Chapter 4
"For the love of God, Naruto, please don't say that we're gonna stop at this teahouse..." Sakura groaned as she saw another teahouse another fifteen metres away. Temari had a strange look on her face that could be described as an 'oh no, not again' look, while Hinata only snuggled up to Naruto's side happily, unaware of most of the things (that weren't said by Naruto) that had been said during this trip.
"Sakura-chan, how did you know I was going to say that?!" Naruto asked. He looked surprised, then a moment later, his expression of surprise turned into excitement. "Have you learned a new jutsu to guess people's thoughts, Sakura-chan!!! That's amazing!"
A loud whack could be heard from a radius of at least twenty metres, followed by a yelp of pain from Naruto and a gasp of worry from Hinata.
"We've been stopping at every teahouse, ramen stand and dango shop we encountered on our way to the Hot Spring Village! This must be the tenth-something place we stopped at already!" Temari, who lost her patience, shouted at Naruto who was nursing the bump on his head pitifully with Hinata cooing to him at his side. "For goodness's sake, let's move on already!"
"What's the hurry, anyway...?" Naruto mumbled under his breath while Hinata, being the loving person that she was, fussed over the bump on his head. She rummaged her bag to find some balm or such to put on the bump on Naruto's head when a hand reached to stop hers.
"Na... Naruto-kun..." The newly wedded bride stammered as she blushed at the feeling of warmth his hand in hers. The smile Naruto gave her was so kind, so gentle, and so warm...
"It's ok, Hinata-chan." He said, all the while looking at her lovingly, appreciating her kindness and love. He was such a lucky man to find someone like her, and for all the pain and hardship in his life, he felt blessed, and that was all because of her. "Thank you, Hinata-chan. No one has ever been so good to me before..."
"Naruto-kun..."
They stared into each other's eyes intensely with love, and their hands entwined inseparably, and they...
"Not to interrupt or anything, but won't you guys please get a room?!?" Temari slapped her forehead at the sight of another scene of the love-sick state the honeymooning couple was displaying. God, this must be the twentieth-something time she and Sakura were forced to endure these scenes already!
"Or get moving already!!!" Sakura added vigorously. "We have a hot spring to go to, remember?!?"
And, just like the twentieth-something time before, the kunoichi who ran away from their husbands were ignored by the newly married couple, who were still blinded from the outside world and lost in each other's eyes.
"Oh god," Temari moaned. "Let's hope we actually get to the Hot Spring Village by nightfall."
"At this rate, we won't get there for another week." Sakura grumbled.
***
"Looks like this is where they took a wrong turn." Shikamaru commented as he analysed the footprints on the ground before him.
Luckily for both husbands, when their wives decided to leave them, they didn't cover their tracks. It was most probably because they were drunk, but both men thanked god fervently for it anyway. If they had been sober and really thought that they didn't want to be found, then both of them would most likely still be left in the dark.
Sasuke's eyes suddenly lit up as he looked around their surroundings. "I remember this path..."
Shikamaru raised his eyebrows at Sasuke's words. "You do?"
The memory of their seemingly insignificant mission suddenly rushed back to Sasuke. Without realising it, he smiled as he remembered how they tried to come up with several methods of trying to unmask their sensei. They ultimately failed, of course. Naruto had avowed he would find a way to see Kakashi's face one day.
That one day hadn't arrived yet, it seemed.
His face became tender as he remembered his Sakura back then. It was only a little while after the Chunin Exam. At the time, he was solely focused on becoming stronger, well, almost solely. Without even realising it then, both Naruto and Sakura had become a large part of the reason why he wanted to become strong. While he wanted to get stronger than Naruto, he also wanted to protect his friend, and as for Sakura... he had always seen her as someone he had to protect.
At first, it was an encumbrance to him. She always got in the way, and he thought of her as annoying, and weak. But as time passed, she became someone he must protect. Sasuke no longer thought of her as weak, but to him, she was vulnerable. His eyes always moved to find her first at the first sign of danger, his hands reached out to her unthinkingly as she stumbled, and his heart... his heart just melted whenever she graced him with a smile.
He didn't really know how she did it, but she managed to find her way into his heart.
Maybe it was because of her kind smile she always had for him, maybe it was because of the fact that it was her eyes he saw first whenever he opened his eyes from being injured or unconscious, that it was always her hand that held his, giving her warmth to him unstintingly.
No matter how she did it, she was in his heart, and that part would always belong to her, now and forever.
Shikamaru, seeing that Sasuke's mind had already wandered, looked back at the footprints on the ground. He tried to focus on all the facts and details presented to him to figure where she went, but he found that his mind started to wander as well.
He remembered how Temari and he used to go on tracking mission together once. Similarly to the current situation, he was the one analysing the tracks left by the enemies, while she would help him digest the information available and help him speculate with the present fact of which direction they could have gone.
It was the same this time. He was the one analysing the tracks. As always, he was looking at the information presently available and trying to analyse which way it was that their targets went to.
The only thing that was different was the fact that she wasn't here this time.
And he didn't like it. Not at all...
He tried again to remember what he did to upset her. That night, when she forcefully shoved him out of their bedroom, he could see in her eyes the hurt and the disappointment that they held, and he still wondered what he had done...
...and he felt guilty for not knowing what it was that he had done...
The day when she agreed to marry him, despite all of his faults, he promised himself he would do his best to be and become deserving of her love.
But the expression she held in her eyes said otherwise.
And for the first time, he didn't know what to think or what to do.
Then he remembered her smile again, the one that he loved the most. He remembered how she would smile, and then call him some names like 'cry-baby' or 'scaredy cat', but all those words were meaningless. The only thing that ever mattered was her smile, the smile that said without words that she believed in him, that she trusted him...
...that she loved him...
Would he throw all of those away now, just because he didn't know what to do?
Hell, no...
Suddenly, Sasuke broke the silence that came over them.
"We should get going..." His voice was a calm that belied the turbulence hidden deep beneath, Shikamaru could feel it, and he replied to this with a voice not so very different from Sasuke's.
"Yes," Shikamaru replied, clutching his hands tightly with determination once again. "Let's go."
***
"One more dango, please!" The small voice of Hatsune could be heard clearly throughout the dango shop, and so was the sound of Neji's grinding teeth.
Neji took a look at his purse and sighed heavily. Damn that little girl... he thought. Her angelic look was definitely belying her true self. She was not an angel that everyone else they encountered believed her to be.
She was a glutton.
After managing to convince the little girl that they should leave the Hyuuga Mansion, the girl decided that she was hungry and wanted to eat dango. Neji agreed readily, as he was most eager to get her away from his home to save it from total ruination.
What he did not anticipate, however, was that he was about to face utter ruination instead.
The little girl had the appetite of a full grown ox. After downing at least 10 bowls of sweet nuts, 10 sticks of dango, and 5 more rice cakes, she was still claiming she wanted more.
Neji took another look at the content of his purse and he paled.
Please wake him up from this nightmare...
***
Shikamaru and Sasuke finally tracked the path their wives had taken to the inn where Team 7 stayed during their most memorable of all their insignificant missions.
Sasuke tried his hardest to ignore the inn's owner, who welcomed them profusely with her over brightly smiling face. Her shrill laughter made him almost want to cover his ears and ran away, but he managed to keep up his cool and calm appearance, and therefore did not shame his family.
He was kind of proud of himself... he guessed...
Meanwhile, Shikamaru's mind didn't quite register how high-pitched the lady's voice was. Instead, his focus was solely on the information she was giving him.
"Yes, there were two such persons as you described came to stay at my inn last night." She spoke, taking great pride in her faultless memory.
Sasuke's expression perked up at once upon hearing they were finally on the right track. "Are they still here?" He asked, hopeful that this might be where their search ended.
Sadly, he was wrong. The old lady shook her head. "No, they left in quite a hurry this morning. It seems they intended to go somewhere else and only stopped here to rest."
Sasuke's face returned to its brooding expression faster than the speed of light, and he returned to his sulking immediately.
Shikamaru, who had always been the most sensible shinobi of all the Konoha Twelve, continued his questioning. "Do you know where they were going? Did they say anything at all?"
The inn's owner pondered, tapping her chin thoughtfully. "Well... I did hear them talking... not that I meant to eavesdrop, of course! Such a person as I, of course, would never stoop down to such shameful behaviour..."
"Just tell me where they went." Shikamaru cut short the inn owner's speech. She looked a little indignant for being interrupted, but she went on regardless.
"They were saying that they were going to the Hot Spring Village..."
Sasuke looked highly aggravated. "So they might be in the Hot Spring Village by now..."
Shikamaru sighed tiredly. "That means we have to go back to the Hot Spring Village again." The shadow-user shuddered as he imagined going back to that village again. The people there didn't like him very much, no thanks to the temperamental chicken-ass here...
"Just to be sure, we should find their track, in case they got lost somewhere again." Sasuke said as he turned to ask the lady. "Which way did they go?"
The inn's lady pointed them towards the direction Sakura and Temari had taken the night before. "This way."
Shikamaru slapped his forehead. A resounding smack could be heard from miles away. "Ugh, they took the wrong way..."
"Again..." Sasuke agreed. His shoulders slumped as he thought about the long winded way they had to travel.
When I get my hands on you, Sakura... Sasuke thought. Oh, just wait 'til I get my hands on you...
***
At the 14th Teahouse before reaching the Hot Spring Village
"A- achoo!!!"
"Here," Temari handed a clean napkin to Sakura, who mumbled her thanks and took it to clean her face.
"Someone must have been thinking about you..." Temari said ponderingly. She looked into the distance, wishing someone would be thinking of her as well.
"Do you think we should just leave the two of them here? So we can finally reach the Hot Spring?" Sakura whispered to Temari, who was looking like she was going to throw up any minutes now.
Sakura couldn't blame her, not at all. The more-than-several public displays of affection that Naruto and Hinata had been sharing was making wanted to bang her head against walls... thick ones, too. It was just so embarrassing to be seen with those lovesick lovebirds.
But deep down, Sakura admitted that parts of her felt jealous of the Hyuuga Heiress. Although it was more than a little excessive, but she could always be certain of the affection and the esteem her husband had for her. She could see it clearly in her eyes how secure and comfortable Hinata felt with herself now...
...and Sakura envied her for that...
To say that her husband, the Uchiha Prodigy, was an emotionally handicapped person would not be so very far from the truth, well, maybe less than the truth, but that wasn't really the point. The point was that she had accepted that fact long, long ago. But still, she often longed for him to show her some gesture of affection. She was not asking for much, perhaps a smile, a simple pad on the shoulder, a holding hand...
Part of the reason why Sakura ran away, she confessed to herself, was that she wanted to see how Sasuke would react to it. Would he remain calm and cool as you please? Or maybe he would show a little distress?
She only wanted to see, just once, that he really did care for her.
The other part was to prove to him that she was strong enough to take care of herself. Really, anyone would have thought she had an incurable disease instead of a child in her belly, if they judged by the way he had been treating her. And even before that, too. He would always treat her as if she was about to break any moment, as if she would shatter if touched.
It annoyed her, and saddened her as well, to think he did not think much of her at all.
She also knew it was a little childish to have just left without seriously talking to him about it, but she blamed that on her 'Inner' who relished the thought of revenging Sasuke for belittling her. The 'Real' Sakura outside would never resort to such childish antic, of course.
Yeah, right… The Inner self drawled sarcastically. Of course, you don't feel this little tingly sense of satisfaction well in OUR chest right now, right?
Shut up, replied Sakura with only just the right amount of defensiveness.
***
While Sakura was fighting with her Inner Self, Temari was also thinking about a certain someone... her certain someone as well. The obvious love that the newly wedded couple had been displaying could not have failed to make even Temari think about her own love life, which was looking pretty gloomy right now.
She could maybe admit to herself, only herself, that the measure she had taken this time was pretty drastic for such a trivial thing, that she was overreacting. But, Temari bit her lips; she just wanted to show him... She only wanted to show him how those little trivial things could hurt as well. There were many little things that Temari had tried to ignore since they'd been married, things like Shikamaru not picking up his clothes, not washing the dishes, never help her clean up. They were trivial things...
But many small things could always add up and become something big...
Did he care at all? Those trivial things sometimes made her wonder. It was hard to tell what was going on his mind behind the expression of boredom he wore as a second skin. Sometimes he would sigh, often he would look out of the window, away from where she was, away from her, and although it might look as if she was being oversensitive, there was no denying to herself that it hurt.
She had always presented herself as a strong and capable kunoichi, but undeniably, there was another side who was just a woman who longed to be showered with affection, to be cared for, to be protected.
To be loved... and to feel assured in that love...
And although, she knew exactly how Shikamaru was, that wouldn't stop her from wanting to change him, just a little.
And his last forgetfulness was the last straw. She wanted to teach him a lesson...
And by the gods, she would.
***
Whew! That's another chapter done, folks! Hooray!
I wished I could have finished this chapter sooner, but the end of the month means there are reports to finish, hand in, rewrite, and then hand in again until your boss is happy, which was why I didn't have enough time to finish this chapter sooner.
Why can't food just appear in my fridge, money appears into my bank account, and rent and bill paid themselves?
Hopefully, my boss will not have some grand plan for all of us and made us run around in circles.
And don't forget to review! Review makes me write much faster, and more motivated while doing that, too!
