Elsewhere

Written and typed by LittleMissEffervescent

Chapter One

Beginning Again

I'd always wondered. Of course, the thought had been nestled in the back seams of my mind for years now, put aside to make room for things that had seemed so much more important and meaningful at the time. It was just a tiny sprout that formed from an even smaller kernel of curiosity one day as I was listening to a song on the radio, double-checking my homework: what if, one day, I simply vanished and was placed elsewhere... given a newly wiped slate... a new perspective. What would happen to the entities of my past?

I hadn't pondered too much about it when I was younger because I wasn't as discontented with my life. To even think that I actually considered myself unhappy with it at one time makes me think of my ingratitude for those moments when I should have just cherished how wonderful my life was. Every aspect of my past seemed so pictorial now that I took the time to look back and admire... albeit, with more regret than I'd like: hanging out with Naruto and Sasuke (my absolute best friends of all time), spending just about the same amount of time with Ino and Hinata and Tenten, struggling and succeeding in school while still managing to be content with my life and being happy with what I had...

What I should have realized was that it wouldn't last. It could never last.

I was living a delusion. My vision had been clouded, coated with illusions of fantastic days during high school, surrounded by my friends, and the surreal hallucination that they would be the most amazing years of my life. I hadn't actually grasped reality until I could finally open my eyes and see.

I could finally see that both Naruto and Sasuke had joined the football team; Naruto had gained the reputation of being the unstoppable powerhouse of the team, while Sasuke had become the next potential football captain to lead the team to victory while still being the youngest to ever even become captain. Their first triumph during the very beginning of the season, when both Sasuke and Naruto had come up with the play that completely dominated the opposing team and wiped the floor with them, had involuntarily launched them to the very top of the social ladder. The others had finalized successes that left me behind in the dust as well: Tenten, with her natural athleticism and point-blank accuracy, was the basketball champ, Hinata was one of those all-around girls that were perpetually shy but was commiserated and liked by everyone, and Ino was undoubtedly the cheerleading captain-in-training that automatically made her recognized by everyone.

I was left behind and forgotten.

It became even more blaringly obvious as our freshman year ended, when they began paring off and dating. Tenten hit it off pretty well with Hinata's cousin (whom she met at a national martial arts competition), while Hinata finally came out of the lifetime of crushing on Naruto to end up becoming his unconditionally loved girlfriend.

Although she seemed determined not to live up to the stereotypical cheerleader character at the beginning of freshman year, she fit the slot a bit snuggly; going through boyfriends like she would clothes. Monogamy, apparently, did not have a definition on Ino's vocabulary.

And Sasuke... well, Sasuke began dating as well. Karin managed to interest him enough to have him speak to her with more than just a few words at a time, a feat I'd never been able to accomplish because no matter how hard I tried, I was always pushed away. Karin was a noticeable redhead with red eyes. Her features portrayed her personality flawlessly, along with her name. They all befit the head cheerleader, all the while, making it even more cliché; the football captain would have to date the head cheerleader, of course.

But while my vision became clearer, I also noticed how much deeper their relationship was than how other people described it. After all, Sasuke wouldn't go through the trouble for someone unless they meant much more to him than he let on. Plus, I trusted Sasuke's judgment of character enough to see that whenever he snuck a glance in her direction, I could see how he would light up and, not necessarily smile, but just seem so much happier.

The insidious part of my mind couldn't help but exploit the envy I had for Karin – I'd always wished that it was me that made Sasuke light up whenever he saw me, that I was the reason for his happiness. Not that that's something to be complaining about right now... or something to use as grounds to talk at all.

But after looking back on everything and considering the differences in demeanor and the level of loneliness that I was experiencing on a daily basis, I could totally verify that I was one of the more unhappy people in subsistence... not that it mattered now.

I hadn't exactly planned on it. Well, I can't even say that I anticipated it at all, but I guess it wasn't the best of ideas to be kneeling in the middle of a street that I knew was usually busy during the night. Especially since both the street and I were soaking wet and the thick fog from the late summer storm made it even more difficult to navigate my way back home. Assigning a major grade project on a Friday with a deadline three days later wasn't one of my Literature teacher's best ideas but still, I had stayed a bit later after school to linger in the library to look up research topics. I ended up staying longer than I had initially planned and, when I finally stepped outside to start my walk home, the sky was a deadly shade of grey and the occasional patches of black told me that if I didn't hustle home, I'd be soaked to the bone before I made it to the traffic light between the flower shop and bakery near the shopping center by my neighborhood.

I was right to think so because the moment I stepped out from under the cover of the school's outer patio, there was a blinding flash of lightning and, several seconds later, a loud booming clap of thunder. It would start pouring buckets in a matter of minutes, if I was lucky.

So I booked it, rushing past the park that I usually took the time to visit everyday after school whenever I had the chance (Naruto, Sasuke, and I had played on that swing-set more times that any of us could remember), and I had just sprinted down Prima Luce Avenue when I at last noticed the dense mist around me and then, the rain—the icy and completely numbing rain that had drenched me to the point where even my boots were beginning to become waterlogged.

It was hard enough, what with the mist and thick torrent of rain, to see the outline of my hand when I stuck it right in front of my face, but somehow, in someway... I saw it – the broken bottle in the middle of Veritas Lane shattered and lying in large chunky pieces. It wasn't a glass Coca Cola bottle... it wasn't even the same size as one. It could have been a large bottle of wine for all I knew.

Regardless of what kind of bottle it was, I apparently made my decision to prevent some unfortunate neighbor from skewering their tire with a piece of glass bigger than their hand and I hopped down from the sidewalk, still completely soaked, and walked gingerly to the right side of the street where the bottle lay and began collecting the pieces. Some weren't as big as others and, since I didn't think any cars would be in any danger of popping a tire from the smaller bits of bottle, so I left them there. As I knelt smack in the middle of Veritas Lane, carefully picking up really big shards of glass bottle, I noted that they were from more than just one bottle – I figured there were at least two broken bottles that were tossed in the street, since there were two different colors of glass.

But while I gathered the slices of glass and tossed them to the side of the pavement, by the sidewalk, I could make out one more shard, lying near the middle of street. It wasn't the size that made me notice it, even though it was a pretty hefty hunk of glass, the color was what grabbed my attention. The shard was white. Not the clear kind that had a pretty, light hue in it... it was totally white. One of the edges was completely straight and smooth, not scratched at all and probably a hunk from the bottom of a bottle, while the other edge opposite of it was jagged and razor-like, leading up to a sharp point that connected it with the blunt and straight edge on the other side.

As I held it in my hand, staring at it in some sort of morbid fascination, I felt oddly peaceful; the deafening sound of the rain that had drowned out everything else had faded and all I could hear was the steady trickling of water. I stared at the pure whiteness of the glass, the way it almost glowed in my hand, and then my gaze slid to the jagged edge... and then the lethal point at the end. Gripping the shard even more tightly, small drips of blood slid down my arm and disappeared beneath the sleeve of my jacket. I hardly noticed – I was still staring at the tip of the jagged edge with rapt attention.

It was ripped away though, when there was an intensely bright flare of lightning, mixed with a cracking boom, and then, just seconds later it vanished, only to be replaced with another blinding light that quickly illuminated the entire street, even through the mist – I could still see my shadow though, kneeling on the street clutching a piece of glass, completely sopping wet.

I turned to my other side, to see what was light was pulsing so fiercely that it was almost painful to look at, and then I saw what light it was that could penetrate the mist so easily.

The first thing that had popped into my mind was perhaps a streetlight that had some sort of new florescent bulb that lit the entire street but saved energy somehow but I was wrong. Sort of.

It was florescent bulbs that were being used. They just weren't part of a streetlight.

They were headlights.

"Victim is a young high school student, a little over 5'5'', rather bright pink hair—" the man pauses as he stops short and leans down to check the color of the teenager's eyes. "—she has green eyes and her estimated age is about—"

"—sixteen, born March 28, she is a student of the high school five blocks from here, and her name is Haruno Sakura." A woman recites as she stands back up, an identification card in one hand, a dripping wet side bag in the other. "The poor girl was walking through the storm on her way home when she was hit. Here's her ID – we'd better contact the parents." She tosses the identification card to the man and begins to rifle through the contents of the bag carefully.

It isn't long before the man, woman, and teenager are surrounded by blaring sirens and flashing lights and it takes even less time for the emergency medics to haul a stretcher out of the ambulance, rush to the teenager's body and rapidly inspect her injuries before lifting her cautiously onto the stretcher and into the ambulance. The woman snatches the identification card from the man, sticks it into a pocket in the bag and tosses it to a policeman.

"That bag belongs to Haruno Sakura, the injured young woman in the ambulance. It would be best to inform her parents of her whereabouts before the media has to inform them."

Her last few words are drowned out as the ambulance wheels around and rushes down the street, sirens blaring deafeningly, but the police officer gets the message and he nods and drives after the ambulance, back to the hospital.

Only minutes later, the entire street is surrounded and bound by a vivid and noticeable yellow tape, branded with black letters, preventing entry to those unauthorized for access.

A young-looking, crisply dressed woman stands in front of the marked off street closely as she stares into a large camera and clutches a microphone in one hand and gestures toward the street with the other eagerly.

"Earlier this evening, a young female high school student, Haruno Sakura, age sixteen, was struck by an oncoming car as she was trekking home during the violent summer storm. Due to the thick mist and heavy rain, the driver claimed that he didn't see Haruno Sakura in time to brake and subsequently, hit her. The current status of the young woman has yet to be confirmed but, judging by the looks of the investigators and medical personnel currently on the scene here, Sakura's outcome is grim.

"Her body was found, just minutes after she was struck by the alleged driver, a few meters from where the car stopped on Veritas Lane and it was confirmed that she had a large shard of glass in her grasp as she was hit. Investigators suspect that Sakura was attempting to collect the shattered remains of empty glass bottles tossed on the street, according to the pile of glass bottle pieces found on the side of the street.

"Haruno Sakura is currently being stabilized but has yet to respond to any of the medics' attempts to awaken her. We hope for the very best and a full recovery for Haruno Sakura here on the scene. This is coming in live from Veritas Lane. Please stay tuned."

... Um, yes. I have something new. I was just in class, bored out of my mind and this sprouted. I started writing in my notebook - just the usual, random blathering free-writes I do occasionally to pass the time, but when I got home and was about to go to bed, I started this. And stopped at around... oh, three AM, I think. But don't, you know, be concerned about Metamorphosis and it being like a month late. THAT, I apologize for. But seriously. I'm not one of those insanely organized, consistent writers who can just start spouting words. I need like serious motivation. Which will probably be my downfall in the future... but I'll just focus on the positive things for now. The next chapter for Metamorphosis shall be up by the end of next week, and I'm hoping all you guys won't be too angry with me. But I did warn you beforehand with my erratic updates and writing habits so...

Anyways, I'd like some critique on this new story. I got off to a pretty good start and I'm hoping to continue this - it's kind of in an experimental phase as of now. REGARDLESS, I SHALL UPDATE SOON AND I HOPE YOU PEOPLE WILL NOT SKEWER ME VIA INTERNET FOR BEING SO INCONSISTENT EVEN WITH YOUR INSANELY AWESOME FEEDBACK THAT I OBVIOUSLY DO NOT DESERVE. Review, yes? Thanks loads!

Standard disclaimer: Masashi Kishimoto is the proper owner (even if some would disagree sometimes) of Naruto and I am not. Hence, fanfiction.