Yay, finally got this done! It has been a while, but I was really liking the plot of this story. Just had to get some motivation to actually do something other than playing games.
Anywho, enjoy! I don't own Naruto, I swear.
Skimming across the water was something Sasuke had never gotten quite used to. The distinction between land and water was still too vivid in his mind, and the first step onto the shimmering liquid always made him nervous, though he would never admit it.
He had once thought that walking on water would be like walking on glass, clear and smooth and beautiful. However, as he glanced down into the sea all he saw was black. He wasn't running across a calm, serene surface but more a vast and empty void that loomed deep and hungry beneath him.
Sasuke did not like running across water.
Thankfully, the distance between shores was short and Sasuke found himself on solid ground in no time, at the very tip of the Country of Tea. The only issue left now was to find Sakura and her team. For the first time since she had gone, Sasuke wished halfheartedly that Karin was still with them, as her abilities would have made finding the Konoha-nin much simpler.
Behind him, Sasuke heard the slurp of Suigetsu sucking on his water bottle and wondered how the container was perpetually being emptied. He was sure that he had never actually seen the hydro maniac fill the bottle.
"Where to now, boss?" Suigetsu lowered his bottle and clipped it to his belt, eyes shining in excitement that had begun to burn even brighter since this turn in events. Perhaps the pointy-toothed young man had embraced the thought of a more challenging fight than some second class goons. Or perhaps he had caught on to Sasuke's mounting emotions and found the situation amusing.
Sasuke scowled.
"We spent two hours crossing the water," Jugo spoke softly. "Given how late it is now, one could estimate that they traveled another two hours after entering Tea and then set camp."
Suigetsu sighed. "Two hours? Where would that put them on your map, big guy?
"Half way to Degarashi Port, if returning to Konoha is their objective."
"Let's go." The break had lasted long enough to pin-point a location and the impatient Uchiha was ready to move out. Leaping into the nearest branch, Sasuke took to tree jumping as to avoid anyone that might still be out at this time of night. Tea was a rather crowded place and it was full of tourists nearly year round.
After a while, Suigetsu must have decided that it was alright to ask a question that had been nagging at him. "When we catch up to these kids," he started slowly, sure that the Uchiha's superior senses could pick up his words even though he was four trees behind the stoic man. "How are we gonna handle them? I mean, if they put up a fight and all."
Sasuke nearly faltered, having not given any thought to that matter. Cursing to himself, he realized that he had been too caught up in the thought of seeing her, glimpsing a piece of the home he had lost forever due to his own incompetence. He hadn't even considered that meeting up with her would more than likely lead to a struggle.
"Sasuke?" Jugo asked from beside him.
Schooling his features into something unreadable, Sasuke answered. "Suigetsu, you will handle the pale freak with the paint brushes. He is quick and athletic, but relies too much on his paintings. Soak his scrolls and cause his ink to run. He will be useless." He glanced at Jugo out of the corner of his eye, taking a moment to remember what Rock Lee was good at besides imitating his garish sensei. "Jugo, I want you to take care of the guy in the green jumpsuit. If I remember right, he is extremely skilled at taijutsu but nothing else. Your strength should be more than enough to outmatch him."
Jugo gave him a single nod of his head, but his features were a bit distressed. "You don't want us to hurt them, do you?"
"No," Sasuke answered immediately, though he didn't quite understand why there was no other course that crossed his mind. "Render them unconscious if needed, but do not kill or maim."
Suigetsu made a soft harrumph behind them, the same as he always did when Sasuke ordered him to refrain from killing. Sasuke wondered if the white-haired man still had the urge to chop his enemies to bits or if he continued in such a manner simply because that was what people expected from him. Since the war, Sasuke had never once noticed any discontent during battles stemming from the lack of missing limbs.
It was well past midnight now and though the long day of travel was beginning to wear on Sasuke, he refused to stop. Tea was a large place and even though they knew the general whereabouts of Sakura and her team, it would be difficult to pinpoint them exactly.
The wind picked up in the night, carrying the scent of fried foods and the sea from what was no doubt a nearby festival. Dismissing the slight grumbling of his stomach at the smell, Sasuke was prepared to continue down his path until the wind shifted and a new scent swept beneath his nose.
Cherry blossoms.
Sasuke came to an immediate stop, noting which way the wind was blowing from. He barely heard the questioning words from his companions, ignoring them and instead switching their direction slightly westward and against the wind.
He knew that it was a long shot, that following the trail of cherry trees was a completely unreliable thing to do. But the scent was unrelenting to his conscious and he was unable to turn away.
To his surprise, he felt a chakra that he could only term nostalgic. Could only find beautiful in its soft, velvet touch that swept over him like the silky caress of flower petals.
Stooping on a low branch, he activated his sharingan and could see three chakra signatures about fifty yards ahead, the caressing presence he felt shining a beautiful leaf green color. The other two, he noted, were a deep violet and a heavy green the color of moss. Something inside him rebelled at the thought that Lee had the same color chakra as Sakura, even if it was a much darker and duller shade. He couldn't help but compare her vibrant chakra to his own, such a deep blue in color that the only way he could differentiate it from black was due to his sharingan.
He could tell that Lee and Sai were asleep, their chakra flow slow and even to match their breathing. Sakura, on the other hand, was awake and sitting up next to a small fire.
Without giving much thought to his actions, Sasuke motioned for his team mates to hold their ground and suppressed his own chakra, moving towards the fire where his ex-teammate was sitting.
He made it to the clearing, where he saw Lee and Sai sleeping beneath the branches of a large Cherry tree, its long thin branches coated in ice that almost made it appear to be sprouting tiny white flowers. Sakura sat in front of the small fire, directly across from where he now stood.
"Sasuke."
He said nothing in response to the soft utterance of his name, vaguely aware of the lost suffix. He had expected something more dramatic. Instead, she simply smiled softly, motioning for him to join her by the fire. He didn't move.
Sakura sighed lightly and slowly clambered to her feet. She appeared tired, the ends of a bandage peeking above the collar of her white cloak. As she stood, Sasuke glanced two protruding hilts against her hips.
"We have been waiting for you, Sasuke," Sakura said quietly so as not to wake her companions.
"Why."
Taking a few steps towards him, Sasuke focused on the small foot prints she left in the snow, resisting the urge to maintain the distance between them. When she was finally standing before him, he managed to force himself to look at her face. Purple bruises beneath her unusually dull green eyes proved just how tired she really was. She looked at him in a calculated way, not with the adoration she had showed him in the past. Sasuke quickly averted his gaze.
"It was Naruto's idea," she finally said, a faint smile upon her lips. "He would have come himself, but he is busy with his training. He will be Hokage soon."
Sasuke nodded once, not really surprised by the news. It was what the blonde idiot had been working for his entire life, after all.
The sound of metal scraping against wood immediately set Sasuke on edge and before Sakura could fully unsheathe one of the swords at her hips, Sasuke had the tip of his kusanagi at her throat.
"What are you doing, Sakura?" Sasuke had acted on instinct, and as he spoke he removed the metal edge from its perch against her skin, relieved to see that he hadn't actually cut her. He left it hovering an inch or so away from her throat to deter her from doing anything more.
"These blades I have are Kiba, one of the legendary swords of Mist," Sakura said slowly, fully unsheathing the blade. "I thought that your friend would want to see it."
Before he could say anymore, Suigetsu had bounded into the clearing, grabbing the sword from Sakura's outstretched hand. "Damn right I do!"
"Sakura?" behind her, Sai was sitting atop his sleeping bag, legs crossed and his short, blunt sword resting on his lap. Lee, on the other hand, was still fast asleep.
Sasuke lowered his kusanagi, leaving it hanging at his side while he watched Suigetsu examine the weapon.
"It's alright Sai," she said sweetly, turning to give him a smile. When she looked back to Sasuke and his team mates, Jugo having followed after Suigetsu, the smile was gone. "Your search for the swords has become common knowledge, Sasuke. This was the only way we could think of to find you."
"Why you lookin' for him, Pinky?" Suigetsu asked, finally taking his eyes off the sword in his hands and eying her meaningfully. Huffing a small laugh, she turned her attention to the white-haired man who was hovering just a little too close to her, in Sasuke's opinion.
"My name," She said slowly and deliberately, as though she were talking to a child, "is Sakura." She turned back to Sasuke, effectively dismissing his overzealous teammate. "And we need you to come back to Konoha."
Sasuke kept his face neutral, careful not to show any emotion. Namely surprise. Disbelief. Hope.
He heard Jugo shift behind him and cursed the large man's ability to read him so well. When had he gained such a power?
"Why?" The orange-haired ninja asked, and Sasuke watched as Sakura turned her attention to him, a hint of curiosity entering her gaze. Sasuke himself was a little intrigued, but not only towards Sakura's offer. It wasn't often that Jugo spoke up when he was not being addressed directly.
Sai, who had come to stand behind his teammate, trained his blank stare on the group. "Would you just tell them already, Ugly? We need to get back to Konoha soon."
"Eh?" Suigetsu snorted indignantly, still clutching one half of Kiba and standing virtually shoulder to shoulder with its current wielder. "Are we holding you up, kid? From what I can tell, you guys were sleeping before we got here."
His infamous fake smile split his face as Sai acknowledged Suigetsu. "We were waiting for Sasuke-kun."
A flash of anger coursed through his body at Sai's words and Sasuke had to restrain himself from raising his sword to the replacement. It became harder when he was certain the fake smile widened after he had finished speaking, as though he was aware of Sasuke's reaction.
"Chojuro is dead and Hiramekarei is gone," Sakura said quickly, her eyes hard and unfocused. "Killer B was also attacked, though he managed to get away."
Sasuke could feel the confusion radiating from his teammates as they struggled to make sense of this new information.
"Kakashi has yet to be targeted, but that may be in part to him never actually carrying the sword he has in his possession," Sakura continued, ignoring the smile still plastered on Sai's face. Sasuke couldn't help the feeling of discontent he had due to her clinical, no-nonsense style of speaking to him. "There is one more sword out there unaccounted for, and for all we know it could be with the same people who took Chojuro's."
"What are you getting at there, Pinky?" Suigetsu grit his teeth as he spoke. He may not be on the same level as Sasuke, but it was plain to see what Sakura was implying. Jugo answered before she could.
"Someone else is out there collecting the swords," the large man addressed Sakura, who simply nodded at him and looked back to Sasuke.
"We think they are trying to lure you in, Sasuke. As I said, Team Taka's quest to find all the swords has become common knowledge."
"But who the hell would be doing that?" Suigetsu asked angrily, upset at the thought of someone else after his swords for whatever reason. "Orochimaru said himself that he was more interested in seeing what Sasuke does than taking over his body."
"We aren't sure yet," Sakura said, something in her eyes telling Sasuke that she was lying. "Though we are sure that it isn't Orochimaru."
"How?" Sasuke pushed, curious as to why Sakura might lie to him about this.
Pale green eyes hardened as they glanced up at him, and for the first time since he had known her, Sasuke realized that she was going to ignore something he said.
"Naruto, with the approval of both the Hokage and the Council, has requested that Team Taka accompanies us back to Konoha until further notice," she recited without emotion.
"I've been banished, Sakura." Sasuke could feel the anger once more. Anger that she wasn't telling him the truth. Anger that she had ignored his question. Anger that she wouldn't look at him without that steel glaze over her eyes that he had never seen before.
"Banishment has been lifted until further notice."
"Well isn't that convenient," Suigetsu drawled, baring his sharp teeth at the smaller pink-haired girl beside him. "Forgetting his sentence for reasons that you can't bother to explain." He stepped closer to her until his chest pressed against her nose, grip tightening on the sword still in his hands. "Even if you do that, it doesn't mean he will willingly go back with you, and I have no intentions of going myself."
Before Sai could extend his tanto, Suigetsu found the frigid metal edge of kusanagi against his jugular.
"Step back, Suigetsu." Sasuke's voice was hard and cold and Suigetsu instantly heeded his demand.
"Sasuke," her voice cracked ever so slightly and Sasuke tore his eyes away from his teammate to see her eyes glistening as she spoke. "Naruto is worried about you. Chojuro was killed. Killer B only got away because of the eight tails. Even if we are wrong and the people who attacked them aren't collecting the swords in an effort to draw you to them, they will eventually come for the two you hold."
"And Naruto thinks I can't handle them?" his voice remained as cold as when he ordered Suigetsu to back away from her, but for different reasons.
"He wants to talk to you, Sasuke," Sakura looked at the ground, her face unreadable. As he watched her, Sasuke was vaguely aware of a large bird landing in the branches of the cherry tree, settling into the darkness as silently as a shadow.
"About what?" Sasuke asked, lowering his sword once more while shooting a glance at Jugo, a silent order to watch Suigetsu for any sudden movements.
Sakura opened her mouth to answer, but a shout from Lee stopped her.
"Sakura!" the energetic green blur was beside her in less than a second, a small scroll in his opened palm. "A letter from Naruto."
Lee showed no sign of surprise at the presence of Sasuke and his team, he simply waited for Sakura's response. The only way this idiot wouldn't be making a fuss was if he hadn't actually been sleeping. Too late, Sasuke remembered Lee's weakness, the boy's inability to externally use Chakra. Switching on his sharingan, Sasuke noticed that his chakra flow looked the same as it had when he thought Lee was asleep.
Scowling, Sasuke blinked away the red and turned back to Sakura, watching as she opened the message. The paper was slightly ripped at the edges and smudged, seemingly written in a hurry by a very messy hand. It took Sakura only a moment to look over it before she turned to her two teammates, her wide eyes alarmed.
"Head back to Konoha," her voice was panicked and she looked upset. "Now."
Without questions, Sai and Lee were gone, leaving their bedrolls behind as they set off north, away from Sakura and Team Taka.
"What is it, Sakura?" Sasuke cringed at the sound of his voice, laced slightly with concern.
"We need to move as well," she performed a short series of hand seals and the letter crumbled to dust. She turned towards the tree to grab her pack but Sasuke grabbed her around the elbow, tugging her back to face him.
"Sakura," he forced her to look into his eyes, his face inches from hers.
"Konoha," she spat out, finally regaining herself and calling upon her chakra enhanced strength to break Sasuke's grasp on her arm. She quickly gathered her medical kit and pack and turned towards the group at the edge of the clearing. "It has been attacked. We have been ordered to a safe house in the east."
"And why should we go with you?" Suigetsu demanded, immediately after which he shot a timid glance towards Sasuke. He did not want that sword against his neck again.
Sakura pushed back the edge of her cloak, revealing a sword that was identical to the one Suigetsu had taken from her.
"If you want the other half of Kiba," she spat at the mouthy ninja from Mist, "you will come with me. It seems that Sasuke isn't the only one they are looking for."
Thanks for reading! Please review on your way out.
