Burn It All Down (LOTR/Silmarillion/Naruto Crossover)
Everyone always told her of how the Half-Hearts had a happily-ever-after awaiting them with the other half of their soul. They were two halves to a whole, and they always, unquestionably belonged with one another.
Everyone lied.
(or; in which Sakura learns that her own happiness and future isn’t something which will simply happen naturally, or even with the other half of her so-called soul – and that she needs to fight and claw her way towards that once promised dream one dead body at a time – and Mairon learns to fear the essence of mortality and what it means to him.)
chapter one • the eyes
It was an auspicious day in late March when the world welcomed one little Haruno Sakura into its embrace for the first and last time – for Haruno Sakura was not long for that world, though perhaps not quite in the way many would assume.
They couldn’t see the workings of that world, the one beyond, and the melody which bound them all together in blood and soul. They couldn’t see the soul bound to her own through wonderous means. They couldn’t see the fate awaiting her and her fated other half.
Yet what they could see was quite curious in itself.
“Her eyes,” Haruno Mebuki murmured, slumped against cushions and cradling the little new-born to her chest. “She’s a Half-Heart…”
Kizashi leant closer, peering down then at the little life they’d brought into that world. Tiny little eyes blinked open, and he frowned at the sight of them. “Is that… a dojutsu?” he wondered, staring at the tiny little eyes which seemed to be looking up at him as he hovered over mother and child. One eye was the same green colouring as that of his wife’s, but it was the other eye which was the subject of such curiosity.
One fully amber eye, the pupil a little slit, the sclera an ever so slightly darker array of little crystals of an amber colouration which seemed to shift on their own, looked up at him, and the fate of Haruno Sakura was sealed with nary a breath.
::
PART ONE
Spring
::
Haruno Sakura liked to think herself a clever child, though that was more expected for a Half-Heart. She was, after all, bound to another soul, a being said to complete and complement her – or at least that was what everyone told her. She was only a half without the other she was fated for; only at half strength until they met, married, and did something her mother claimed she would explain later. It was something to do with ‘becoming one’ or something, not that she thought it particularly important. Meeting them came first, and everything else came after that. Sakura couldn’t wait to meet them, though she was a patient girl. She could wait a little while. Good girls could be patient and kind, and Sakura was a good girl through and through.
A smile curled at her lips, even as she played by herself in the corner of the playground closest to her home. Flower crowns were one of the few things she found entertaining to do on her own, besides reading, that was. She didn’t really want to do anything which involved other children, if only because Ami was there, and Ami was always mean to her for one reason or another. Scowling at the memory of the ever so slightly older girl coming between her and anybody she had tried to befriend, Sakura focused her attention on the flower crown made of pink and yellow blossoms.
It was almost ready to wear, and then she would be all ready to head home by herself for once – if only because she was a fairly big girl now, and her mother and father had deemed her old enough to wander to the park and back. Though the park in itself was practically opposite her home, so it wasn’t much of a distance to walk.
Still, it was a step up from being toted everywhere like a coddled princess. Her nose wrinkled at the thought of being like that.
“Oy, Billboard Brow!” the sound of Ami’s voice reached her.
Sakura threaded the last flower stem into her crown, set it upon her head, and hurried off back home before the other girl could come any closer. Her feet expertly carried her away from Ami’s jeering voice and back to the green front door which always welcomed her home when she returned from her ventures outside. “I’m home!” she declared, taking off her sandals in the genkan then and leaving them facing inwards as was proper – or so her mother liked to tell her.
“Welcome back, Sakura!” her mother called from further inside the house.
Smiling, Sakura put her slippers on and hurried inside to find her mother. The flower crown she had made that very day was her best to date, and she was more than happy to show it off – especially to the few who would actually care. Not that either her mother or her father needed to know that. After all, if they knew she was having a hard time making friends then they’d probably do something stupid like come down to the park with her. That, Sakura knew, would only make things worse.
“I see you managed to find your way back, little bird,” Haruno Mebuki acknowledged, a smile curving at her painted lips. Proof that she had been entertaining a guest earlier that very day. “How was the park? How are all your little friends?” she asked, tilting her head and patting the chair next to her own as she worked on stitching the clothes which provided for their livelihood.
“All good!” Sakura declared, smiling wide enough to hide the lies which dripped from her lips. She didn’t have friends, and Ami was all too happy to remind her of that fact whenever she saw her. “We made flower crowns today. I think mine’s the best!”
Two green eyes looked at her curiously, glancing between her tightening smile and the crown of pink and purple flowers atop her head. “It’s very pretty, dear,” her mother said, moving then to tuck a errant lock of pink hair back behind her ear. “Did you do anything besides make flower crowns today?”
Sakura shook her head, ignoring the pit in her stomach which opened up and ate away at her as she lied and lied to her mother. There were such a thing as white lies, though. She liked to think the lie which flowed from her lips was just another one of them. After all, she hardly wanted her mother to worry more than she already did.
Despite that, though, the niggling feeling in her stomach never left her, not even when the Haruno Family sat down for dinner, and especially not when her mother tucked her into bed with a loving smile.
It didn’t even relent when the world around her turned a misty white, and the sound of her own breathing was the only thing which seemed to fill up the barren world she found herself trapped amidst. White was the only thing she could see, scattered patterns of grey which moved like whisps of smoke and cloud, blocking her line of sight as she edged forwards with an almost morbid curiosity. It was only the fact that she distinctly remembered closing her eyes which left her unafraid. Well, that and the fact that half-hearts could apparently meet each other in their dreams, drawn together by the mental connection they both possessed. It was one of the many reasons why she was always so eager to go to sleep sometimes as opposed to how some other children were, according to her mother.
“Hello?” she called, padding forwards with bated breath, wondering if that was finally the moment she saw them for the first time. If she would finally be able to make a friend, free from the looming shadow of Ami. A shy smile curved at her lips at the thought, hope in her heart at the idea which had always seemed out of reach to her, and she padded even further forwards, blinking as a figure came into view.
They were sitting on the plain white floor, peering at something in front of them with abject curiosity. Red hair the shade of autumn leaves fell around their head, reaching well past their shoulders despite how very young they looked. The ever so pinchable – according to her mother, at least – baby fat lingered on their cheeks and wrists like her own. “Boring,” the high-pitched boyish voice sounded, even as he continued playing with something on the ground.
“What’s boring?” she asked, heart beating nervously in her chest, breath stuck in her throat as a pair of mismatched eyes, a mirror of her own, looked up at her all of a sudden.
The boy blinked, one crystalline amber eye and one green eye staring at her in the space of a single heartbeat. “This,” he murmured, gesturing to the place around them. “This was boring – at least until you came along.” She swallowed thickly at that, heat rising in her cheeks as she stared at her fated other half. “You’re her, aren’t you?” Her brow furrowed at that, and evidently he gathered the confusion his words had evoked. “The one my soul is bound to, no?”
“Oh,” she mumbled. “Yes. I, uh, think so? At least that’s what my parents told me… though I thought people normally called us half-hearts…” she trailed off, shrugging awkwardly as she edged forwards and sat down next to him. “I’m Sakura,” she greeted, holding out her hand. Her father had always said that handshakes were important, after all, and she wanted to make a good impression on the one she was bound to.
“Is that the name the song gave you?” he asked, peering at her and her extended hand with an odd curiosity.
She retracted her hand just as quickly as she had extended it, swallowing her nervousness and hiding it with a shaky smile. “It’s the name my parents gave to me,” she said, brow furrowing as she tried to work out what he was going on about.
He tilted his head, expression mirroring her own. “What are parents?” he questioned. “Why would they name you rather than the song?”
“What’s the song you keep going on about?” she asked then, chewing on her lip nervously as she tried to piece together what he was saying. She wondered why he sounded so different to her – why he looked different to her, and why he spoke as if he had no parents. “Are you an orphan or something? You had to have parents once…”
The boy stared at her, confusion furrowing his brow. “Were you not made by the song then?” he asked, peering at her closely, leaning forwards to better look at her. “I would’ve asked if you wanted to venture down to Arda with me, but something tells me you know not what Arda is…”
Sakura blinked, pondering on the oddities of her soulmate for a few moments before she decided that most of what he was saying didn’t matter. They were bound together by fate, and so she would probably eventually find this Arda place he kept going on about – whatever and wherever it was. “What’s your name?” she demanded, meeting his adorably confused stare with her own, excitement pulsing in her veins as she sat there with her fated other half.
“Mairon,” he answered, staring at her with those mismatched eyes which made something warm and fuzzy stir in her chest. “My name is Mairon.”
A bright grin spread across her face. “Nice to meet you!” she declared, watching as ever so hesitantly, the other half of her heart, Mairon, smiled shyly back at her. “We’re gonna be the best of friends!”
::
Her eyes opened, the familiar ceiling of her room greeting her, and a wide grin split at her lips. Restless energy pulsed beneath her skin and she climbed to her feet then, throwing both her fists up into the air. “I made a friend,” she crowed near silently, stomach bubbling with something warm as she thought about falling asleep once more. She was excited at the prospect of going to sleep – and wasn’t that an odd thing in itself? Before that very night she had dreaded those silent nights which only brought about another day of misery and loneliness. After that night though, Sakura could safely say she longed for them. The days were long and boring, but at night there was the chance of meeting him – of meeting Mairon, the other half of her heart. “I made a friend,” she whispered once more, greeting the morning sunrise with a smile like no other.
She hadn’t had a friend before thanks to Ami, but no one – not even Ami – could come between her and her soulmate, her half-heart. They were bound through forces unknown, and Mairon was probably quite a distance away, given how she had never heard of that Arda place he had kept going on about.
Not that it mattered.
One day she would find him and find Arda – and there was little doubt about that in her mind. After all, they were fated to be together. They could hardly be one without the other. That was what soulmates were, or so her parents always told her, showing her tale after tale of happy soulmate couples. Her parents wouldn’t tell her lies, nor would the nice people she met on the streets and in the park because they were just that: nice.
Nice people didn’t lie. That, Sakura knew with an ironclad certainty, and so she would meet Mairon one day and get married and do whatever else soulmates, half-hearts, did. Humming, she mused over the two words used, wondering all the while why there was a difference between them and why one was used more often than the other. “Half-heart,” she murmured, playing with the word on her lips. That was supposed to be the official definition of those involved in that phenomenon. They were half a heart each and only together could they be whole and happy. “Soulmates,” she spoke, as if savouring the word and everything it meant. “Huh,” she mumbled, wondering all the while why soulmate sounded that much nicer to hear. “Oh well,” she murmured, deciding then that such a thing didn’t really matter.
All that mattered was that they had met – at least in their dreams – and they were treading on the path to their happy ending.
PREMISE: In which Sakura learns that for her soulmates mean war. Or AKA the Sakura/Sauron soulmate pairing which doesn’t end with happiness. Or: in which Sakura has shared dreams and a voice in the back of her head. Mokuton Sakura. One eye colour of each person for half-hearts – aka half hearts have heterochromia. Spans from Naruto into Pre LOTR. An exploration into fate and choice and how the grass is sometimes greener on the other side. Pairings: Sakura/Mairon(Sauron), Sakura/Glorfindel.