A/n: It has been awhile! I hope you do enjoy this as it is a true work of devilishly dark delight. This disclaimer covers the whole story: I don't own Naruto. Now that it is taken out of the way, I would like to say that this is a TRIAL work right now. Based on the response I get, I may or may not continue this one shot. Now enough blabber. Enjoy!

Obsidian Sunday by LadyYakamichi

"Little girls are meant to be seen and not heard. They are meant to be art, beautiful to the beholders, but silent portraits. Like a portrait, when they have reached the proper age, they are then given to a man in exchange for their worth... there are none who could pass as killers."- The Painter

Her fist clenched about the picture before it flew across the room to shatter against the wall. A silent scream echoed throughout the room as her body curled up defensively. So close… I almost… The sobs never ceased even as the door opened to her room, a young man glancing inside to check on her before closing the door quietly behind him. There was no point in comforting her in this state of mind. Comfort would not bring the girl's mother or her father back to life.

Sitting up against the door, the boy sighed softly. Nothing could be explained. For one evening their parents had been alive, Sakura with them as he went on a small business venture. The next evening when he returned, blood coated the walls, dripping to the floor of the master room. There were no bodies, but it was clear from the guts resting on the floor that the Haruno Lord and Lady no longer walked among the living. He had found Sakura bound and unconscious in her room, covered in chrisom. Only the red branding mark of a spiral on her shoulder denoted who was responsible, the Rain shinobi. He was forced to manage the household affairs and bury what remained as she healed both emotionally and physically.

The day she had woken had been a day of muted joy; that day she swore revenge against the man who had killed their parents. He tried to keep her in check with her position in society and her manners, but Sakura would have none of it. And now with her continuous episodes of disappearance then emotional storms, he was no longer certain that he could handle the emotional creature his once demure sister had become. Yet as the thought crossed his mind, a burning pain entered his chest. Warm stickiness ran down his chest to pool on the floor as the eyes opened in horror.

"Sai?"

Soft green eyes stared at the portal to her room, her long pink hair hanging in long tresses down her back as she set aside her comb. The heavy thud like a knock had drawn her attention at the door. Concern drew her slowly from her bed to pull the wood structure open. Pinned to it, Sai's shocked eyes stared lifelessly into her own. A sword protruded from his heart; her eyes followed the blade up to its hilt where a hand still gripped. Slowly her eyes traced the hand up to the shoulder, the neck and then finally the merciless chrisom eyes.

Rage bubbled in the pit of her eyes as a feral scream ripped out of her throat. Charging the figure, the girl snatched the two blades from her sleeves to swipe at his midsection. Disembowelment seemed a fitting death for her family's murderer; he would be alive long after. The sword which had previously been embedded in Sai's heart now snaked out to parry the two shots, flickering snakelike in the man's grasp. "You ended the life of my family. You might end mine," the girl whispered as she continued to strike out with her pair of blades, parrying when necessary. "But I swear by everything sacred, your heart will cease to beat."

"Hn. Do not claim to know what fate has already decreed." He scoffed, striking her shoulder to jar one of the knives from her hand before disarming her of the other. With a well placed kick, he threw her small body up against the door, pinning her by her neck to its solid frame. "You are weak. Just like all the other Haruno's that Sakon boasted over. You're family does not even own the right to be called nobility."

The grip was not suffocating, but tight. The eyes were not enraged, but smoldering with other emotions of regret, pity. "You do not even know do you?" he continued. "The Haruno's were a great clan of assassins and kunoichi before your father inherited the title of Lord. No one could rival them, not the Uchiha, nor the Hyuuga, nor any clan in Konoha and he made sure that we never forgot what his father, the great White Fang had done to our kin. But he forgot that revenge is a fire that is only fueled by age; he grew soft with the peace and tried to extinguish the assassin skills in his own blood."

Shaking his head, he gestured to the still body beside her that had crumpled to the floor. "If your brother had not dabbled in the arts of your clan, I would have left him alive. Now with no provider it is mercy that I kill you now. For no other nobility will accept an orphan as a suitable match. It is a shame. I was only supposes to kill one tonight, but I ought to kill you to save you from the slow death of starvation. I suppose, if you were a boy that had ever learned even basic weaponry, our leader might accept you into training, but you are too weak…"

"Then make me strong; teach me the art of death." The words left the soft pink lips softly, but clearly. Jade pools were hardened emeralds as they stared at the obsidian orbs. "I have nothing left to lose. I can learn everything they can proficiently and become valuable. For as you say, I am not a boy and therefore, no one expects me."

"That is for the Leader to decide, Sakura." the velvet voice purred before sending her into the oblivion world.

It was the first day of the week, Sunday, one which was truely obsidian in its death, its failure, and sharp cuts of repromand. Her body registered the harsh strikes to her body, the stinging cuts of his blade to her form. It was nothing compared to her interrogation training. This was merely a reminder that she reflected upon him; her failures cast a shadow on his reputation. Enduring, the young woman stared at her black gloved hands, at her feet below them and her body garbed in colors of the night until he ceased, tilting her chin so that their eyes connected. There was bitter disappointment in those chrisom eyes. "So close, my blossoom, so close... but you know the rules. You run til dawn. If I catch you, we start again."

Determination flooded her senses. She would not fail her handler again. For his displeasure would be her death.

Not what you likely expected... R&R