All That I Am (Discontinued)

4

a/n: the italics are memories. i don't go too much into detail because i like to keep them short and to the point. 

Circus (unedited)

Despite his looks, Souta was a very capable blue-haired fourteen-year-old boy. Sakura watched as he flipped up and down the small stage, earning applause of delight from the growing crowd. He rounded over to Jun - a grimacing brunette - and used his back as lift off, propelling towards the twins, Hitomi and Harumi.

Balanced on a single wooden post, he landed swiftly with one foot on their shoulders and swung his arms up into the air, as if declaring 'behold!'  The crowd loved it, ate it all up and applauded loudly with roars of laughter and glee.

A clown and two bearded women rolled out next, juggling and breathing fire and swallowing long edged knives. Three acrobatic boys dove on right after. 

Sakura watched quietly and if she was amazed, she didn't show it. It was the first time she'd ever seen a circus.

She'd read about one, heck she'd dreamed about one. But her eyes - up until this moment - had never watched such a performance. It was as if they were all shinobi in some form but instead of killing people off for pay, they offered entertainment and joy. That type of thing was a rarity, especially with the world in the state it was currently in. 

Head full of war, Sakura slunk out of the shadows and turned, freezing abruptly to find a tall, thin old woman puffing a pipe staring - glaring down at her. The Haruno wondered why she hadn't sensed the woman coming, brushing it off as her own naivety. 

"You gonna pay?" the woman asked in a raspy voice.

Sakura blinked up at her.

"This show ain't for free, we gotta eat somehow," the woman continued before blowing out a cloud of smoke.

The Haruno twisted her hands behind her back and inclined her head in an apology. "I'm sorry, I have no money," she admitted guiltily.

"Oh? A nice looking girl like you? Where's ya par'nts?" Old wrinkly eyes narrowed at her. Upon closer look, the old woman saw Sakura's clothes were thick with dust and badly wrinkled. Her skin, however, was scrubbed raw as if she'd just washed herself furiously in a lake.

"Dead, ma'am," replied Sakura. She elaborated further with a single word, "Killed."

Not a slither of emotion revealed what the old woman was thinking. "You an orphan?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"You got a place to stay?"

Sakura considered lying but for the past three days she'd been in this strange place, she'd been secretly breaking into people's homes to sleep in the shelter of their attics. It'd been longer than she had hoped to go with no proper support but there was no other options. 

A while back, she'd had a theory. It had been confirmed the other day, something about "warring clans" and Sakura clicked. So if this old woman was going to suggest something beneficial to her survival, she'd milk the cow as much as she could.

"No, ma'am."

"You got any talents, kid?"

"I do, ma'am."

"Well alright then. C'mon."

- x -

Tomo - she learned the old woman's name was - gave Sakura a futon to sleep in and three meals a day. She introduced the girl to the entire circus one by one and now, Sakura's eccentric hair colour was normal - plain, even - in a crowd praised for their abnormalities.