Sasuke never let his eyes stray from Sakura's back, even as they catapulted through the branches twenty feet above the forest floor. His eyes began to burn from the harsh wind, aching from exhaustion. The group traveled mostly in silence, a tense air surrounding the three younger travelers.
Jugo, on the other hand, was finding this change of events rather interesting. Sasuke could tell by the way the large man's wide eyes were alternating between himself and Sakura, drawn by any small movement that either of them made. They didn't make many, both extremely conscious of their surroundings.
"Listen, Pinky," Suigetsu drawled from behind them all, noticeably out of breath. "We spent all yesterday running, and now you're havin' us run through the night, too? We need a rest, right Sasuke-kun?"
"Hn," Sasuke grunted, the annoying nickname not something he wanted to hear again. Esecially not around Sakura. "Speak for yourself."
Sakura halted on the next branch, eyes tilted upwards where the sky showing through the leaves was beginning to lighten with the rise of the sun.
"Kun..." she repeated quietly, Sasuke hearing the emotion in her voice from where he had stopped some five feet behind her. It was regret, thick and heavy as it coated the suffix.
"Oh, it's not like that, dear," Suigetsu smirked, landing next to her and resting his elbow on her shoulder, leaning in to speak his words against her ear. "I can't be held responsible for the way our lovely little Sasuke-kun here feels about me, but I just don't swing that way."
Sasuke could feel his anger rising, worsened when Sakura actually laughed at what the irritating shark-nin was saying to her. He clenched his jaw and prepared to interrupt, but Suigetsu had continued speaking.
"Now that Karin is gone," Suigetsu said, baring his pointed teeth in a wide smile now that he had managed to make Sakura laugh. "I just wanted to make sure Sasuke-kun wasn't lonely. Y'know, I don't think he is used to not having someone around to fawn over him all the time."
Sasuke noticed the pink-haired girl's smile falter at Suigetsu's words, though the shark-nin didn't seem to catch that. A shifting to his right, where Jugo had paused, drew his attention. The taller man was pensive as usual, observing the interaction. It wouldn't take long for Jugo to understand what had transpired between the two ex-teammate's if he hadn't already.
"We're at the border to Fire," Sasuke announced. The trees had been thinning out for the past hour or so. During his travels, Sasuke had learned that the southern peninsula of Fire, the one that transitioned into the Land of Tea, was barren and empty. The closer they came to the country, the less they would come across in terms of shelter and food.
"I thought we were heading away from Konoha." Jugo said quietly, his eyes fixed on the girl leading them.
"Yeah," Suigetsu shifted his weight, leaning away from Sakura. His hand replaced his elbow upon her shoulder, turning his casual gesture into an intimidating one. "Isn't that what your little note told ya to do?"
A true shinobi never reveals information to the enemy, and the enemy consists of everyone who isn't an ally. Despite their pasts and everything that has happened, Sasuke knew that Sakura was indeed a true kunoichi. He also understood that, no matter how she felt about him and despite the fact that she had come to warn them, they were not allies. So her response was all the proof he needed that she was hiding something important from him.
"Yes," she answered without hesitation, staring up at Suigetsu with a hardened gaze. He towered over the petite candy-haired girl, his razor sharp teeth bared and purple eyes narrowed in hostility. But she didn't balk at his threatening posture. She hardly even blinked. "I was ordered to take you to a place where you would be safe from attack, and to get there we have to pass through the southern part of Fire."
She was lying, or at the very least hiding something important. Sasuke could feel the annoyance surge at this, threatening to overflow at her audacity to think she could keep something from him. The fact that she was even trying. That she could do it without a second thought. He wanted to crush her. But the sound of Jugo's voice broke into his thoughts and snapped him out of his anger-filled imagination.
"You're lying." It was a soft and simple fact, but somehow Jugo had caught onto her as well. Frowning, Suigetsu's grip on her shoulder tightened when he heard his teammate's words. "Well?" He asked, his face inches away from her own. "What did it say?"
Sakura didn't flinch, nor did she move away from the man violating her personal space. She wiped her face of any telling emotion, something she must have practiced since their days together as genin. Sasuke couldn't remember a time when she had been so in control of her feelings. It would have been quite useful when they were a team.
"Konoha's affairs are none of your concern," she recited, her eyes flashing to Sasuke even though Suigetsu was the one who was standing almost nose to nose with her. "It doesn't matter what the scroll said, the fact remains that we have to go somewhere safe."
Suigetsu was about to retort when he suddenly found himself alone on the branch. Sakura had dropped to the forest floor. Always quick to act, Sasuke was already landing on the dirt before her.
"You said they were looking for someone else." Sasuke was two steps away from her, watching her vibrant green eyes dart to their companions as they left the trees as well. They settled again on his face, a spot on his forehead. She was avoiding making eye contact with him.
"It doesn't matter," she insisted, and Sasuke could hear the impatience in her voice. It wasn't that she didn't know or refused to tell them because of Konoha. She just didn't want to.
"Sakura," he laced her name with a warning, one he was almost certain she would ignore. She had grown into an even more annoying woman than she had been as a girl.
Riled at having been so easily brushed aside, Suigetsu landed behind Sakura, grabbing her arm and whipping her around to face him. He looked as though he were contemplating the maiming he hadn't bothered to mention in the past two years, somehow unable to deal with Sakura's flippant attitude even though he had once openly instigated the same responses from a certain red head.
Before anyone could say more, Jugo stepped forward and fixed his emotionless stare on Sasuke. It was the look he got when something was wrong, all the curiosity about their new companion having been wiped from his expression.
"Sasuke-sama," Jugo said in a rush. "Someone is coming. Twenty minutes away from us."
Sakura let out a stifled cry of frustration. "I told you guys," she spat, grabbing Suigetsu by the front of his shirt and pushing him out to arms length. She focused her attention on Sasuke as she held the squirming shark-nin in place with her superior strength. "We have to move. Whoever they are, they've been tracking you guys for a while now. They know almost everything about you."
"Then they should know how strong Sasuke is, eh Pinky?" Suigetsu ground his pointy teeth together, angry violet eyes wide with indignation. "Who are these people that you think they could have any chance against him?"
Sasuke had been wondering the same thing. After the war, he was certain that there wasn't anyone in the world other than perhaps Naruto who could equal him. He had expected Sakura of all people to have a similar faith in his abilities, but he was beginning to realize just how much her opinion of him has changed.
"We don't know yet what they are capable of," Sakura spat back at the man in her grip, tightening her hold on the fabric in her hands as though strangling the cloth would prevent her from punching the loudmouth wearing it. "It is best to avoid confrontation for now until we are more knowledgeable of our enemies."
"How are you so certain they are enemies?" Jugo asked calmly, his ears twitching imperceptibly as Sasuke was certain he was still listening to the birds. He wasn't quite sure how the orange-headed giant was capable of understanding them, but it was at times like this that he was glad he could.
"They attacked Killer B and killed Chojuro," Sakura seethed, turning her attention to the much larger man. "Neither of which are pushovers, might I add, and both of whom are my friends." The corner of her mouth quivered ever so slightly as she spoke. "Or, was..."
Sasuke saw the look on Suigetsu's face change from outrage to uncomfortable, the hand he had been using to try and pry loose the grip on his shirt going lax and almost comforting upon her wrist. A small surge of heat sprang forth in his chest as he fought the urge to smack away the shark-nin's hold.
"Chojuro was a good man," Suigetsu said softly, allowing his hand to fall to his side. "He was a legend. Not really the kinda guy I would hang around with, but I respected him anyways."
Sakura looked at all three of them in turn, the look on her face willing them to trust her. Willing them to follow her away from their pursuers.
"But we don't run from fights," Suigetsu continued. He seemed as though he were about to continue with his heartfelt speech, but a moment later he was gone from Sakura's grip, having dissolved into a puddle at her feet. The kunai that would have pierced him planted itself in the tree five yards away.
"Tch," Sasuke huffed in annoyance, having been far too preoccupied with uncovering Sakura's motive that he hadn't realized someone had been sneaking up on them. But no, he realized. He still couldn't feel anyone's presence. As he activated his sharingan, he realized that he couldn't sense any chakra either.
"Sasuke-sama!" Jugo yelled behind him. Sasuke turned just in time to see a brown figure leap out from the trees and anchor itself to the older man's back. An impossible number of them entered the clearing they had been standing in, surrounding the three ninja before they could even react. Sasuke quickly drew his kusanagi, his sharingan raking across the horde of identical beings.
They were fast, whatever they were. Now that he could see them in detail, it was clear that they weren't human. Their brown skin was slick and putrid looking, drops of its flesh sliding down their bodies at a time. None of them had a face, or clothes for that matter, though there were no appendages that needed to be hidden.
"Mud clones!" Sakura cried, bisecting the brown bag shaped roughly into a human that had been reaching for her. It fell to the ground with a wet plop before it began to mold itself back into shape. She rushed to Jugo, using her Kunai to slice through the arms of the one on his back. She nicked the skin on his shoulder by accident, barely deep enough to break the skin as only a drop or two of blood oozed out and soaked into the torn cloth of his shirt.
Sasuke snarled, annoyed that he had been surprised by mud of all things. He pushed his sword back into its sheath, shooting a glare at the others, Suigetsu having reformed from his last moment evasion.
"Off the ground," he ordered roughly, and as he began the hand seals none of them thought to argue. Trusting that they could manage to get into the trees in a decent amount of time, Sasuke let loose his devastating fire breath.
The surrounding area was immediately engulfed in flames, setting fire to low hanging branches and causing Sasuke to break out in a light sheen of sweat. He could hardly see through his continuing onslaught, but he heard the crackle and popping all around him as the mud clones were cooked and dried. After nearly a full minute, Sasuke ended his jutsu and looked around at the pile of useless hardened clay littering the forest floor.
"Man, Sasuke-kun," the mist-nin fell to the ground, panting heavily and looking as though he had been caught in some form between his liquid and physical bodies. "I'm all outta water and you just had to go and try to grill us alive, huh? I swear, I'm drying up, here!"
Wordlessly, Sakura appeared beside him, her pink locks sticking to her brow from the intensity of the heat, and held out her canteen to the whining shark. It was pink with tiny flower petals cascading around the metal shell. Suigetsu eyed it in distrust, more likely from the color than the fact that it was being handed to him by an untrusted kunoichi. He snatched it from her anyways, draining every last drop before he shoved the offensively girly flask back into her hands.
"We need to go," Sasuke barked, eyes landing on Jugo who was standing silently off to the side. Sasuke was quietly asking for an update, something he knew Jugo would catch on to. He had always been far more perceptive than Suigetsu or Karin. In Taka, Jugo was very much like a subdued and slightly unhinged Kakashi.
"The birds have all gone quiet," Jugo replied, his face set in deep concentration, trying his hardest to make out any chirping within the burnt forest. "Your fire scattered them."
"Whatever," Sasuke snapped, annoyed that he had messed something else up. First he hadn't noticed the mud clones, now he had scared away their only source of information. Whatever or whoever was coming, he couldn't sense them for some reason, and that just angered him even more. "Come."
His order was absolute in the ears of Jugo and Suigetsu, but Sakura wasn't about to let him take the lead . He saw it when he went to pass her, the set of her jaw as she stood defiantly in place.
"You will all follow me," Sakura stated, her eyes once again finding their place upon his forehead. Did she think he would use his sharingan on her? Was that really fear he saw in her eyes?
"We don't have time for this, Sakura."
"Then just do as I say for once!" She placed herself directly in his path, fists clenched as she tilted her head back to continue her efforts of glaring a hole clean through his skull.
"Guys," Suigetsu sing-songed to them, already inching towards the direction they had been traveling earlier. "They can't be too far from us, now."
"We have about ten minutes," Jugo added.
Sasuke refused to allow Sakura any amount of say on where he was headed. She had lied to him more than once now about what was going on, and he wasn't going to follow her anywhere until he got some answers. She seemed to sense his resolution, or perhaps she just remembered how stubborn he had been as a child.
"Fine," she cocked him a playful grin, stepping back until she was standing with Suigetsu, her eyes never leaving Sasuke's pale forehead. "I'll just have to make you do as I say."
Sasuke, with all his speed and reflexes, had not been prepared for what Sakura did next. He watched in confusion at fist as the girl before him lifter her hand to her mouth, biting into the fleshy pad of her thumb and withdrawing a small scroll with the other, unfurling it in one deft motion.
"Sorry Jugo, but my kunai is poisoned," Sakura spoke quickly, kneeling to the ground as she pushed her thumb into the center of the blank paper, from which a spiderweb of symbols cracked the material in every direction. "You have two days to come find us." Darting her other hand out, Sakura wrapped her tiny fingers around Suigetsu's ankle. Since the action was not an immediate threat, the shark-nin's body remained in tact and he was pulled through the jutsu she had cast.
"Damnit!" Sasuke cursed loudly. He was vaguely aware of Jugo jumping at his uncharacteristic outburst. "Where did she go?"
Before now, the member of Taka had only ever seen him express intense emotions when e was on the verge of losing it. Now Sakura had ruined his cool facade. Jugo walked slowly forward, after he was sure Sasuke wasn't about to start swinging with the intention of leveling everything in the immediate area.
In the dirt where she had placed the scroll was a small scrap of paper. Bending down to grab it, Jugo read the neatly printed words in silence, afraid of making noise lest he push the Uchiha over the edge.
"What does it say?" Sasuke said it with resignation, his tone brimming with exhaustion. He could tell this caught Jugo off guard. A sudden sense of guilt flooded the avenger's system, knowing that he had been rather harsh and cruel during his time in Taka. Instead of waiting for Jugo to answer, Sasuke held out his hand.
Jugo placed the message gingerly in Sasuke's outstretched palm, a look of confusion and concern still on the larger man's face. It was slightly weighted, two tiny black pills taped to the corner. Ignoring his teammate for now, Sasuke read the single sentence on the paper.
"Sasuke-kun, Naruto's home was destroyed in the war. Go help him rebuild it."
Sasuke knew for a fact that Konoha was long since rebuilt and that she didn't actually want him to go to Konoha. She had given him a riddle. He decided at that point he was going to store up any negative emotion and save it for the moment he saw her next in retribution for what she just did.
He tore the pills away from the paper and set the note on fire, watching it crumble in his flame-resistant fingers. Tossing one to Jugo, who looked rather pale now that he took the time to notice, Sasuke popped the second into his own mouth.
"Let's go," Sasuke ordered, setting off north, they way Sakura had been leading them.
"Where to?" Jugo asked, his hand resting on the small cut on his shoulder before he swallowed the soldier pill Sakura had left for them.
Sasuke wasn't sure yet. He would have to work the riddle out as they went.
Hey there! New chapter, look at that. Please review, it means a lot to me when you do.
Also, is the clue too obvious? Lemme know what you guys think?
