Ephemeral Encounters- Epiolouge

Pairing: SasoriSakuraItachi hints of MandaraSakura, SaiSakura and SasukeSakura
Rating: T+
Genre: Romance/hurt/comfort
Words:2398
Standard Disclaimer applied
Summery: A so called accident left Sakura without sight or a strong voice. Now eighteen, she's living with her father's friend, her mind speraticlly flickering between maturity well beyond and below her age. Sometimes she's wise beyond the years of aged philosophers, at others, she hold the innocence of a child. Melancholy from the accident and it's effects Mandara takes her in. While living with her friend, she meets a young Mr. Uchiha and his friend Sasori who live downstairs. Both take an instantaneous liking to her. This becomes a problem for the young musician, as both are possessive and obsessive men who do not give up once their sights are set.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

.

ø

.

ø

.

Take heed, dear heart
Once apart,
She can touch nor me nor you

Dressed as one
A wolf will betray a lamb

Lead astray the gazers
The razors on your seducing skin

In the meadow of sinful thoughts
Every flower's a perfect one

To paradise with pleasure haunted,
Haunted by fear

.

ø

.

It was cold outside.

The girl with long pink hair smiled to herself, tucking a loose strand behind her ear as she looked out around her, taking in the sights of the city. Sasuke had told her he would meet her in front of the bookstore at two thirty. She looked down at her wrist watch.

It was three o' clock on the dot.

"Sasuke, you're late, baka," she murmured to the wind with a hint of worn out worry in her timid voice.

Sasuke was almost never late. He was one of those people that always liked to be on time or extra early and then rub it in your face when you showed up late or arrived last. Not that he did that with her, of course. No, he wouldn't dare. She had too much black mail on him.

She flipped open her bright pink razor and checked for any new messages from her friend. Her expensive phone was another gift from Sasuke, along with her ipod and Macintosh laptop. Ever since he left his family and got messed up with these gangs he has become quite the spender. Though, that was only when it came to people he liked and himself. And if there's one thing you can bet on, it's an Uchiha having a short list of friends.

Sasuke liked fighting...

...A lot.

Behind the backs of his father and brother he started attending street fights and brawls for money. He was one of the most skilled fighters the belly side of society had to offer. Aside from being an incredibly beautiful boy,(something she teased him about all the time) he was strong, tall and fit. Naturally, when his father found out about the fights (when Sasuke lost and wound up in the hospital) he was outraged and ordered his son to stop at once.

Sasuke said no.

His dad said you're gone.

And just like that he was disinherited. Stripped of his name and his family connections. No one else knew about his disappearance. His older brother who greatly adored Sasuke was frantic about finding his younger brother, but Sasuke kept low and avoided being caught somehow.

That's how Sakura found him a year ago in the rain. He was hiding out in an old drain pipe nursing a broken arm incorectly. Ever the helpful one, Sakura was quick to attend to his wounds and see that he was properly treated. He became sick with fever from the infection on his leg and she was the one that nursed him back to health. She was a complete stranger going out of her way to make sure he was well treated and taken care of. That really touched Sasuke somehow and the two became instant friends, instead of lovers like some had suspected. They were more like a family-the way Sakura wanted it to be with all her male friends.

Sakura sighed, seeing how many messages were on her phone. Their were twenty three from Sai-all of which were deleted- and one from Ino. She wanted to know what kind of restaurants Sasuke liked eating out at. Of course she didn't dare ask him that herself. Ino went behind him back and asked his closest friend;Sakura.

Sakura busied herself with typing out a text message that took twice as long as it should have. She messed up too many times and didn't shorten her words like everybody else did. It wasn't c u l8er or brb, it was see you later and be right back. This got on Ino's nerves quite often, since it took close to twenty minuets to receive a reply sometimes.

SAKURA
Chinese. Sasuke liked Chinese foods, even though his favorite snack was tomato slices.

That message took only fifteen minuets for Sakura. A new personal record. Ino's reply came up within the next minuet.

INO
Fast food or sit down?

Deciding it would save time-no matter how rude she found it personally- Sakura decided to answer with one word replies.

SAKURA
Sit down

INO
No any good 1s?

SAKURA
Yes.

INO
tell, grl. Plz? =P

Sakura rolled her eyes and was about to reply when someone running past her ran into her and sent the phone flying. The sky and the buildings all around her meshed and blurred in her sight as she stumbled to the ground. The next second, she was stumbling back to her feet, trying to find who had bumped into her.

What she found was the end of a gun's damaged barrel. It could have been the empty eye socket of the grim reaper's face for all it resembled.

BANG

There was so much white and everything felt wet as she reeled and tumbled into oblivion.

.

ø

.

A sin for him
Desire within, Desire within
A burning veil
For the bride too dear for him

A sin for him
Desire within, Desire within
Fall in love with your deep dark sin

.

ø

.

I had a dream once when I was a little girl.

There were a lot of black spots running around a white sky. The black spots didn't think of themselves as block. They saw themselves as grays...some even whites. They though they were something the were not, even when told so. At one point they were white, for the briefest of moments, before a tiny drop of black fell into them, tainting them the dark inky color. The didn't want to know they weren't white or clean. It made me really sad to see it.

But then a bright white spot came into the group and lots of black drops started to fall on him, but e never turned black. The black spots saw this and began to hurt the white spot. The white spot didn't try to run away, but he took all the blackness from the black spots making them white once again, before it killed him. It was really hard to watch, but I couldn't wake up.

Some of the white spots chose to remain the white they were given, while others stayed black and continued to believe themselves already white. And so, I awoke to a sea of gray, mixed choices.

.

ø

.

A sin for him
Desire within,
Desire within
A burning veil
For the bride too dear for him

A sin for him
Desire within,
Desire within

Fall in love with your deep dark sin
A sin for him...

Bless me, undress me
Pick your prey in a wicked way

God I must confess... I do envy the sinners

.

ø

.

When she woke up in the hospital room there were so many voices around her.

But no faces.

"Sakura, Sakura, oh God Sakura! You're awake." It sounded like Sasuke, but she could not quite tell since the room was nothing but a blur of gray and black. "I was so scared, ang dear God Im so sorry I wasn't there to meet you. It's all my fault, all my fault."

Sakura reached out to where the voice was coming from and felt around. She knew it was Sasuke now. She felt his face and held the side of it in her hand-the way his mother used to when he was younger and scared. At least, this was what she was told.

She wanted to say something, she wanted to speak out, but there was this fiery black flame in her throat that kept her from speaking. It hurt to try, and it hurt to breath. But she had to. She had to speak to him and tell him it was all good and right. That it wasn't his fault. It was never his fault. She knew if she didn't he would keep on blaming himself for all of eternity.

"Sa-saa"

"Don't speak Sakura. There's a knife wound on you throat and she could hear the tears choke out his voice. "And oh, God I'm so sorry Sakura. It really is all my fault."

And then she felt him on her shoulder, pouring tears of shame and regret. All she could do was pat his back and comfort him. Her voice wasn't able to reach him any more. It wasn't even able to move past the tips of her lips, let alone reach him. But feeling all those tears seep through her nightgown... She knew she had to, no matter how badly it hurt.

"Nh-no, Sasuke."

His sobbing stopped, but it was something Sakura barely noticed since Ino and Naruto were fighting each other to get into the door-quite loudly. Suddenly she felt Ino at her side, hugging onto her left arm. Naruto must have lost in the doorway... again.

"Sakura dear, I rushed right over once I got the news from Sasuke that you were in an accident. I didn't know anything had happened to you. I just thought you were taking way to long to text me back, like you normally do. Gosh, and to think I was talking with you when it happened." Ino was a flurry of words as Sakura felt Sasku detach himself from her right arm and stalk away.

"Shut up Ino. You got to be quiet in a hospital, you know. You're going to give Sakura a splitting headache and then she won't be able to sleep like she needs to," Naruto grumbled, taking hold of Sakura right hand. "how are you doing Sakura?"

"How do you think, you idiot."

"Shut up pig." Naruto mumbled back.

"Only Sakura can call me that! You have no right, you pathetic moron. Go away, your ugly vibes will make Sakura sick." Ino was fuming at the insult and leaning over Sakura like a protective mother hen, making Naruto growl. Sakura couldn't see the expression on his face, but she guessed he was frowning.

"Whatever, I'm not fighting with you here. Sakura is worth it." he went back t holding her hand, this time with both his hands. "I talked to Tsunade, and she said she would be able to heal your eyes! Isn't that great? Just think of this a temporary blackout. You'll be better and seeing all the good old word in no time."

"Naruto." Ino's voice was soft and hurt. Like she hadn't wanted Naruto to say that. She didn't want her best friend being told things that would give her hope when in reality-they might just do more damage than good. Naruto wasn't right to say that, even if he was trying to cheer Sakura up.

"Don't start, Ino. Sakura's the strongest girl I know. She'll make it through, just like she made it through this week."

Week? What was Naruto talking about. She squeazed his hand and tugged on his arm, trying to talk again. "Wa-wa what wee-k?"

"Sakura," Ino began softly. "You've been out for over a week already. You just woke up from a coma."

.

ø

.

A sin for him
Desire within, Desire within
A burning veil
For the bride too dear for him

A sin for him
Desire within, Desire within
Fall in love with your deep dark sin

ø

.

ø

.

AU:/ Because I wanted to, I gave this story another chapter. That's right, another chapter. I'm making this into a multi chapter story. Why? Because I want to and I'm whimsical. My older sister is in town and she wanted me to write more. Aside from that....there were too many things left unanswered for me to sleep peacefully so I had to go back and add on to this. That and I think it was twelve people wanted to see this. I don't know who those ten are, but thank you for sharing your opinion.

PLEASE REVIEW MY LONGEST first chapter of a story EVER

Vesper chan-