7History: Out Of Order
Part 3
One of the candles by the door guttered, battered by an unfelt wind, and noticing this, the room's occupant quietly said,
"Come in." There was a nervous noise on the other side of the stone door and a cautious Sound nin entered the candlelit lair.
"Lady Sakura, there's a messenger for you topside."
"One of our own?" Came the smooth detached voice and the touch of frost in it made the ninja shiver.
"Yes mam."
"Good..." The voice hissed, sending another chill through the poor man. "You may leave." The Sound nin gratefully bolted out the door, barely remembering to close the heavy door after him. Sakura, Leader of Sound Country, stood up from her stone carved snake chair. Putting away the unfinished scroll painting of her father Orochimaru, she blew out many of the candles in her workroom and stepped out into the hall. The halls were the only spaces with adequate lamp lighting and one of the first projects she had taken on when she became ruler. Rooms still needed some kind of lighting besides candles but there was no money for that project now. She turned left down the stone tunnel, curving slowly towards the surface world. Her chambers were the farthest and deepest down, her bedroom and washroom still deeper down the tunnel. She had gotten used to her stone bedroom many years ago, back when she was still struggling to learn Tsuande's teachings. Sakura's snake-like eyes narrowed, their purple rims creating an even sharper point at her nose. Her betrayal of her teacher reduced itself to a sad little ache buried deep within her heart. Many things had been buried in that deep hole called her heart since she became the Ruler of Sound Country. Things like most of her volatile emotions. Things like the entire section of her life spanning from age 7 to age 13. Things like her previous love and adoration for Sasuke Uchiha, the man who killed her father. But some things could not be buried, however much she wished them to. Her nails began gnawing at her skin's pale palms and she ignored the pain as the scars on that very deep hole came to mind. Several small lines for every time she cried alone in Konoha. One very simple thick line, like a stab wound, for when her father died. And one torturous looking scab for when Kabuto, her older brother, betrayed and tried to kill her.
It was at that moment her feet brought her to the end of the tunnel, huge doors open to the rotting smell of the forest. The nervous Sound nin who had come to her room was standing next to another ninja, who seemed very weary. He wore no identifying marks, no headband or special weaponry. He was definitely the one she sent out. They both knelt.
"Sakura-sama." She nodded and the shinobi stood up.
"There is a team of Konoha ANBU approaching our border. They appear to have returned from a mission in the Waterfall village and have already criss-crossed the border several times."
"And they are within our borders now?" She asked impatiently, simply itching to take out her frustration on something.
"Yes mam." Replied the scout.
"What are you going to do, Lady Sakura?" The second ninja asked timidly. "Will you hunt them down too?" At this, Sakura nearly gave the poor shinobi her father's snake-like smile, simply to watch him squirm. She suppressed her nasty impulses, telling herself to save it for the Konoha ANBU.
"No. I will not 'hunt them down'. I'm going to kill them. No Konoha ninja shall ever step upon my country's land with paying for it with his life. That is my edict, as Ruler of Sound Country."