After the mission in Wave, Sakura thought about what had just happened.
"Sasuke was so good at protecting everyone," Sakura thought.
'Bah. It was Naruto that did all the work and that's why the bridge is named after him and not Sasuke,' Inner Sakura commented. 'The only thing he has going for him is that cheat of an eye.'
Sakura's eyes twitched at that thought coming from her inner self.
'You are wondering why I have disagreed with you, even though I am your inner self. I am. Sort of. My memories of my past life have awoken. I have seen many people like both Sasuke and Naruto and can pretty much guess how they will react.'
"How about me?" Sakura whispered.
'You? Me? We? Us? Yes, I have seen others like us before. We wait for a gallant hero to come sweep us off our feet and make us happy. It didn't work for me. It never did.'
Sakura felt a great sadness coming from her inner self.
"Something wrong?"
A hint of amusement came from Inner Sakura.
'You don't need to talk out loud. People will think we are crazy. Then again, we are. As to your question, I was thinking of my fiancée.'
'You were married?' Sakura thought in shock.
'No. He was.... lost in a war. We both thought we had lost each other. I later met up with his son, after he found happiness with another woman.'
'What about you?'
'I had my mission and could not stop to laugh or have happiness. By the way, you are named cherry blossom and I am named after another flower: rose.'
'Rose? What was you family name?'
'I forget. It's been so long. Maybe I didn't have a family name,' Rose replied.
Sakura felt a bit of panic at the voice that she knew had its own identity.
'Do not fear. I think this is only temporary until we fully merge. If it weren't for my life, we would not be like this.'
'Your life? How can your life have done this?' Sakura thought, still a bit frazzled.
'It's not how I lived it. It's how long I lived it. I think I was twenty during that war. My death came eleven thousand six hundred eighty-two years later.'
Sakura's mouth opened and closed in shock.
'I had a choker that froze me in time. As long as I wore it, I would not age.'
'Why? Why would you choose to live that long?'
'My mission. It was all I had. I had a mission to keep the world from being destroyed. To do it, I had to become feared, hated and reviled.'
'What kind of mission would cause that?' Sakura thought.
'Every one hundred eight years the Moon that Never Sets would glow red and a Moon Child would be born. That child would carry the soul of the God of Destruction and if not stopped the moon would set and the God of Destruction would be born and those the Moon Child met, would become its loyal servants as it destroyed the world. I murdered newborn children, wiped out villages, and slaughtered entire armies. I was called the Black Monster. That nine tailed fox that attacked Konoha wasn't all that big a threat. If it were I attacking, Konoha would be gone. The village of Neet only had three survivors and was just a tad smaller than Konoha.'
Sakura felt ill knowing that a part of her was a much bigger threat than the tailed beasts and was capable of more destruction than she previously thought possible.
'We don't have my old powers, so it doesn't matter,' Rose thought in amusement. "Hm. I've had more amusement today than I can remember. For such a long time, I had forgotten how to laugh or how to smile and even how to cry.'
Sakura shook her head and thought to the Chunin examination. 'Any advice about the test I'm taking?'
'Yes. Naruto and we will fail. To be a Jonin, you need two elemental masteries. What do you think the requirement for Chunin is?'
'One elemental mastery is the logical answer,' Sakura thought in resignation. 'I have none.'
'Yes, we along with Naruto are being sent to prop up Sasuke, so he can become a Chunin. Let's face it, we are pathetic when it comes to a fight.'
'You weren't.'
'I was a swordswoman and had legendary powers. You have no sword. As to the powers, they are gone as well. What do we have? Excellent Chakra control, but no way to use it in a fight. A drunken civilian bartender could knock us out with relative ease.'
'I could get a sword.'
'You'd better let me make the choice. I tended to use a one-handed sword. Still, it will take time for our body to get used to using the sword like I used to.'
Sakura left and headed for a place she knew that sold swords. She thought about Rose and what she told of herself.
'Rose? Why did you take so long to....'
'Zabauza. Until we were in real danger of losing our lives, I was stuck in a dreamlike state that felt your emotions and made the comments you wanted to make. I recall that shortly after my death I was reborn as a bird.'
Sakura felt the memory of soaring through the skies over unfamiliar villages and landing on what looked to be the remnants of a gigantic tree. She shook her head and looked to the sky.
'I can't believe that the moon holds the ability to destroy the world.'
'Don't. This world doesn't have that moon. The Moon that Never Sets was destroyed. Zieg and I sacrificed our lives to destroy the moon.'
'Zieg?'
'Zieg Feld. He was the man I was to marry. There is a long story behind that. I'll tell it to you later.'
Sakura nodded and entered the weapon store. She saw that the owner of the store threw a strange ornate hilt down in disgust and look up.
"It is nice to see one of Konoha's ninja at my shop. What can I do for you?"
"I'm here to buy a sword. What's wrong with that hilt?"
That man shook his head and pulled a box from underneath the counter. There was the decoration of a large cat's eye on the tope of the case. The man opened it up and eight beautiful stones that looked like the eyes of a cat were revealed.
"That hilt was with these pretty stones. I can not get a blade to attach to that hilt."
'Ask him how much for both the hilt and all eight stones. We are not going to leave those lying around for anyone to find and abuse,' Rose thought fiercely
"How much for all of the stones, that sword hilt, and that ninja-to?"
"I don't know why you would want the stones and the hilt, but for the price of three kunai, you can have them all. As to the ninja-to, the price is written on the board above me."
Sakura looked up and saw the price of the ninja-to and paid for her purchase.
"Thank you for taking that garbage of my hands."
"You are welcome," Sakura replied and bowed politely.
'Garbage? If he knew what those stones or that sword hilt could do, he would not call them garbage.'
'What can they do?'
"Back at home. Not here,' Rose replied.
Back at home, Sakura pulled the box and sword hilt out and stared at them in confusion.
'Hold the sword out and push your Chakra into it,' Rose instructed.
Sakura did so and was surprised when a blade made of fiery energy appeared from the hilt.
'That is the Dragon Buster. It is the most powerful sword from my world. I have no idea how it or the Dragon Spirits got here.'
"Dragon Spirits?" Sakura blurted out, and the sword blade faded away.
A glow surrounded the eight stones and the image of a young woman with brown hair wearing white shorts and a white shirt appeared over the stones.
"Hello Rose or whoever you are calling yourself now. This is Shana Feld. Yes, Dart and I married and Haschel finally owned up to being Dart's grandfather on his mother's side. Meru and her husband have moved into town and they are fitting in well. I have the feeling that Seles will be the first town that has half-breeds of Wingly and Human. Kongol is still in Rouge with Haschel. Apparently, there are a few more Giganto that were hiding around the islands near Rouge. Albert and Emile have married and united the two kingdoms. I have yet to have that talk with Queen Theresea about being the twin sister to Louvia. What do I say to a person who was the one who gave birth to me, especially since I consider the ones who raised me as my parents? Peace is spreading across the land of Soa and there is no need for the weapons of ages past. I managed to tap into my abilities as the person who was supposed to be the God of Destruction and sent the Dragoon Spirits and the Dragon Buster to you. I get the feeling that they will be needed where you are. If you are younger than fourteen, the Dragon Spirits will age you to fourteen, until you transform back. The Divine Spirit requires someone to be a Dragoon and then lose that power to someone else, but still live. Out of all of us, only Dart and myself qualified for that and I was sort of incapable of doing anything during that battle with Melbu Frahma. I don't know what the people of this world will become. I have Virage powers. Kongol is Giganto. The Minikins, Merfolk and Winglies are also around. I do know that there will come a time when the sentient races will be united as a single race. I think this is what Soa really wanted. We miss you and hope that you find happiness in your new world and new life. Until we cross paths again in this life or another, farewell. Rose? One final thing, I forgive you for all the times you killed me in the past. I recall the one where you had your pet dragon eat me. It finally ended well and the one who needed to die was slain."
The image flickered out and Sakura got the feeling that Rose was crying a bit.
'She was the Moon Child? But, I thought....'
'She was. I killed her twin sister by mistake. I can't believe that she recalled her past and forgave me for all the times I killed her. She also gave me news of our other companions.'
Rose then went into the adventure she had when she first met Dart up to the final battle with Melbu Frahma. Sakura looked at the eight stones and the Dragon Buster with renewed respect.
'These stones allowed a person to contend with a god? Wow. Impressive.'
'As a full group of seven or eight at the end with Melbu Frahma, yes. Excluding the Divine spirit, it's the green one with the orange eye; the spirits have other requirements. No male could use the white, blue or black and no woman could use the red, green, yellow, or purple.'
'Black? I don't see a black one.'
'It's the one that is dark purple with a red eye. That was the one I used for so long.'
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(Posted Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:35)
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