Higanbana

Author's Note: This fanfic is cross-posted on AO3 under the penname Dementra. Thank you to those who gave me such nice and encouraging reviews.

Current pairings vote (FFNet & AO3):

Canon 3

None 6

NaruSaku 10

GaaSaku 4

NejiSaku 1

Older/mature male & Saku 1

MultiSaku 1

NaruSakuSasu 2

SasuHina 1

KibaHina (side) 1

ShikaTem (side) 2

SaiIno (side) 1

LeeTen (side) 1

KakaAnko (side) 1

ItaHana (side) 1

JiraiTsuna (side) 1

Permanent pairings: AsuKure,

(Feel free to add main and side pairings to this list.)

Chapter 26

It is winter now; and they are perfectly fine despite the predictable annual rise in sick children and the elderly. Apparently, chakra boosts the immune system, especially when it's active in your system rather than merely having it passively keep you alive. That is why shinobi rarely gets sick days (disregarding injuries or poison) and why Sakura hasn't had the dreadful flu since she first started using chakra.

But, like always, there seems to be something missing. Whenever she looks at the Hokage Monument, she thinks that it should be covered in white — an influence of vague dreams where she's gliding down white-covered mountains with a pair of sticks stuck to her feet and another pair held in her hands. And for some reason, she thinks of presents as winter lingers on, even though no one she knows was born during winter. She also occasional dreams of being surrounded by images of fat old men wearing a red suit and carrying a large sack over his shoulders — she is very disturbed by her mind's imagination, especially since nothing in reality should prompt it.

(Is her mind warning her about kidnappers? That sack could easily fit an adult, much less a child. Is that something she's subconsciously scared of? Why? It's not like she's ever been kidnapped before nor does she know anyone who has been. Or did her mind simply combine several aspects of the things she has seen or read and turn them into a strange nightmare? Old men, the Akimichi Clan, the red of her qi pao, and kidnappers? What the heck is going on in her brain?)