"Sasuke. . . don't do it. . ." Karin managed.
Sakura heard the chirping. Oh shit.
She whipped round, elbow up, knocking his lightning strike off-trajectory so it grazed the back of her cloak instead of running her through. She seized Sasuke's shoulder, wrenching him toward her fist.
The blow staggered him, pushing him closer to broken bridge edge. The same edge forced the ninja to remain closer than caution dictated. Sasuke rubbed his jaw as he eyed Sakura trying to collect herself as she fumbled with removing her ruined, smoldering cloak. They had never actually fought before. Foreboding washed over him yet it swiftly morphed into practical cynicism. A baleful Sakura would be virtually treasonous. If he hadn't expected as much from Konoha.
"At least look me in the eye if you're going to kill me," Sakura burst out, agitated.
"Why?" Sasuke challenged. "You were thinking of killing me." He snorted. "Were you seriously coming to kill me with just a kunai?"
"It was poisoned, you ass!"
Sasuke gave her a contemptuous look before deigning to comment, "It wouldn't have worked."
Sakura knew otherwise but if it was shock and awe he wanted, "Well, how about this?" she said rhetorically, flicking her large kunai from its green pouch in an arc, trailing her fingers along the attached summoning scroll. The kunai fell, discarded, rightfully ignored in favour of a five-foot axe. Sakura adjusted her grip on the worn red bindings on the handle with the confidence of familiarity. This blade which bore her name would speak for her.
The moment she spent basking in his disconcertion was too long. Sasuke was already drawing his katana. She hefted the blade over her shoulder to act as a lever in smashing down the approaching blade -- If she could make it.
The first to hit would amputate the other's arms.
If they hadn't been thrown off by an interloper.
Naruto, Konoha's #1 unexpected ninja, barrelled between them, ramming the side of the axe blade one way and kicking the katana the other; the death-grips on the weapons pulling the wielders off-balance.
Naruto skid to a halt and fixed them with his gaze as the dust settled. "We're on the same team," he said pointedly.
Skepticism plainly showed on Sasuke's face.
"I meant what I said about following you," Sakura interjected.
Sasuke frowned, silently considering. Her words appeared to neutralize the rampant distrust on his face yet did nothing toward sheathing his katana. Naruto stepped closer toward the pair; hoping to damper the unsettled impulse that led Sakura to subtly readjust her grip on the axe; that imbued Sasuke with his still readiness for a fight.
She pressed the point. "You won't survive to kill anyone with the damage you're taking." A kage bushin Sakura set to work healing Karin, both as demonstration of her superior field medicine and as a reminder of the opening in his team.
"Even if you have the Kyuubi with you," Naruto added.
A further addition to their rendezvous precluded comment on that. The ninja standing on the bridge railing appeared to have heard the remark yet with his face and eye covered it was impossible to gauge his reaction. Kakashi, perceptive as always, remarked instead on the drawn weapons.
"You were going to kill Sasuke? I can't let you bear that burden alone."
"Don't interfere," Sakura stated flatly, signalling to her kage bushin to remove Karin to a safer location to continue healing.
Kakashi's disposition changed at this resistance from an unexpected quarter. Her overcoming a jounin and an ANBU in a single blow to get to this encounter now rang with more strategy than luck.
"It's my duty as Hokage."
Sakura started at the news. Naruto seemed to already know and anticipated Sasuke's move forward; restraining him with a hand on his shoulder. "He's not the one you want. Madara told me everything." Naruto's evocative statement precluded Sasuke's retort.
Kakashi faced his three students. "Naruto, Sakura, you're crossing a line here. Sasuke's putting you and everyone in Konoha at risk."
Genin-like confidence seeped through as Naruto crossed his arms. "We're a three-man team, right?"
"That's right!" Sakura declared. "We three are one!" Sakura pulled off her Konoha head band and held it out so Kakashi could see the leaf crack.
Even with Sasuke exhausted, the three of them outmatched Kakashi. Reining in his team was his responsibility. But now he also had responsibility for the entire village as well. A ninja war was on the horizon, Tsunade was still in a coma, Danzo was dead, and Konoha didn't know he was Hokage yet. "You guys. . ." Kakashi shook his head bleakly. Now he knew how the Sandaime felt. He loved them enough to let them go even if it seemed that it could only end in tragedy. Actually, they reminded him more than ever of three other ninjas alone against the odds. All he could do now was have faith in them. Let that be enough. "I'll give you one more chance. But if any one of you jeopardizes the Village, I won't hold back."
Kakashi made to leave; paused, and looked the kunoichi in the eye: "I'll take care of Lee, Kiba, and Sai, Sakura" he said, the neutral tone leaving it open to interpretation as to whether the statement was for admonishment or praise.
Staring after their sensei as he disappeared in the distance, Naruto's concern and curiosity prompted him to ask what Kakashi had meant. Sakura tried and failed to compose an answer that didn't oddly echo Sasuke's earlier pronouncements: "They were going to stop me. . .and I needed to do this alone." Sasuke's inscrutable look was missed as Sakura assured Naruto that the other ninja were fine.
Sasuke let them follow him. Easier than fighting them now. It wasn't lost on him that the last time the three had faced Kakashi like that, Naruto had been the one tied to the stump for being the least effective of the three during the first half of the bell test. That didn't sit well with him.
Silence marked their travel. Neither Naruto nor Sakura seemed to be in any hurry to ask where they were going. Sakura's kage bushin had left Karin to her own devices after healing her and her disappearance meant only the three of them made their way into the steep hills.
By chance, Sakura spied a cache of the flower epiphyllum oxypetalum opening. Also known as the night-blooming cereus, it only bloomed once a year which led to its incorporation in proverbs meaning an ephemeral state of being. It also meant that it was past moonrise. "We should set up camp for the night". Not that they had any gear. But since they'd gone rogue, they should get sleep while they could.
"Usual duties?" Naruto suggested. The normalcy of the thought gave pause to his companions. They gave their assent and scattered: Naruto to track food, Sakura to build the fire, and Sasuke to scout the perimeter. As genin, Sasuke and Sakura finished their tasks quickly and would go help Naruto so that they would have something to eat that night sooner rather than later. The two didn't come back early this time.
Sakura had already stacked a sizable bundle of firewood against a tree. It was easy enough in these hill-side forests; small country frontier borders that didn't see much traffic. There was time yet before Naruto would resort to tracking methods that would scare more game than they caught so harvesting samples of the spiny nocturnal flower for her stores moved up the priority list. She knelt in the soft grass at the base of a tree, a cereus creeper having wound its way round a ring of noxious fungi and possibly grown the extra spines as a result.
"More poison?"
Sakura flushed involuntarily at not having heard someone approach. She forced herself to continue focussing on de-spining a flower stem instead of on the remaining Uchiha casually crouched near her. "Killing you would prevent a war. The Rookie 9 decided to deal with you but I got here first."
Sasuke unzipped his shirt, baring his pale, defined muscles which commanded her to look at him. "What are you waiting for?" He fell on his knees and spread his hands, holding her gaze.
Sakura skewered a mushroom stem with her kunai, drawing its poisonous juice along the blade. She aimed it at his heart. She gritted her teeth. This was her chance. She readjusted her grip on the kunai. If she could kill him now, it'd all be over. He waited. Sasuke. . . on his knees . . . brought to his knees. The dusky tear stains still marked his face.
(In another forest, young Sasuke looks into the distance, commenting half to himself, "All I could do was cry. . .")
(Young Sakura wept over Sasuke's body despite Haku's ice needles digging painfully into her)
(He was still walking away from her. "I love you so much I can't even stand it!")
Sakura bit her lip hard and turned back to the flowers. She wouldn't take advantage of his vulnerability.
"Hn." Sasuke snorted as he rose to leave. "Figured as much."
Sakura snapped, springing to her feet and slapping him resoundly across the face. Sasuke seized the front of her shirt, shoving her back against the tree. Putting his face uncomfortably close to hers, his voice had a flint edge: "You have something to say to me?"
She kissed him fiercely. He was too surprised to respond. Then his body began to register her shallow, aroused breath under his hand. He was about to yield to her mouth when she broke away. With neither word nor look for him Sakura stalked back in the direction of camp.