Heart-Shaped Box

When Sakura exited the Madam’s office she found Ari outside waiting for her with a grim look on her face.  For some reason Sakura expected some type of reassurance—to hear her say that this wasn’t going to be as bad as she thought it would be but no so words were forthcoming.  She would learn later that Ari wasn’t the type for pretty lies.

It was too bad.  She really wanted to delude herself for a while longer.  However, since it was not to be she asked the question that was rapidly starting to bother her especially after the Madam’s and Ari’s reaction to her name.  Ari had already started walking away and Sakura followed her and in a soft voice said, “Why is my name so interesting?”

“You’re a virgin aren’t you?”

“What does that have to do with—“

“Just answer the question.”

“…yes.”  Sakura said feeling a blush dust her cheeks.  Silently she berated herself for showing her embarrassment but there was nothing she could do about it at this point except ignore it.  Thankfully, Ari did too. 

“There’s a lot of reason your name is of interest.  First off virgins are rare here.  You’ll be a top dollar prize to whoever buys you at the auction.  Your hair, with its unusual color makes you look younger than what you really are—also a ‘plus’ but your name...cherry blossom…well I can think of a number of bad puns to go along with that including cherry poppin’, making your cherry bloom…clients are disgusting and I assure you the Madam will play up every angle available to get top dollar for you.”  Sakura felt sick to her stomach and forced herself to move on.  “Anyway, the Madam said you should have some knowledge of what we do around here so we’re going to go watch Hisa with her customer.”  Sakura wanted to ask who that was but she remained quiet realizing that she’d find out soon enough.

She followed Ari to a higher level of the house and noticed immediately a difference in the scent.  Now, she was no Hatake Kakashi but she didn’t have to be to detect it.  Ari motioned for her to remain silent so she kept the questions that burned in her throat for a later time.

Sakura thought it was remarkable how swiftly and silently Ari moved through the halls.  It was as if the hounds of hell were on her heels and Sakura felt a bit of fear touch her heart.  Unfortunately for her she let said fear distract her and before she knew it Ari had disappeared leaving her all alone.

Sakura’s first instinct was to call out but she wasn’t sure that would be the wisest course.  Instead, she waited a second to see if Ari would appear once more before slowly moving back the way she came because if she couldn’t find Ari she’d rather be on safer grounds—if such a thing actually existed in this place.  As it was she currently felt that she was treading on dangerous grounds and needed to leave quickly and Sakura trusted her instincts.

She wasn’t sure she had taken a good ten steps before she felt a hand grab hold of her arm and pull her into a room.  A strangled cry emerged from her throat, blood rushed to her head, and she was certain it would be foolish to faint but she was remarkably close to it.

:::

The Hokage wasn’t exactly one hundred percent correct when she stated that he had so many scars that adding one more would be inconsequential.  However it was one of these scars that he had obtained years ago that would aid him on this mission.  It had been a dark time in his life.  He had done many things that he couldn’t say that he was proud of. 

Once upon a time, when he was an ANBU operative he had been given a mission to infiltrate a yakuza syndicate and once the opportunity presented itself to assassinate the principle units of it. It was by no means an easy mission.  It wasn’t even a mission that he should have been on alone because there was a ninety-nine percent chance that he would have died.  But…that had been around the time that Rin died and a suicide mission had been rather appealing.  He should have died but luck wasn’t on his side at that point in his life so Kakashi beat the odds and completed the mission making himself something of a legend in the yakuza world. 

The women called him ‘Bloody Beauty’ for two reasons:  The trail of blood he left in his wake and because it was a mission where he had to remove his mask.  For some reason women seemed to love his face.  That was part of the reason he kept it covered.  Women tended to be a huge distraction.  However, for that mission it hadn’t mattered since he hadn’t planned on surviving the mission in the first place.  In hindsight, though, he realized he should have found some other way.

The men, on the other hand, called him, “Aaaah!” or at least that’s what they said when he came to kill them. 

What Sakura didn’t know was the name of the family that had come to them requesting aid.  The Dojin family had specifically requested the ninja who helped them years ago.  That was why the Hokage had come to them first. He was almost certain that old mission would bleed into this one especially since he intended to use the persona he adopted back then and use his own legend to help him get to Sakura.  He didn’t want to do this because this would be upping the danger level of the mission and he didn’t want to chance Sakura getting hurt any more than what was necessary for the mission.  There were people who wanted him dead and would use any means to make that dream possible even if it meant going through a ‘whore’ he visited regularly.