Nostalgia and Broken Promises

This is the first chapter of the sequel to My Cherry Blossom, My Little doll. You should probably read that first or else you won't get this one.

Hope you enjoy the new one, and I hope it doesn't let the original down.

Forget?

How could she forget.

He was in her mind forever now.

Even after three years.

Three long years of waiting in the darkness.

Three years of growing cold by the open window.

Three years of loneliness.

"A-Akatsuki?" The single word rang out through the silent office like the final toll of an ominous bell.

The word, to Sakura, seemed to make the air thicken and curdle around her, making it hard to breathe.

"Yes I know with Naruto in your group its dangerous, but you three are the best jounin we have. And this is going to be a dangerous mission."

It wasn't the danger Sakura was scared of.

It was him.

How could she possibly meet in battle with the notorious S-rank criminals when he was one of them?

"I know we can't take any chances, as they seem to be mobilising around Konoha again, but shouldn't this be a mission for ANBU?"

Tsunade snorted with contempt. "Sakura, you know that Team Kakashi is probably on par with most in ANBU. Its only a matter of time before you and Naruto are recommended for it. I think you need more of a challenge."

Truthfully, Sakura found her dull monotonous work at the hospital boring, and ached for real action. But preferably not within 100 miles of Akatsuki.

If she saw Sasori, the flame-haired puppet master of Sunagakure, could she trust herself to do the mission as planned, kill him if needed, incapacitate him at the least.

But she couldn't let her teacher and master down, couldn't show her weakness, and most of all, she couldn't show that she had any sort of contact with Akatsuki.

"Ok. I guess I could."

It would be a test. She could do it.

Three years was a long time.

Passion cooled to freezing point while hatred simmered relentlessly.

She was finished with him. He was gone from her heart, if not from her head.

At least, that's what Sakura told herself.

"I'll kill those Akatsuki bastards this time!" Naruto told Sakura, punching his fist into his open palm, flecks of bloody crimson appearing in his electric blue eyes as Sakura told him of their latest mission.

"Only if we are confronted." She reminded him, her voice subdued, but the vivid-haired kunoichi didn't think he really heard her words.

Or the fear hidden just behind their shallow barrier either, for that matter. He was caught up in revenge.

The back of Sakura's neck prickled and she swung her head around behind her, though she knew she would see no one there. The sensation was disturbingly familiar.

Déjà vu?

The dark presence invaded her space, pressing in on her, squeezing the air out of her lungs. It was a feeling of dread like in the Hokage's office when she was given her mission.

"Sakura?" She came back to earth with a jolt as the blonde boy looked at her, concern in his once again entirely blue eyes.

"Are you... alright?"

She swallowed her apprehension, but still it wouldn't leave her.

"I'm fine." Sakura lied blatantly. She had learned throughout her time as a jounin never to give away your emotions. They could and would be used against you if you were foolish enough to display your feelings so openly.

Sakura shivered inwardly. Time had hardened her.

It hadn't changed one bit, Konoha. But Sakura loved it that way. It was one of the only things she really still loved. True, she had a boyfriend, a sweet attractive jounin that she met on a mission one day. But who was she trying to kid? What was he but a poor attempt at trying to show herself that she was over Sasori. After a year with him however, it would be a lie to say she felt nothing for him.

Maybe she had forced herself to love him.

The sky darkened dramatically as she walked home, and afternoon turned to night quicker than she had ever seen. Ominous thunderclouds grew steadily in the direction she walked in. The streetlights flickered eerily above her head for a moment before turning on with an electric hum, flooding small patches of the street with their harsh white light. Sakura hurried her pace as she saw, or just imagined shapes shifting in the shadows. It really set her nerves on edge, and she was jumpy for the first time in many years.

Usually, she knew what she was against, be it a petty thief or S-class criminal, but this time, the sense of foreboding had an eerie, almost supernatural feel about it that she just couldn't shake.

Sakura started jogging, staring at the floor so that her nervousness didn't show to any invisible onlookers.

She finally arrived back at her own house, staring at her with black eyes of cold glass. That was strange… She thought her boyfriend would be there, waiting for her as usual. But all the windows were as darkened and uninviting as an icy black lake in the winter.

Sakura shrugged, making up an excuse in her mind, and pushing the reason she half hoped and half feared was true to the back of her mind.

She dug for the keys deep inside her pocket, feeling for the cold, slightly serrated metal edge on them.

"Shit…" Sakura breathed to herself as a compete search of all her pockets turned out fruitless. "I left them…"

She didn't want to fumble around the side of the house where the spare was hidden in the dark. In exasperation, she kicked at the door, and to her surprise it flew open, and Sakura flinched as it banged against the wall.

"What the?" Sakura spotted her boyfriend in the living room and walked over to him.

"Sorry I didn't realise you were here…" The pink haired kunoichi trailed off as she realised that her partner wasn't listening to her. His eyes were closed peacefully and Sakura strained her ears to hear any sign of life. Her breathing made the only noise in the complete stillness of the eerie feeling house.

Suddenly the feeling doubled, making Sakura feel nauseated and suffocated. The new one was different. Strangely familiar yet just as ominous as the other.

A noise came from the stairs leading to the upper level and her bedroom, a soft creak of the floorboards, barely audible but all the more foreboding.

She left the unconscious man on the lounge and slunk off towards the noise, her heart beating faster at every dark shape that loomed at her from the shadows. It wasn't like her, being afraid like this, but her imagination was running away with her.

The sound came again, louder, closer, making Sakura jump with fright.

She came into her bedroom, keeping her body pressed flat along the wall to avoid the sea of silvery shining moonlight that spilled onto the middle of her floor from the window.

The open window.

It was wide open, blowing its chilly breath into the wide room while the thin curtains were disturbed from their stillness.

Hidden in the darkness, Sakura scoured the room with her eyes, searching for him. It was him. It had to be.

It proved useless, either they- he- wasn't still in there, or he had hidden well.

Sakura naïvely decided, partly to assert herself, that no one could hide themselves so thoroughly, and so it was safe in her room.

She crossed the brightly lit patch in the middle in a few anxious strides and slammed the window shut, relaxing and breathing out a sigh of relief as she did so, turning and leaning her back against the pane, slightly slumped.

It was only when she tried to reach up to scratch a spot on her shoulder that she realized that she couldn't move.

Something had immobilised her.

Someone.

With strings that latched onto her, and glowed faintly in the moonlit room.

"You said you'd come back." Before she could even see him, tears came to Sakura's eyes. "You never did."

"You said you'd wait. It may have been a long time, but I have come back now. You were just impatient. I won't forget your lover downstairs." The look of hatred on Sasori's handsome face made Sakura cower inwardly.

"He isn't…?"

"Dead? No. Sleeping." He scowled.

"You coming back… It all… it's like déjà vu…" Sakura voiced her feelings.

"More like nostalgia to me." He smirked at her, and Sakura felt she recognised him more as the person who loved her. That arrogant and cocky yet sweet and gentle person.

"Nostalgia and broken promises…" She muttered to herself, looking back towards Sasori, sadness shown with such intricacy in her soulful emerald eyes.

Aha cliffhanger! I love it.

This one is going to be hopefully a lot better than My Cherry Blossom. I've planned it all out, and for once I know how I'm going to end it. It'll be longer, maybe sadder, bigger, and darker than Cherry Blossom, and I hope you enjoy the rest!

s2- Envy