Note: This fic is dedicated to all the graduating students for this school year. Being a student is one of the memorable experiences in a person's life, no matter what type of student you were. And this is a part of gratitude for the bittersweet memories.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

Summary: Haruno Sakura has always been the type of student you would see at a corner. She had never really enjoyed her life as a youth.

Her family moved to the city and she entered in a new academy in her last year in college. She thought it would just be the same old maddening school life, until she came across the Mortis Organization—an association which she never thought possible and existed. And different people had come along with it. Little did she know that some of them would even leave footprints behind her life.

And maybe this time, she had found the place where she belongs. After all, it is never too late for something to happen.

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The Organization

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Chapter 1

Away

000

A woman in her late twenties sat alone on a wooden bench on top of a hill, the fading sunset before her.

There was one thing she had always been thinking about. Something she had always kept with her life for years. A memory she could never forget.

My name is Haruno Sakura.

I'm twenty-eight years old and I work in a comic studio and publications.

Let me tell you some things about myself first.

Slim. Short pink hair. Pale skin. Bright green eyes. Those were my physical characteristics.

I was the quiet and moody type ever since young. And at school, I was the type of student who'd always sit at the corner or at the back where only a few people could see me. I didn't feel comfortable with that much attention.

I studied in Scion Academy since elementary. I had never really liked that place. As a youth, my classmates would usually ignore me. Maybe that was because I wasn't really one of the type of kids whom you'd call the cool ones. I was more of the type of girl you'd find at a corner, like a wallflower.

I was the type of girl who didn't have a social life. I was pathetic in high school. I've never attended a prom or a party. It didn't matter, though. I never really enjoyed it since all they do is get drunk and bully other people. My life had been like that until I graduated from high school and entered college. I took up journalism and thought my life would be altering even just a little if I'd finally went to college, but it didn't. It was the same old story. It was the same old boring thing.

And as a kid, I often stared up at the sky. I knew it was a bit odd. I didn't know why I like staring up there. It felt like there were other things in this world than what they seemed.

My grandfather and I used to sit at the porch and talk about stuff under the sky. We would even share conversations with one another. I didn't know what it was about him, but he sure had this different appeal that made me curious about his background. I would ask him something about his past, and he would always tell me it wasn't yet the right time for me to know some of it.

My father works as an engineer. And by the time I was twenty and was already an incoming senior in college, he announced to the family that he had just been promoted and was given a new contract, and we had to move to Tokyo for a year. He was assigned to manage a construction project from a lavish businessman located in the city. You could say it was the right timing for us to move out of the country since it happened during a summer vacation and I was freed out of school for the summer break.

Though I never really wanted to move away since I thought it would just be the same, old thing, anyway, I was forced to come along. I even argued with my parents during that time.

I was not sure why I objected from our departure. I was no one in our town, after all. Nevertheless, the next thing I knew I had travelled in the plane and was in Tokyo along with my family. My father had gotten us a nice apartment to stay in even before we arrived. The company he worked for had provided him all the essential things he would need.

I lazily dropped my heavy traveling bag down onto the floor once I got inside my new room. I still felt a little dizzy from the flight. I looked around the organized room which was illuminated by the late afternoon sun. A weak yellow light radiated around. And the room was very still and quiet, as if I was the very first person who had set foot inside the place. The bed and cabinets were left empty for me to fill in my new things.

I sighed as I slumped myself onto my new bed. School year was about to start again and I felt quite nervous about it. I was never really the type of person that easily adjusts to new environments. My dad had enrolled me to this new school. He said it was grandpa who picked it for me. He said he was very much familiar of that place and assured him that it gives students better discipline and education.

I had a good feeling that it was for special kids with brain disabilities.

The school's name was Konoha Academy. I heard a few things about that school before—though I've never really paid much attention to it. I just remembered hearing it was one of the special education dwellings around. And only several selected students were accepted in it.

So how did I get through, anyway? Was grandpa that really good at charming people?

"You all right, dear?" my mother asked as she gave a knock on the door and her head popped out of the bedroom doorframe. Her eyes automatically rotated around the room, seeing how good it looked.

"I'm fine, okaa-san."

She walked in, leaving the door slightly open.

"You've got a nicer room here, compared to your last one." She said, nodding her head as she looked around the spotless and organized furniture. She looked back at me. "I know this is a new adjustment for you. It is for all of us and I hope you'd be able to catch up with our new life here, too. You only have two weeks left and you'd be off to your new college. You should be a little adjusted by that time."

I nodded and mumbled. "If it's for the better. I'll be graduating soon, anyway."

"You know I'm proud of you for coming this far." My mother said. "Your grandfather says that new school of yours might be better than your former school. I'm not sure why he's very much interested in it. He seemed very trusty about it."

I shrugged my shoulders. "You know grandpa."

My mother straightened up and headed back to the door.

"Just be sure to arrange your things. We'll just be downstairs to take care of the others. Just call us if you need anything." She said before disappearing out of the door.

I lied back down on the bed as I heard the door shut closed. I rested there for a moment and stared at the white ceiling above me.

Konoha Academy was quite filled with the unexpected. I didn't expect to experience such things in my final year in school. I didn't expect to know things I've never really paid much attention to. I didn't expect to meet such people (that might be normal and twisted in some ways) inside.

And also, I didn't expect to meet that memorable, cocky, dark-haired guy along with it.

000

(To be continued…)