanded.
"Soon," he answered. The guard handed her a stool. "Here's something
you can sit on."
Sakura looked at him incredulously. 'Who does he think I AM!?!'
"I have a feeling that you're just here to scare off people from going
in!" the kunoichi stated bluntly.
The angel was impressed. "Very good!" he congratulated. "You know, most
people who came up here just leave after waiting for hours and hours on
end. You can go in the section if you want to, but there's stuff in there
that's rather... scary, shall we say."
"I'm at least looking, okay?" Sakura said as she reached for the handle.
"If you're going in, you'll stay in until you reach the next door,"
the angel said. "But don't blame me for not warning you."
Sakura glared at him, then entered.
The door slammed behind her. And she gave a small scream at what she
saw in section B.
Books were falling from the shelves, creating a mess. All sorts of bugs,
snakes and lizards were crawling out of the open books lying on the floor.
'EEWWWWWWW! NEXT DOOR, NEXT DOOR!!!'
Sakura ran through the harmless (yet quite mind-grating) jumble of paper,
insects and reptiles. She reached the door and entered the next room.
Section C was full of textbooks. They were all neatly in the stacks.
It looked as if nobody looked through these in years — but that was probably
because there were gigantic bookworms eating through them.
Nobody would want to touch these. Sakura wrinkled her nose in disgust,
and went forward.
A worm dropped from the ceiling and landed on Sakura.
The girl whipped out a kunai and sliced it in half. The slimy pieces
dropped to the floor, and she ran to the door before any more worms wanted
to make a feast out of her.
She was now getting a little scared.
Section D: this one looked a little more normal. In fact, it looked
exactly like section A. And the door's guard looked exactly like the previous
one. Sakura walked up to him. "Unlike my brother, I am not letting you
through without a fight," he said, pointing his spear at her.
The kunoichi was far out of his reach (unless he threw the spear, of
course), but she wanted to actually get to the door and go through it.
Unscathed. She tightly held her kunai, but then decided to put it back
in her shuriken holster.
"Please let me through. I must," she said with her most diplomatic voice.
"No," he said. "I am required to resort to certain measures, if need
be."
"And I am required as well to go to section M."
The guard shook his head. "Do you know exactly what lies past here?"
he asked her.
"Section E." Sakura said it matter-of-factly, trying to keep a straight
face.
"That's not what I meant, you stupid girl!" the guard snapped. "There
are many dangerous books on the third floor. You already saw the disturbing
things in sections B and C. The sections past this door have things you
couldn't even imagine. It would be safer for you to go back."
"I'm going in, no matter what kind of stuff is in there!" Sakura hotly
replied. She ran towards him. He looked surprised at her sudden charge,
especially when she had no weapons drawn.
"Fine, go in," the angel said as he sidestepped and opened the door,
causing a bewildered Sakura to tumble into Section E and fall on her face.
"But don't say I didn't warn you!" he called out, right before slamming
it shut.
Sakura's face was now deep in mud. 'THAT WAS SOOO RANDOM! THIS PLACE
IS INSANE!!'
Sure enough, the next sections had more disgusting and surreal things,
among them: hand-biting books, acid-spitting plants, flying paper dolls
that tried to slashed you, and shelves that liked to either block or crush
those who passed by. The guards were getting more persistent, too — Sakura
lost her temper and used five shuriken on the last one, and he crumbled
into dust.
Sakura, caked with dirt, slime, sweat and blood, finally reached the
door leading to section M.
She then stopped. She reexamined the room she was in. Section L seemed...
normal. It had no guard, either. There had to be some sort of a catch.
She closely looked at the doorknob. She touched it with a kunai. Nothing
happened. She grabbed it and twisted it.
A shower of water sprayed on her. 'Oh, well,' she thought. 'At least
it isn't acid.'
The door opened to Section M. Finally. And she saw two people in the
middle of the section. It was the head librarian and Yousuke.
"Please don't tell me that I have to fight you, too," Sakura moaned.
The pink-haired girl noticed that she was now completely clean and dry.
Yousuke laughed. "No, no," he said. "We're both here to congratulate
you. You stood the test."
"Test?" Sakura's blood was starting to boil. "You mean you set up all
that shit as a TEST?!"
"Yes, and you did amazingly well," the librarian said.
"I was almost killed," Sakura said, sounding like the Grim Reaper himself.
"No. You might have gotten hurt, but not killed," Yousuke said.
Sakura exploded. "It was only my stubbornness that got me through, SHAANNAROOOOO!!!"
"EXACTLY," the librarian replied, completely unfazed with Sakura's outburst.
"That test is given to EVERYBODY who tries to find the more classified
information to this library. Once you get through the 'Third Floor Ordeal',
you can handle anything that comes your way!"
"That was a FUCKING WASTE OF TIME!" Sakura yelled.
"LIKE HELL IT WAS!" Yousuke yelled back. "Sakura, don't you see what
this test is supposed to simulate?"
Sakura's temper deflated with this sudden question. She thought about
it. "Um... life?" she hesitantly asked
"Close, but not quite," Yousuke said, although he secretly thought that
she only had guessed. "I'll give you a hint. It's why you came here in
the first place. What was the reason?"
The pink-haired girl rubbed her head. "I came here... to find information
about chakra."
"Go on," he said.
"And I need information on chakra to do well in the tournament... And
that's because the committees want to see if I can protect myself."
"Precisely," Yousuke said. "You see, Sakura, when you live in any society,
you're going to run into bureaucracy... people and rules that are roadblocks
to your goals. Those people, just like those angel guards, might have a
point, of course: you're going into unknown and perhaps dangerous territory.
But if you have the determination and have a clear goal in mind — in this
case, getting the right information and staying in Minerva — you have a
good chance. You've just proven how strong your own will is."
Sakura didn't know what to say. On the one hand, she felt kind of giddy
and proud of herself. That test was unusual, to say the least. And it had
revealed something which she thought she never had.
On the other hand...
"VIENTO, if this weren't mandatory for all people entering the third
floor, I would have killed you by now."
He smiled. "That's 'Yousuke' to you."
If you have questions, comments, or suggestions, please tell me! If
I suck, by all means tell me. In an intelligent manner.
Book
collections on CD and DVD. A library for the price of a book.