marionette || sasori

01 :: Consciousness

Waking up was never something Sakura looked forward to. Ever since her life took a turn for the worse, she wasn't that eager to continue living anymore. Although it wasn't like she enthusiastically wished for the opposite either.

As for her reasons.

It wasn't anything fancy. It wasn't a tear-jerking, goosebumps-inducing story. It was just simple. Her reason was a reason everyone else also had. Not anything unique to her.

Her parents died as cannon fodder. What's so wrong about that when you're a ninja? When you're a shinobi, isn't death always loosely following your every step anyway?

But who's to say one cannot grieve for the loss of a life? Especially that of a loved one's?

And then there was her inadequacy. Her mundanity and mediocrity brought to light and emphasized at the presence of her prodigious teammates.

Again, it wasn't anything fancy.

But was it wrong to feel a feeling as normal as envy and inferiority? Was it wrong of her to have the desire to stand beside her friends, despite her many shortcomings, rather than to walk one step behind them? Was it so selfish of her to feel, to want to be, like a normal girl?

Because people made her feel like it was.

Her lonesome life was like an adhesive that stuck to her skin far too deep that everytime it is attempted to be snatched off, it would hurt even more and she would just decide to leave it be to stop the pain. The neglection that she faced each and everyday was like a glue that only added to all of it. To everyone else, she was no one. Because they had Naruto and Sasuke.

And Sakura. She was just the fourth member to complete the required number. But she wasn't needed. Because the other three was enough. And they couldn't have made it all the more obvious when they instructed her to remain inside the village.

So when she got abducted by someone who was supposedly an S-rank missing nin, she thought that she might finally meet her end. Not that it meant she prayed for it. After all, no one would bother to look for one missing kunoichi while they have a far more important concern.

And she thought she wasn't wrong when she woke up.

She felt numb, making her confused as to how one could even feel numbness at all. But she didn't mind. Maybe it was the thought of freedom for her. But she only woke up to a far worse nightmare.

She instantly knew she was alive. She knew. She was breathing. She could see. She could smell. But she couldn't feel, and she couldn't move.

Can she speak?

"W. . .where. . .?"

Yes, apparently she can.

"Where. . .am. . ." She tried.

But her throat felt very dry. The driest it had ever been. It was as if she was deprived of water for days when she remembered that she had only been asleep for. . .

How. . .how long has it been since she was asleep?

"Six months."

Sakura gasped in fear and surprise. She couldn't move even when she wanted to. She wanted to jump up and look at the man who answered her question as if he read her mind. But she couldn't. She was paralyzed.

"Who. . .are you?" She asked, pain scratching at her dry throat.

When she heard no answer, she panicked. She was scared, despite supposedly coming to terms with her evident demise, she was still afraid of how exactly she would meet her end.