Author: Sani
Rating: M
Rising: Chapter 1
Lighter
It had been a long day. Again.
'Sixteen patients today and my chakra is down to zilch. Jeez…' Sakura sighed to herself. 'And Arakawa-san wouldn't keep his hands to himself, the perv. I feel violated. A medic-nin shouldn't have to put up with that crap!'
'You should've just let me slug him!' Inner Sakura whined.
'He's a patient!'
'So?'
'I'm supposed to heal his injuries, not give him more! Besides, he won't be back for a while. He's now fit as a fiddle thanks to my awesome skills!' Sakura flashed her inner self a proud grin.
'I still say physical punishment was fitting. Did you see that cheeky grin on his face! He deserved every one of those wounds he came in with! Y'know, I bet it was his girlfriend that did it to him!' laughed Inner Sakura. The image of the petite blond who picked him up throttling him into the ground was hilarious. Sakura just had to laugh along.
'What do you say we head home?' Sakura suggested after her mirth subsided.
'Yeah, let's. I'm beat.'
Sakura had to agree. Her charka was great nowadays, but healing so much really took it out of her. She emerged from the hallway she had just been walking down out into the hospital's lobby.
"Hey, Miki-chan," Sakura greeted the receptionists behind the front desk.
"Hi, Saku-chan. Calling it a night?" asked the woman known as Miki-chan. She handed Sakura the sign-out sheet along with some patient files that needed initialing before Sakura left. Sakura quickly jotted down all the required signatures. She had already reviewed what was on them before they even made it to Miki-chan. It was all just red tape and standard procedure.
"Yeah, I'm gonna be heading out," Sakura answered as she filled out the forms. "Wait. Did you say night?"
"Of course silly! It's eleven thirty, sweetheart. Didn't you notice?" laughed Mikita.
"Wow, I guess I didn't!"
"Man, Sakura-chan! That's the fourth time this month that you've done that! And you only work here one day of the week! You work too hard, girlfriend," Mikita said worriedly.
"Maybe," Sakura said as she shifted uncomfortably.
"Yes, maybe! Now I want you off to bed this instant," commanded Mikita, stomping her foot in a motherly way.
"Alright, alright," Sakura laughed. "Sure there's not anyone left for me to help," she joked, trying to get a rise out of Mikita.
"Absolutely not!" she scolded. "Besides, the place is empty for once."
"Really?"
Sakura turned to take stock of the lobby. Same turquoise curtains, same rich blue and gray tile. The beige sitting chairs lined the walls and the fluorescent lights glared like usual. There was something off about the room, though, besides the slight wilting of the numerous potted plants. There were no people waiting.
"Kami-sama, you're right!" gasped Sakura. "How long has it been like this?"
"For awhile now. Arakawa-san was the last in, the stupid perv."
"He hit on you too, eh?
"Did you notice that one bruise on his left bicep?"
"Yeah…"
"That's one that his girlfriend didn't get in."
"Aa, I see." Sakura tried her hardest to suppress the smile, but it still wriggled its way onto her face.
"Well, Mikita," said Sakura as she handed back all the files, "I'm off. See ya next Saturday."
"Have a nice night, Saku-chan!"
Sakura just waved as she walked out the front door. Her bed was calling her name all the way across town.
There it was.
'The old training ground' she thought.
'This again?' complained Inner Sakura. 'We're stronger than this, girl.'
'I know.'
'So why do you keep doing this to yourself? We have a life now, Sakura! One that doesn't involve him!'
'Is that what I really want, though?'
'That's irrelevant and you know it! Sakura, we were put down constantly. He never appreciated us. We gave him everything and he acted like it was nothing. He's never coming back…'
'Because we weren't enough.' Sakura interrupted herself sadly. 'We weren't enough to keep him here, to make him happy.'
'How could we be?'
'What do you mean?'
'Think about it,' said Inner Sakura in an unusually calm voice. 'We changed ourselves in every way to please him. We tried to be everything he wanted, because we loved him. We became something false, just for him. We showed him everything he wanted to see, but it wasn't the real us. How could he love something that wasn't real?'
'But…if that wasn't me…then what am I?'
'You're the strong willed kunoichi with the huge heart. You are weak and strong at the same time because you care, because you have emotions, because you thrive on them. He could never understand that. Stop living to his standards. We're above that.'
'But my heart still hurts,' she thought painfully.
'I think…I think that it always will. But that doesn't mean we can't rise above it.'
'Maybe…'
Sakura walked through her front door. Her apartment was just as she had left it. Empty, but still homey. She had moved out of her parents' house sometime after Sasuke left. It just didn't feel right staying in that house. She loved her parents, but they would never understand her. They had tried to get her to stay. She had been only thirteen after all, still a child. They didn't understand. She didn't want to be a child anymore. She wanted the responsibility of taking care of her own life. She wanted to grow up, and she couldn't do that with her parents always sheltering her. When they weren't away on missions that is, which was most of the time.
Her apartment was the place where she could support herself, take responsibility, and not be a burden to anyone. It was her haven where she could think things through. It was a wonderful feeling to have a place all your own: to hide away in, to open to others, or to do whatever.
She smiled at the small two-bedroom apartment as she entered and closed the door behind her. It wasn't much, but it was enough. Her job at the hospital helped pay for it as well as her ninja salary. It was close to Naruto's apartment actually. The kitchen was roomy enough. She didn't have a dining room, but the living room was big enough to have twenty people over and still not invade personal space. There was that nasty bloodstain in the carpet, though. The last owner had supposedly killed himself here, but that just made the apartment cheaper. Sakura had taken this news in stride and had just thrown a potted plant on the stain, never thinking too much about it really. Who better to live in a house that experienced death than a ninja, right? Their job was life and death.
Sakura shook these thought from her head and walked to her room and its adjoining bathroom. That was one perk to living on her own; she got the master bedroom and the bathroom all to herself.
She undressed and took a nice long shower. Once she was done drying off after the shower, she put on the night things she kept in the bathroom for just this purpose. No hassle going to and from the bathroom and bedroom. She could get things done right here and right now. Too bad that didn't carry over to the rest of her life.
She turned to the mirror. Her pink locks were now past her shoulders. It was getting long again.
'I think we need a haircut. It's getting really long.'
'Sasuke liked long hair,' She thought quietly, as if to herself.
'But it's so hard to manage. It's lot of pointless work.'
'Hm,' Sakura agreed.
She took a kunai from her bundle of clothes on the sink's marble countertop. She gathered all her bubble-gum hair and sliced through right at the nape of the neck.
'Ah… There. Now doesn't it feel so much lighter?'
Sakura couldn't disagree. It did feel lighter all of a sudden, an almost freeing sensation.
'Hey, Inner Me.'
'Yeah?'
'Remember what you said…about rising above?'
'Aa.'
'Well, I think…'
'Aa?'
'Yes, maybe.'
Translations:
Aa- yes
Chakra- life force energy used to cast spells of a sort (if you need this one explained, you need to read/watch more Naruto)
-chan- an honorific used for females/children to show a close personal relationship
Kami-sama- basically, God
Kunai- dagger
Kunoichi- female ninja
-sama- an honorific used to show great respect, closest to meaning Lord or Lady
-san- an honorific used to show respect, closest to meaning Mr. or Mrs.
Author Note:
Review if you want. If I misspelled something or if my grammar needs work, please tell me. Correctness is important to me. There are a couple OCs; I hope you don't mind. If characters are out of character: in the name of all that is good and sacred in this world please tell me, I don't mean for them to be, if informed of it I will try my best to fix it.
YAAAAYYY! First chapter of my first fic. YES! Hope you liked it!
Oh, yeah; almost forgot.
Disclaimer:
I do not own Naruto.
Sayonara, minna-san! (Do I have to translate that too?)