Letters to a Soldier:
Chapter 6
A/N: I'm baaack! I'm so happy I got so many reviews! I'm so grateful.
Thanks to: animejunkie1028, SaphireGloom, musagirl15, icygirl2, earthlover, Tishni, animequeen100, Sagitarious Devil, raebird223, Ivory-Wings-Stained-Red, STEVEO 352, moonlesslife, boo93, XxApatheticXxNymphXx, DarkHeartless, and sasukelver94!!! I love you all, if you want me to answer questions or reply to yur review just say kay?
Um… it had come to my attention (meaning that I constantly check for flaws in my work days after I write it, a bad habit) that I accidentally forgot to use a key in the last five chapters and therefore I messed up on how I put characters thinking. Here's the key and hopefully u won't be confused. Sorry!
Key:
'This' Inner Sakura
'This' Normal Thinking
"This" Talking
This -letter
Disclaimer: Seriously do I still need to put these? See my last five chapters I think you'll get the picture.
Sakura walked down the driveway of Ino's house (more like mansion compared to her skinny apartment!). She was guiding Ino through the application for the soldier program.
Not everyone could join (they wanted to make sure that the people the soldier's wrote too would write frequently, be nice, etc.), and Ino wasn't sure that her application would be good so she asked (more like demanded and threatened) Sakura to help her. And of course Sakura helped her. She was her best friend after all (Ino had to best collection of blackmail in Konoha).
Sakura mentally sighed as she remembered what happened during the application.
-------Flashback---------------------
"Forehead!"
"What Ino-pig?"
"Why are you erasing my answer?!"
"Because it sounds conceited and mean, Ino-pig, try to come up with something more pure, even if you're not…" Sakura said, mumbling the last part to herself.
Ino huffed and said, "Fine. Let me see…"
She swiped the letter away from Sakura and asked "Which question?"
"The one with the erase marks." Sakura said sweetly.
"… Hey! Almost all of them have erase marks!" Ino yelled, horrified, all the work she put in on making the letters nice and neat and keeping the paper void of any mess was in vain.
"No shit, Sherlock." Sakura said.
"Nice mouth, Forehead. Now what am I supposed to do?! I can't turn in a paper like this! They'll know I erased the answers! Sakura, I called you over to help me put together this stupid thing, not destroy it!"
"I am helping you, Ino; all those answers would have got you rejected!"
"Then maybe I'm not the type to do this…" Ino said, holding back a sniff.
Sakura shook her head, Ino was way too dramatic sometimes.
"Okay, let's do this again…" Sakura said, massaging her temples in frustration; she had been here since five, it was already ten.
"Fine," Ino said downheartedly while crumbling up the application and throwing it towards the wastebasket where all her other poor excuses for applications were, "Let's get this over with."
She drew out another copy of the program application and began to fill out her personal info. (i.g. name, number, emergency contacts, etc.)
"I still don't know why you don't do this for me." Ino mumbled.
"I already told you; they check to see if you really wrote it by asking you a question and comparing your answers. They'd know you didn't write it because the way we answer is totally different." Sakura explained, exhausted. At the beginning she refused to give the answers to Ino because, despite being best friends, she didn't want to help Ino cheat. Now, she would have gladly given Ino answers except for that one minor problem.
At first Ino suggested that she memorize it, but when she saw Sakura's answers she knew it would be impossible for her to get every single thing so that idea was dropped as a failure.
"Okay," Sakura spoke up after five minutes, "Let me see what you've got so far…"
She knew that by this time it would be stupid to let Ino answer the whole thing if it would end up being thrown away.
Ino handed her the wretched paper.
Sakura scanned her answers with an expert eye, truthfully Ino's answers did seem to be getting better, they still held her 'Ino' spark but not so much as to let others know how she was.
Suddenly Sakura stopped and let her eye linger on one particular answer.
"Ino…" Sakura said quietly.
"What?" Ino asked, somewhat nervous.
"Question number 14: Why are you interested in this program? Answer: 'Because all my friends are on it and I hate to be left out of anything and I'm bored.' Honestly, what are you thinking?" Sakura asked in disbelief, "That'll never past inspection!"
"What?" Ino asked innocently, "I put on my qualities that I was honest! And that's why I'm interested in the program!"
"Aren't you interested in meeting new people? Encouraging our troops? Giving them hope while they're down?" Sakura asked, exasperated.
Ino gave an un-ladylike snort. "Nope, but those are good answers, can I put them down?"
Sakura rolled her eyes.
--------------------End Flashback-------------------------
Sakura stifled a yawn. That almost turned into an all-nighter; luckily Ino loved her beauty sleep. Tomorrow they would turn in the application and fate would work its magic and decide if Ino could join the program.
However, Sakura couldn't help but feel that she just sentenced whatever poor soldier Ino got to a life or reading boring letters that contained information on the latest fashions, make-up, etc.
Sakura giggled at the thought of a soldier wearing make-up, and then mentally reminded herself that the soldier could be a girl.
'Bet Ino would love that.' Sakura thought sarcastically.
Then Sakura thought of her own soldier, and wistfully sighed. It had been a month already and she felt that they hadn't gotten anywhere in learning about each other. So far all his letters were beneath a page long and he was still rude. Once in while he'd be nice and she had wondered why he had a sudden change of heart so she asked him about this and he told her that his general (Kakashi) would make him write his letters like that.
Of course, Sakura had to be nice to him (or else her conscience would nag her all day) so he was just encouraged to be an ass to her. She still didn't get a picture of him because he explained that he didn't want to waste two dollars on her. Two dollars?! That was nothing!
Sakura rounded the corner and saw her house come into view; vaguely she wondered what Sasuke's house looked like. All she found out about him was that he also lived somewhere in Fire Country; he refused to tell her what town he came from. She also found out a little more about his life at the camp. Apparently they did drills nearly all day everyday except on Sundays, where they only did it in the afternoon.
Sakura wondered how anyone could find time to write in that tight schedule but she didn't question it; she was grateful that Sasuke even wrote at all, let alone every day.
Sakura entered her house, and checked her phone for messages, only one from the hospital about some paperwork to turn in tomorrow.
She put her bag down as she entered her bedroom and plopped down on her bed; she already sent Sasuke her letter that morning so this was one of the nights she didn't have to worry about writing another letter.
Sleepily she closed her eyes and went to sleep.
(Next Day)
"S-sakura, I don't think I can do this!" Ino said worriedly, not even bothering to call Sakura 'Forehead'.
Sakura rolled her eyes and said, "Come on Ino-pig! We haven't got all day! In fact we only got ten minutes before first period!"
Ino scowled.
"Oh, this is so easy for you!" Ino yelled, indignantly. "You've already done this! And no one was watching you!"
"Oh who cares? Just get it over with so we can get going!" Sakura wanted to get her letter from Sasuke already. Maybe, just maybe he would actually write today. Though chances of that happening were slim.
"U-um, miss, can we get this over with…" The male nurse next to the two girls asked timidly. Ino had hit him earlier for saying the exact same thing.
Ino's eyebrow twitched dangerously before she said, "Fine."
Ino huffed and sucked in her breath and closed her eyes before stepping onto the scale the nurse had led her to.
"102 lbs…" the nurse said jotting the number onto a white sheet on his clipboard.
Ino's eyes shot open. "What did you say?!"
The nurse visibly gulped before mumbling, "102 lbs, really isn't bad for someone of your height and structure, it's actually…"
"Forehead, I hate you!" Ino yelled, whirling around towards Sakura, "It's your stupid fault for convincing me to do this! Now the whole world knows that I'm fat!"
Every applicant for the program needed their weight, and height checked by the doctor for some reason, much to Ino's dismay.
Sakura sighed, "Ino-pig! The nurse just said that you weren't fat! That's what you're supposed to weigh!"
Ino sniffed angrily. "Whatever forehead, we are sooooo going on a diet and getting rid of all this junk that has insulted our beautiful body."
"Ino!"
"Fine, my beautiful body!"
"Ino-pig I am not going on a diet with you!"
"Yes you are Forehead!"
"No I am not!"
The nurse at this point wisely decided to leave the room.
"Yes you are!"
"No!"
"Fine!"
"Fine?" Sakura asked confused.
"Fine, we'll let this thing, decide for us. If I think you're too fat we are going on a diet, together, no buts." Ino said, disdainfully looking at the weight scale.
Sakura thought over it a minute. She wasn't embarrassed about her weight, no, but if she knew Ino (and she did) then she'd definitely make her go on a diet until the doctors diagnosed her anorexic.
Riiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnnggggggggg!!!!
Phew, saved by the bell, literally.
"That was the bell Ino-pig, let's go before we're late to class!" Sakura said, running out the door before Ino could call her back. She already arrived to the classroom before Ino caught up with her.
"Forehead! We are going on a diet, whether you like it or not!"
"Fine; I'm indifferent." Sakura said.
"Wha?" Ino asked confused.
"In-di-ffer-ent, Ino, it means that I neither like it nor dislike it, meaning that I'm not going on a diet!" Sakura explained cheekily.
Ino huffed, and said, "Fine, let's sit down."
The two girls sat down next to each other before the principle walked in like she always did every morning carrying a box.
"Do any of you have any applications to turn in?" Tsunade asked routinely.
Five students got up and walked down to turn in their applications, Ino included. When they returned Tsunade said, "We will notify you within five days to see if you've been approved for the program.
"Now when I call your name please come up here and gather your letter."
Tsunade began to dully call out students' names as some got up, excited, to collect it.
Sakura amused herself for the time being by listening to TenTen and Hinata talk behind her; she knew that Sasuke made sure that his letter was always at the bottom of the packet lest anyone see it.
"Gah! That bastard hasn't written for two weeks he'd better have written to me today!" TenTen hissed behind her.
Sakura heard Hinata give out a nervous laugh.
"U-um… do you know what they're serving for lunch today?" Hinata asked, hoping to get her off topic.
TenTen shrugged. "Nope, but I hope that they serve curry over there, he hates that stuff. Oh I'll make him pay!"
Again Hinata let out a nervous laugh.
"U-um do you know what his name is?" Hinata asked. Sakura smiled, that was a good tactic. From previous experience the group had learned that TenTen loved to be asked this question and dropped whatever she was doing to discuss whatever his name might be.
TenTen's eyes glowed angrily. Sakura sweat dropped; TenTen obviously didn't think that not knowing the guys' name was cute or romantic right now.
"No! Even though I've asked him a billion times! The bastard still won't answer! Gah! I swear when I get my hands on him –no –I'm not even lay a finger on him! I'm gonna throw a bunch of needles up his stuck up ass! If he writes back I'm gonna rub it in his face that he lost to that guy in arm wrestle! I always write back as soon as possible why can't he do the same?! He's such a stupid jerk-"
"TenTen" Tsunade's voice drawled out.
TenTen shot up saying, "He's such an awesome guy!"
Sakura sweat dropped while Hinata giggled. They caught each others eye and started to laugh.
"Hey, Hinata, TenTen sure changes her mind a lot doesn't she?" Sakura asked, laughing.
"Y-yes." Hinata giggled.
"So, when is it that you're gonna sign up for this again?" Sakura asked; Hinata continuously changed the time that she was going to sign up due to her ever changing life schedule.
"Ah! Hopefully next week, at the earliest though…" Hinata said sadly.
Sakura felt for the girl; she knew Hinata was the one out of the group who wanted to do this the most. Her cousin was in the army and she felt that she had to do at least this program for him.
"Yeah, then we could all have a sleepover and just talk about our soldiers' and stuff." Sakura said, laughing and trying to encourage the girl completely disregarding the fact that she already promised Sasuke not to tell anyone about his life.
"Y-yes…" Hinata agreed, "Ah! I think Tsunade-sama is done now…"
Sakura whipped around. Okay, maybe there was a mistake; maybe she didn't hear her name or something.
"Ino-pig! Did I miss my name or something?" Sakura asked the blonde girl who was currently applying make-up.
"Huh? I didn't hear it, but then again I wasn't paying attention…" Ino replied.
Sakura inwardly groaned. Great just her luck she'd have to go after school to ask Tsunade for the letter and get a lecture about paying attention in class.
Sakura sulked for the rest of the day at the prospect of getting a lecture from a drunken old lady (she's in a bad mood right now that's why she's so mean). Finally the end of the day came and she headed down to the Principle's office.
"Uh, Principle Tsunade?" Sakura called out when she got there.
There was no answer.
"I'm coming in…" Sakura warned before opening the door. "What the? Principle Tsunade!"
Sakura was shocked at the scene before her; Principle Tsunade was now currently sitting at a round table with two other teachers playing strip poker!
'MY EYES!!! MY BEAUTIFUL LOVELY EYES HAVE BEEN TAINTED!!!! OH MIGHTY GOD, I REPENT FOR WHAT I HAVE DONE TO DESERVE THIS!!!!' Inner Sakura yelled.
Sakura eyes widened.
'DON'T WIDEN YOUR EYES YOU DUMBASS!!!" Inner Sakura screeched.
Sakura whipped around and said, "S-sorry, Principle Tsunade! I just came to see if I accidentally forgot to get my letter!
This was definitely the worst punishment she kami could have ever sent her way! She'd rather have the lecture than this!
"Huh? What letter? We didn't receive a letter from your soldier today, Haruno." Tsunade said, completely oblivious to her students' discomfort in her drunken state.
"A-are you sure?" Sakura asked. Oh, kami, what possessed her to stick around and ask another question?!
"Yes." Tsunade replied.
"Ah! Okay, sorry, I… have to go!" Sakura yelled out before scramming.
'Okay, when we get home we are going to plop ourselves on the couch and watch Dora, the Explorer, Bob the Builder, Blues Clues, Winnie the Pooh and anything else to get our innocence back! Tigger I need you!' Inner Sakura concluded, Sakura agreeing with her.
She was so caught up by the situation she failed to realize that this was the first time Sasuke hadn't written back immediately.
Sakura plopped herself onto her chair and put her head against the desk, worried. It had been five days and she still hadn't received a letter from Sasuke.
She made sure to listen extra carefully for her name to be called in the morning (not looking at Tsunade of course) but her name failed to ring through the classroom. Now, once again, she was listening intently for her name to be called, but once again, disappointment filled her body when Tsunade left without handing her a letter.
"Sakura-chan?"
Sakura looked toward her right where Hinata was sitting. Ino had switched places with her that morning so that she and TenTen could copy Sakura's homework; Sakura had been so depressed about the letter that she failed to give them a lecture about doing it on their own.
"Yes, Hinata?" Sakura asked politely, trying not to sound rude to the girl for interrupting her thoughts.
"Um… I'm sure he'll write soon…" Hinata said.
Whoa! That girl could mind read! Was it that obvious that she was so hung up over not getting her letter?
Sakura fake smiled and said, "Yeah, it's just really weird, he used to write everyday…"
Hinata nodded and smiled before turning back towards the teacher to scribble down notes.
Sakura once again resumed the position she was in before Hinata spoke to her and closed her eyes.
Why was she like this? What did it matter that she was now three –count them –three rude letters short?
Sakura felt emptiness inside of her. She sighed. She hated not knowing what was going on over there. She had been watching the news intently for the past few days but she didn't know which camp Sasuke belonged to so she didn't know if he was safe of not (her heart stopped when she saw that five of the camps were bombed yesterday). She knew that he belonged under Kakashi, but Kakashi ran several camps so she couldn't exactly use that information to pinpoint which camp he was in.
Sakura groaned when the bell rang signaling the end of the day. Slowly she climbed off her chair, her head still full of worry, and walked down the long empty hallways full of teenagers.
What was worse her Inner Self wasn't exactly helping her.
'Chyaa! I swear if that bastard isn't dead I say we should murder him when we find him!'
Sakura shook her head, now she knew how TenTen felt…
"Haruno!"
Sakura's head jerked up. Who dared call her when she was so depressed and angry?!
"Haruno!"
Sakura realized that it was the principle's voice, images of what happened a few days ago ran quickly through her mind. Oh kami no! She really wasn't in the mood to see her.
"Haruno!"
Maybe if she ran right now and pretended not to hear… too late…
"Haruno!"
Sakura looked up bravely and locked eyes with her principle, Tsunade.
"Finally, here, I was going to give you this tomorrow morning but seeing as how depressed you are I thought I could give this to you now. Bye, and be grateful!" Tsunade said before leaving.
Sakura looked down at what Tsunade had given to her and saw that it was Sasuke's letter.
Joy ripped through her previous worry as she ripped the envelope off of the letter and neatly folded the letter open.
Dear Sakura,
That was funny, he forgot the 'Haruno'…
I had a brush with death…
A/N: Hm… this was eleven pages long, I would say this is my longest chapter yet, and that's funny seeing as how this was originally supposed to be the shortest chapter! … I have failed yet again, lol
The reason it's longer and doesn't have much of a letter between Sasuke and Sakura is because I had to explain what's been going on and stuff (the Tsunade poker thing was random and wasn't supposed to be there but I'm leaving it there). The angle I was trying to do was to make everything all happy and find and then let the ending shock with a 'BOOM' but I failed when I used foreshadowing… shame on me…
Review!!!! Um… do you guys want Sasuke's full letter in the next chapter? And how do you think Sakura should respond? I haven't decided yet, I mean, how are you supposed to respond to news like that?!