Night Sky

Sakura watched her younger self smile into a mirror before she entered the great dining hall. Sakura remembered this day far to well. She had just turned fourteen and everything in her world seemed perfect. She remembered how happy she was when Seth had personally requested that she help serve at the party that night. He even had Rowena order her a new dress. Sakura wanted to reach out and warn her past self, but when she tried no sound came out of her mouth. She watched the younger form of herself twirl in the mint green gown that complemented her eyes extremely well. She could only follow herself into the ballroom with the hopes that the little pink haired girl would somehow avoid the inevitable this time.

The ballroom was filled with lavishly dress couples all laughing and spinning without a care in the world. Sakura felt extremely out of place in her rag of a dress, even though she knew no one could see her as she followed her past self around. At the far end of the room an orchestra was playing one beautiful composition after another. Many of the older slaves were already dodging around tables to serve the Lords and Ladies that called out to them.

"Sakura, over here!" Both Sakuras turned toward the direction of the voice. Sakura's stomach dropped. At a table not too far away was seventeen years old Seth, waving at her. Sakura's heart broke all over again when she saw the smile on little fourteen year old Sakura's face.

Everything went white for a moment…

Sakura appeared next to a dancing Seth arms wrapped around her past self. She watched the spinning couples all around whisper softly to one another, "What is he doing now?"

"Is this any way for the heir to act?"

"Is that a slave?" Sakura put her foot behind the man that said that, but he passed through her so easily she could have been air.

"Sir, I can just go and get another tray" Sakura heard little Sakura say, the girl turned turned her head to try and spot another tray. Seth smirked and pulled her closer to him. "You know it's fine if you just call me Seth." Sakura felt the tears threatening the back of her eyes, she wanted to slap him. Young Sakura blushed hard, "The Lord and Lady will be angry. The guests are gossiping already," she squirmed until he put space in between them again. Seth shrugged, "Who cares, I am the young Lord. This is my house. I can do whatever I want; I can dance with whoever I want,"

"But -" The girl stopped when he put his lips to her ear.

"Sakura, of all my parent's servant's you're my favorite. Did you know that?" Sakura watched the girl shiver. "You son of a bitch!" She tried to scream, no sound came out. Her younger self only nodded humbly, "Yes, and I am very grateful that you take care of me, but this is -" He gave her one of his usual charming smiles. Sakura wanted to cry. Her old self couldn't see past the pretense of that mask, but she could.

"This is fine, I only wanted to get away from some girls is all," Seth glanced back in the direction of the table where he was seated. When he turned back to face his dance partner, his expression had gone blank, unreadable for the first time. Sakura wanted to scream, to rip his dirty hands off her past innocent self and get away from him forever. The look of confusion on young Sakura's face was obvious, "Um, sir, is there something the matter?" Seth gazed down at the fourteen year old until she had to look away in discomfort.

"Sakura, you would say we're… friends? That you care for me?" Sakura shook her head desperately as tears leaked down her face.

Young Sakura gave a small blush at the question but nodded. Seth stopped them in the middle of a song and pulled her off the dance floor. "No, No let go of me!" Sakura tried to scream as she followed them. She pleaded with the little pink haired girl to resist him as he dragged her past gossiping whispering Duchesses and their daughters. Seth quickly opened a side door that led to his bedroom chamber. The hall was empty, and Sakura cried helplessly for the innocent girl that didn't know she had anything to fear. "Don't let him…" she whispered softly in between a sob. Suddenly her younger self stopped. Seth squeezed her wrist harder, still facing his bedroom door that was only a few feet away now. Sakura stared at the ground, "Seth, what's going on, why are we leaving the party?" He turned impatiently and yanked her roughly to him. He let his free hand caress her cheek and slowly lower itself to the collar of her dress. His eyes slowly roamed her body until they finally reached hers once more. "You know you can't stop me," he said, face still expressionless. Hastily he yanked her through his bedroom door. Before Sakura could react he had shut the door and locked it. Sakura couldn't unlock the door or faze through it. She stood there for a while, banging on the door, listening to her own barely recognizable voice crying out in protest and in pain. No one could hear the girl over the lullaby of ballroom music that filled the mansion to the brim. "You Pervert!" Sakura screamed at him through the door, "I hate you! Why are you doing this? Why did it have to be me?"

Sakura finally turned away from the door, not at all trying to stop the tears from running down her face like waterfalls. She ran down the hall to find help. She ran, and ran, and ran. The length of the hall seemed to grow. Every time she took a step it lengthened a yard until she couldn't even see the end anymore, but she kept running. She ran until finally, she tripped and fell forward–

Sakura woke in a cold sweat. She forced herself to relax and stop clutching her lice infected sheets. She sat up and wiped her tear soaked face on her shirt and got up quickly to go to the bathroom. Ugg, not that dream again. She let out a small groan when the cracked mirror showed splotches of red all over her face and pale tear streaks, her usually wide eyes were nearly swollen shut, her pink hair had random strand poking out here and there. Sakura grabbed a threadbare towel and turned on the hot water in the sink. Well, hopefully it would be warm. She dunked her head under the warm stream for as long as she could and then wrapped the towel around her face. After sitting like that for a little while she threw off the towel and got dressed. She gave her hair a light brushing and looked in the mirror again. She at least looked presentable. She could tell that today was going to be horrible.

Knock Knock Knock

Sakura left the bathroom and opened the door. It was Rowena, "What are you still doing in your room Sakura?" The giant woman glared at her with eyes glazed; she had gone drinking the night before, "Hurry up. You know it's your job to assign rooms for our guest's slaves."

Sakura stared at the woman in confusion for a moment until the meaning of her words sunk in; she could almost slap herself for forgetting that easily. She bowed quickly to the woman at her door. "Right, if you'll excuse me. I should be outside right now," Sakura pushed past the woman and ran to get her apron. She finally remembered what was happening today: it was preparation day for the visit of a suitor.

The way visits of any kind worked were that a troop of the guest's servants were sent ahead to make sure that they were correctly prepared for. Sakura had been chosen a long time ago to assign these pre-guests their rooms. A job that she didn't particularly enjoy.

Some of the other girls had already started organizing the visitors for her. Sakura hurried over to the first group after grabbing a clipboard from a man at the door.

The first group was a group of middle aged women. They wore navy blue dresses and black slippers they also wore identical ponytails. Each woman had a large cart with sacks on top. Sakura glanced at her clipboard, quickly she wrote first group. "Hello, I am Sakura and I will be your manager for the length of your visit. What is the name of your household and job title?" She said bowing slightly. They all gave little curtsies and one answered, "We are the chefs of the Uchiha household." Sakura tried not to let out her surprise at the name Uchiha. The Uchihas were the richest household of good standing that she had heard of. The Lord Uchiha is the owner of endless amounts of gold and diamond mines. He and his wife are probably the most famous for having two sons who know as "The two heartthrobs of society" known for their enthralling beauty and countless heartbreaks. Sakura guessed that there must have been some sort of bribe involving their visit. Even though she had no idea what her owners might have that they would want.

Sakura led the group out of the courtyard to the guestrooms closest to the kitchen. As she helped them settle in she noticed a man among the women. He wore a sleeveless shirt that was the same color navy as the ladies' with what she assumed was the Uchiha symbol on it. His pants were khaki with a navy stripe down the side. She only caught a glimpse of his dark hair before he knelt down to pick something up for a woman. She turned back to the woman she was helping.

Sakura walked down the hall toward the kitchen. It had taken all day to organize the Uchiha's servants; they sent more than the usual amount. She swore silently to herself when she though about working even longer to help prepare tonight's supper. She the turned final corner imagining Rowena's expression if she told her she wanted to skip tonight, she imagined her fist.

The next thing she knew she had run right into someone's chest. She bowed embarrassed, "Oh, I'm sorry; I wasn't looking where I was -"

"You really should watch where you're going, instead of daydreaming." Sakura felt her face grow hot, "You should -" The silky voice cut her off again, this time with a whisper, "Weren't you going somewhere?" Sakura glared up at the owner of the voice.

She found herself staring into a deep abyss of dark orbs. She almost couldn't tear her eyes away, but forced herself to take a step back. She took in his whole appearance, spiky jet black hair and pale skin. His features were so breath taking in their femininity that at first she mistook him for a girl, but his jaw was too wide to be a woman's. His shoulders were also very broad. He even seemed extremely attractive in the Uchiha uniform he was currently wearing. His collar bone was exposed and his arms were very muscular. Sakura could do nothing but stare at him in awe for a moment. The boy shifted forward and rolled his eyes, "Weren't you going somewhere?" The scorn in his voice broke her out of her trance completely.

"You, aren't you the one that was helping the chefs? What are you doing out here, you should be helping prepare the meal! I don't know who you are, but I can get you fired!" He smirked and took a step toward her, "I'm pretty sure you can't get me fired." Sakura took a step back only to hit a wall, he quickly closed the distance. "Actually, you're the first person to talk to me like that since my mother died." He rested his chin on top of her head. Was he an orphan too? Sakura thought as she breathed into his chest, it smelled faintly like red velvet and something else… tomatoes? He lightly grabbed a loose strand of her hair, "Pink, that's…. interesting," He murmured softly and then brought it up to his nose, "You don't stink like the rest of them. Are you sure you're a slave?" He didn't smell horrible either.

"I'm sure"

"You were going to the kitchen?" Sakura nodded sleepily, she felt oddly at ease in this stranger's arms. She sighed sadly when he let go of her to walk into the kitchen. She followed, slightly dazed, to find that the meal was almost ready, thanks to the extra cooks.

Sakura headed over to the vegetable area and motioned for the dark haired boy to follow. They split what was left of the vegetables to dice. Sakura sped through hers, but when she turned to see how the dark hair boy was doing he was all the way across the room chatting up another Uchiha girl.

"Hey you!" she yelled at him and pointed at his half of the food. The girl glared at her when the dark hair boy left her in mid sentence to dice. He picked up the knife nonchalantly and started to dice. His technique was laughable, and Sakura did. Eventually he finished and Sakura realized that she would just have to through his whole pile away. He glared at her like she was killing his only child, then took off and disappeared.

Sakura felt slightly bad about hurting his feelings but soon got caught up again with preparing the meal. Finally everything was finished and the cooks picked up things to bring to the dining table. Sakura moved to pick up a pan when she felt a tug from behind. She was pulled out of the backdoor out under the starry night sky.

Sakura jerked her hand away from the offender and whispered, "No, not again Seth."

"Who?" the semi-sweet voice spoke as she turned towards him. She felt extremely relieved to his pale skin glowing in the moonlight, black hair slightly in his eyes. He waited for her response and when she gave none he continued, "I'm sure this place has a garden. Do you know where it is?"

"I should be serving with the others"

"I think they can manage" He took her hand and started to move. Sakura giggled, "Actually it's this way."

When they finally reached the garden, they found everything glowing under the moonlight. There were trees everywhere teeming with fruit, and of course hundreds of flowers. In the center of the garden was a sparkling pond.

Sakura smiled, she hadn't been here in a long time, and it was more beautiful than she remembered it to be. The air was warm and fragrant. Fireflies floated around lazily and shined like stars in the sky. There seemed to be some magic in the garden at night that brought it to life.

"For you my lady," The dark haired boy said, he was holding out a white rose. She took it, "My mistress, the Lord's daughter, would have you beaten relentlessly for giving me this." He gave a half smile, "I doubt it. Most Ladies say that I am too beautiful to beat. What do you think?" Sakura smiled sadly, "I think the slaves men and women praise the most are in the greatest danger," She felt a hint of tears poke at her eyelids, she turned away from him.

"What-" He started, but she cut him off, "So anyway, my favorite game to play in this garden was hide-and-seek. I'll bet you can't find me!" She flashed him a smile and too off, she let the wind wipe away the tears that forced themselves out. She scurried down a "hall" of trees and sat down at her favorite place in the whole garden, a hammock in between two trees that looked out onto the pond. There she sat, and waited.

Eventually he found her again and sat down next to her in the hammock. "So what's your name?"

"Sakura," she played with the flower he had given her, "What's yours?" She felt him stiffen slightly next to her. "Sas- I mean, um, Naruto," Sakura yawned and leaned onto his shoulder half asleep. "Sakura, that's ironic. The color pink always did remind me of flowers." It was the last thing she heard before she fell asleep completely.

Sasuke stared at the girl lying in his lap. Pink hair. She slept shuddering, like there was something to be afraid of, even in her sleep. Suddenly, tears leaked out of her tightly shut eyes and she began to jerk violently. "No, don't let him… Don't let him!" she half moaned half cried. Sasuke could hardly contain his surprise. All he could think of to do was rub her head gently. He bent over and whispered calmly into her ear, "Shhh, Sakura. Hush my flower…" Slowly she calmed down and snuggled into him. After he was sure the panic attack had passed, he stiffly lifted her, stood, and laid her back into the hammock. After he mouthed a silent "Goodbye" he took off back toward the mansion.