Summary: Once upon a time in the ninja world, a sickly baby girl was born… her guardian deity saved her, but she ended up inheriting the goddess' attraction pheromone… For better or worse. Slightly AU, Saku/Almost Everyone

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

Rating: T

Story Genre: General/Humor/Action-Adventure/Slight Romance, Horror, Spiritual, Angst

Chapter Genre: General

Warnings: None

Page Count: 5

Word Count: 2216

Musical Inspiration: Maki Rapunzel –Original Long Mix- (game-Pop'n Music), Tomorrow's Hand (anime-Witchblade), Kohaku (anime-Grenadier), Still Doll (anime-Vampire Knight)

Notes: This is the rewrite of 'Haruno Sakura the Kurobi Hanyou'. There are VERY OBVIOUS changes from the original and this, so don't even bother trying to think back to it, and if you haven't read it yet, DON'T, because it may mess up this story's focus and plot.

This story is meant to symbolize something dark hidden by something bright and cheerful, like a hammer waiting overhead to fall unexpectedly and ruin normal life.

The Haruno clan uses both Japanese and Chinese (Japanese outside the compound and Chinese within), so when they speak in Chinese it'll be in italics. Honorifics will stay the same throughout the story though, so there won't be confusion.

This first chapter can be summarized by the words: Possible Prologue.

Pictures, as usual, can be found on my profile.

.-.

.kakurenbo

-Hide and Seek-

:Birth:

.-.

(Konoha, Haruno Compound, 13 years ago, March 27th, 11:39PM)

"Moniket-dono!" a distressed aide called out breathlessly from the doorway. Her run from the clan's medical room had stolen her air. "Toki-denka! She…" A pant cut off the red haired woman's words.

"What has happened to my wife?" a strong, baritone voice asked from the end of the room. The hidden threat that would be carried through if he was told bad news was obvious to the aide. The woman shrunk back in fear and began to slightly shake.

"I-I'm sorry to say that Toki-denka encountered problems during birth… S-she is thankfully all right, but your, your daughter doesn't have m-much chance of survival…" The red headed aide gasped as she felt a gust of air push past her right after her lord disappeared from his worried perch.

"Toki?!" the white haired husband called as he rushed into the noisiest room in the quiet night. The five doctors in the room flinched for a split second before returning to their rushed work. The male glanced in their direction as they fussed over something blocked from his view as he hurried to his wife's side.

"M-Moni-chan," the tired and crying matriarch mumbled through her tears. The lord stared into the powerful woman's blue eyes as she teared. "M-my baby girl… It's, it's all my f-fault! I couldn't… get, get… it… d-done…" The exhausted female whispered, "Right," before falling into sleep. Moniket tensed and swiftly strode to his most trusted medical personnel who were currently arguing about his child's dissolving health.

"What are you going to do about this?" the secretly worried man commanded to know. The doctors looked at each other before sending their chief to explain. The white clothed man stepped forward, allowing his lord to see his sickly child lying in a small basket.

"Sir, I'm afraid to say your daughter only has a small chance of survival." The doctor looked down in shame. "We knew something was wrong when she wasn't crying… Your daughter's entire immune system is nonexistent to barely active, while every one of her internal organs are weak, especially her heart. She cannot produce enough blood to keep herself alive, causing her body to shut down…" The doctor quickly gazed into the torn eyes of his lord before continuing. "It's such a rare disease that we don't have any name for it… but anyone who has been diagnosed with it has died shortly after. We… we do know of a way that may save your daughter, though."

The broken man looked at the shorter man with hope. "What... what would that be? If you know of a cure, then proceed with administrating it to my daughter!" The doctor winced and stepped back.

"It's not as simple as that," the man meekly explained. "This is an incurable disease because it takes its victims too quickly for any type of healing methods to work… But there is an old Haruno saying that was spoken by one of the earliest advisors of the Great Kurokami-heika… "When one cannot get something done mortally, do it divinely."…Kurokami-heika was said to have, 'laughed greatly and agreed instantly,' symbolizing that she liked the idea." The timid doctor looked out to the moon outside. "If we apply that saying to this moment… It is possible that we could out step our mortal ways and call upon Kurokami-heika to assist us. Thankfully, we are in the time of her communication opening: 11PM to midnight—the celestial time of darkness and shadow."

"Then contact Kurokami-heika at once!" the troubled lord commanded. The doctor nodded his head.

"W-we need you to pray as well, Moniket-dono," the meek doctor added as he and his colleagues bent down and pressed their foreheads to the ground in the highest ranking of prayer positions. Moniket, as well, bent down and began praying aloud with the five doctors.

"Kurokami-heika, mother of all darkness and our people,

Guardian of the Haruno and God of Lust,

We humbly request your celestial presence before us,

By contract of the Kage'in and prayers of black."

The six men continued to chant this phrase over and over. By the seventh time, all light had disappeared from the area, and only the moon provided shine.

"From the black shadow, Kurokami appears to heed her children's prayers." The six men looked up in awe and shock as the sultry and velvety voice spoke. Before their wide eyes, the darkness took form of their guardian deity, Kurokami, in all her dark beauty.

The woman they prayed to was a goddess on par with Amaterasu's beauty and grace. She owned a body of skin as white as paper, long hair blacker than the raven's wing, and eyes as red as the blood coursing through her veins. On her face stood her heavenly markings: a pink circle that stood out on her forehead and seemed to flame down across her face to her left cheek and fade to black, along with two black lines under her eyes that resembled brush strokes (drawn by Amaterasu herself to show the woman's high rank).

Her curvy and largely breasted body was hidden by the ancient style of Haruno robes, dyed in a deep red that complimented her eyes.

Nine orbs that were colored in shades of black, pink, red, and white with Chinese characters inscribed on them rotated in a circle behind her back, like they were a part of her ensemble.

"K-Kurokami-heika!" stuttered the head doctor. The higher power floated above them and bobbed slightly in the air.

"Guardian of the Haruno clan," Moniket labeled, forehead still pressed to the wooden floor, "I humbly ask of your assistance."

Ruby red slid to the white hair of the man below her. "Yes?"

The father looked disdainfully at his dying daughter. "I would forever be in your debt if you would… If you would be kind enough to save my daughter from her illness." Moniket looked into his 'mother's' eyes. "I ask you as the clan lord, but plead to you as a distressed father and husband." The god peered at the silent newborn child. Kurokami flowed towards its still form, and watched at it breathed softly. Her heavenly sight allowed her to survey the extensive damage in the baby's body and caused her eyes to narrow as she recognized the illness.

"Your child is on the brink of death, Moniket," Kurokami spoke seriously. "There is only one way of saving her." The nervous lord looked up to his daughter's only chance. "The type of healing she requires is far too advanced and she needs it to be instantly—a complete regeneration of her body. I can give it to her, but it will require that my soul is absorbed into her own, making us one, since high scale regeneration is only available to high powers, like demons or gods."

"Does that mean you won't save her?!" angered, the lord shouted. Kurokami sent him a silencing stare.

"I have my own problems at the moment, and this is a wonderful opportunity for me to help myself and another." Smirking, she stared at her own hand. "Before I begin the transaction, you must promise me a few things."

"Whatever you want!" the man gratefully answered, bowing in respect. Kurokami smiled wryly.

"By transferring my soul and merging with your daughter, we will become one. I request that you don't treat her as if she held a god's position in heaven, because she doesn't. …Yet."

"Done, Kurokami-heika!"

"I also require you to burn my body at midnight under today's full moon at my shrine within the compound. I also want you to understand that you should keep my Condemnation Seals in storage and never touch them."

"Understood!" Moniket answered quickly.

"Lastly, I want you to promise that you won't lose faith in my godly presence. I still exist, and I will hear your prayers wherever I may be sealed." Roaming her eyes over the people in the room she ordered, "Remove any living thing from this room. You will know when to reenter."

The doctors nodded nervously and started to corral their matriarch out of the room. The last man left, Moniket, continuously thanked the goddess. Kurokami waved her hand carelessly and turned her body to the sickly infant. Moniket was suddenly swallowed by shadow and appeared next to his wife, outside the room.

"What a fragile girl," Kurokami remarked softly, floating to the baby's side. "I only pray that this intrusion of mine doesn't cause problems in the long run." Breathing in deeply, the black haired woman raised her hand over the child's chest and muttered her last incantation. White symbols appeared as she spoke, marking themselves over the ground and rotating much like her nine seals.

"Life wisped away by my black shadow,

Return by the power of tomorrow's hand.

Step back from Amaterasu's white glow,

And into the black that is I."

Kurokami gasped as she felt her soul move from her hands and into the girl's chest. Her eyes began to close gently as the baby girl's body began to glow faintly. Even when her body was dead, it fell with grace when the child began to whimper. The nine orbs that circled her back fell with a few 'clunks', no longer sensing their master's aura. The baby in the basket began to cry loudly once the white symbols faded away.

"Kurokami-heika!?" Moniket called worriedly. He stared in shock at the lifeless body of their guardian deity and heiress' savior. The five doctors ushered back in, only staring at the body for a few moments before rushing to the crying child's side.

"She sacrificed herself for your daughter, Moniket-dono," a young doctor whispered as she held the, now healthy, baby. "What are you going to name her?" Moniket carefully took the infant in his robed arms and looked at the delicate features of his daughter. He gently traced the pink circle on her forehead from Kurokami's great gift.

"It is said that Kurokami-heika was born under a Sakura blossom at midnight, just like this one." The thoughtful man remembered. "I will name her Sakura in honor of Kurokami-heika's beginning." Moniket looked to the young woman next to him. "Please summon the High Priestesses at once. Tell them… by Kurokami-heika's last wishes, the need to prepare her body for a sacred burning under the full moon at once." The doctor nodded at ran out, heading for the shrine. Moniket stared out at the full moon.

"Thank you, Kurokami-heika… You don't understand how much this means. Thank you."

.-.

(Konoha, Haruno Compound, 6 years later, February 3rd, 8:23PM)

"That's a pretty story, Mommy," a young girl commented, smiling a her lone strip of black hair fell into her face, obstructing the view of her soft ruby eyes and paper white skin.

"It is, isn't it," the older red haired woman agreed as she brushed her daughter's black hair back into her pink hair. She glanced at her daughter's slightly large forehead and envisioned the pink circle hidden behind her bangs.

Kurokami nodded from the back of the girl's mind, smiling at the memory.

.-.

Translations:

-dono/honorific that translates to 'lord' or something similar

-denka/honorific that translates to 'highness' or something similar

-heika/honorific that translates to 'majesty' or something similar

Kage'in/Shadow Seals, Seals of Shadow

In Addition:

Yes, I used Amaterasu in this. Amaterasu is the Japanese Sun goddess.