The Flower and the Avenger

Chapter 24

Sakura wasn't feeling alive. Not at all.

If the presence of Karin was bad, having her without was even worse. It was three weeks since she had her last nightmare.

Instead, she felt like she was... withering, of some sort, like a poison was slowly coursing through her body. She ate even less and slept deeply; it was like a person ready for death.

She kept taking her pills, from two at a time to three at a time, then four, five, six- until she was drowsy from morning to noon and often fell asleep on her chores. If Tsunade noticed anything that was going wrong, she didn't say anything.

A glass of water and box of pills were permanently stowed away in her lone bedroom, waiting for her to take as soon as she finished her jobs. She hadn't felt fresh air in days, a month at least when the ball happened and when she talked to Neji.

She haven't quite forgiven Sasuke- though what was there to forgive? It was his fiancé, and he just happened not to mention her. So what if he rejected her? There were so many other fish in the sea, weren't there?

But that was just it. Her heart broke in two whenever she thought about it; no matter which way she saw it, he was leading her on. No one would to that much for a girl and then announce that they would be married to a different girl. At least, she thought...

It was becoming harder and harder to think nowadays. She would do her chores almost hazily, then drag herself to her bedroom and stay, locked in, just like a certain someone who had broken her heart.

The thing was... she wasn't as torn. She was becoming happier, or dreamier was the right way to put it, wasn't it? Not much attention to the outside. Sure, her body was shaking all the time, but she considered it normal- or at least she thought. Sakura really didn't know, memories were hazy.

She smiled a bit before stumbling down the hall some more, not even realizing that she went the wrong way. The world really wasn't a bad place, wasn't it? It was great, actually, the constant happiness and not a care about what would happen to her. Emotions were far out of her reach; they seemed something out of a movie.

Sakura had stopped going to the library a few days ago. After all, what was the point? Education and knowledge. What would they ever do to help people? Why couldn't they just... take the happiness pills... like she did...

A dull thunk hit her head as she sank to her knees, still smiling that dreamy smile as footsteps thundered down the hall and screaming sounded. But the way that Sakura heard it, it was just all a dream.

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The way Sasuke saw it, he didn't intentionally do it.

Karin was a good-for-nothing gold digger that insulted the girl that he love- liked. She blamed everything on the innocent pinkette, and by the looks of things, she earned that punch on the cheek.

But he didn't mean to kill her.

He certainly didn't want to use that gift either.

Sasuke wasn't afraid of the Uchiha's secret power. In fact, he embraced it and honed it so that when he met his brother, he would defeat him in an instant and with no blood drawn onto him. Easy as that.

Seemed like he couldn't control it as well as he thought he could...

Before he knew what had happened, darkness had enveloped him and Karin was dead, on the ground.

He buried the body in the forest, not bothering to put in a gravestone. After all, what had that woman ever done to help him, or others for that matter?