Witches & Familiars
It’s not that Sakura was disappointed. Really, she wasn’t. She was thirteen, practically an adult (in her mind), and she could handle it.
Anyone would be happy to have the same familiar as their mentor who also happened to be the most powerful witch in the realm. Tsunade’s familiar was a slug, too, which must mean that Sakura was destined to follow in her footsteps.
Big footsteps.
Sakura mulled it over, letting her legs dangle over the stone wall. She bounced her heels back into the rocks as she tried to come to terms with having a slug as a familiar. She swallowed to discourage the bile coming up from her stomach.
It was a very polite slug with nice purple stripes, but there was something about that oozing slime trail that Sakura could not make peace with. The sensible part of her argued that slug slime was a great potion thickener, but that was the part that didn’t have to figure out how to carry around a slug all the time.
An autumnal wind kicked up, sweeping up dead leaves in a flurry of orange and brown as the young witch made a mental pro’s and con’s list of the methods of safe slug transport. Leather pouch? Glass orb? Breast pocket? There was, of course, the problem of her familiar getting squished in transit or even accidentally…
The ground in front of her became cast in shadow and she looked up with a start.
It seemed that the gust of wind had brought in a fellow witch.
“Sasori, right?” She asked warily, trying not to be overt in her study of him. He was still dressed in his school uniform, as was she, and the aloof aire that clung to him was present as usual. The late afternoon sun made his red hair glint like hard cherry candy.
“You seem disappointed with your familiar,” he said.
‘Getting right to the point, I see,’ Sakura thought. Perhaps upperclassmen found common courtesy useless. She leaned back in a slump, propping herself up with her arms on the hill behind her.
“Anyone would be honored to have the same familiar as Tsunade,” Sakura sniffed in disdain, trying to be proud and very painfully failing. She tried not to cringe.
“That’s not what I’m talking about,” the older boy frowned. “You all but stormed out of the ceremony when we were dismissed.”
“I was just excited to start planning.” Sakura didn’t like his eyes, such a warm color but his focus made them intense. She tried not to squirm under his scrutiny.
“I thought you were above lying,” he said, cocking his head slightly.
How did this guy know anything about her? Sakura tried to wrack her brain to any interaction they might have had in the past. Was he playing her?
“You’re not very polite, are you,” she said instead, trying to give him a dose of his own medicine. He only looked at her with those weird bored yet piercing eyes of his.
“I came here to offer you a way out of your predicament. But if you’re satisfied…”
“I’m listening,” she said quickly as he turned to leave. She had reached out to stop him and her fingers brushed his dusty robe. Sakura snatched her hand back and tried not to look desperate.
“My familiar is a scorpion.” He paused, turning his attention to said scorpion scuttling out from his sleeve. Sakura may or may not have blanched at the idea of one of those walking out of her sleeve. “Scorpions have been known to eat slugs.”
The quiet was loud between them as Sakura tried to decipher his meaning. He wanted to feed her familiar to his familiar?!
“Are you threatening me?” Sakura’s face began to darken. The audacity of this guy! As if she wasn’t having a bad enough day already, now this weirdo was threatening to sic his creepy scorpion on her. She could feel the magic begin to crackle around her finger tips, manifesting as it so often did when she became angry.
“Don’t be foolish,” he frowned, but it was hard to tell if he was frowning at her suggestion or the magic she was drawing on. For the first time he showed emotion, true uncertainty, and it pleased the darker part of her.
“Don’t suggest that your manifestation of magic eat mine, then,” she spat. “Who cares if I don’t like slugs? It’s mine, it’s part of who I am!”
Sasori, who had truly only come to her with good intentions, could see he had put his own foot in his mouth. He stared at her as she glared at him, at a loss for words, until she hopped on her broom and took off.
He sighed, watching her form become a speck on the horizon. This was why he didn’t have many friends. And the friends he did have were stupid enough to believe this plan would have worked.
‘Next time,’ he thought as he summoned the wind around him, ‘I’ll listen to Itachi.’
Itachi, who had sagely advised that he should list all the ways slugs were good and valuable familiars.
And in the blink of an eye, he was gone.