The Governess

Chapter 7

I knelt beside the lake, coughing and panting heavily. I never knew horses could move so fast! What did Naruto feed them? I looked at my reflection in the water and saw that my face was flushed. It's not only from the hot sun, a voice inside me whispered. "Shut up." I hissed.

"Argh," The master let out a sigh of frustration. "Where's that goddamn clue?" He roamed around the banks of the lake, bending down every now and then to search through the thick, long clumps of grass.

I looked around for the first time. I had never known that there was a lake in Uchiha Hall. How big was this place anyways? There were huge clumps of grass and other plants growing thickly along the edges of the lake. A few meters away I could see the hills and the mansion below which seemed very small from here.

I walked along the banks, drinking all of this in, when BAM! I crashed face-first into a thick bramble bush that tore at my dress and scratched me all over. Cursing, I tried untangling myself from all the thorns, vines, and leaves when something caught my eye.

A little further away from me, hidden among the brambles was... a piece of paper. I reached for it and carefully pulled away from the thorns. I got up, more thorns dragging at my dress, and was about to shout out my victory, when the piece of paper got picked up by the wind.

"Shit!" I screamed and ran after the piece of paper. "Sakura, what's going on?" Mr. Uchiha asked as I passed him. "GET THAT PIECE OF PAPER!" I yelled at him, gesticulating with all my might at the tiny scrap floating in the breeze.

Not caring about anything else, I ran as fast as I could to follow the paper, just to see it land in a clump of grass. But because I was moving so fast, I couldn't stop myself in time and I fell into the lake with a big splash.

Sasuke's Point of View:

Itachi walked up to me. "What just happened?" He asked. "Hey look, it's a piece of paper!" He walked towards the clump of grass where the clue was lying in, and pulled it out. Then he looked around. "Where's Sakura?"

That reminded me. She fell into the water. She should've been out now, but why didn't she resurface yet? My heart skipped a beat. Something was wrong.

I hurriedly took off my shoes and socks and jumped into the water as Itachi yelled, "What are you doing?" I looked around. No sign of Sakura. I started panicking. Shit! Where is she? I looked around a bit more and found her, her eyes closed, her arms hanging limply at her sides. I swam towards her, put my arms around her waist, and tried swimming up but her dress kept dragging us down.

I kicked harder with my legs and emerged from the water panting and coughing heavily. Itachi ran over. "When did she fall in?" he asked. "What should we do?" He grabbed on to one of Sakura's arms and wrapped it around his shoulders.

"Thanks." I sputtered. We carried her away from the river and laid her on the ground. "Now what?" He asked.

"Don't look at me, I don't read romance novels."

"And I don't read doctors' novels!"

"Didn't you learn anything about this when you were in school?"

"Didn't you?"

I glared at Itachi. Trust him to make a joke out of everything. I looked at Sakura's face. I didn't know what to call it, pale or flushed. I moved a few strands of hair out of her face just as she started coughing and spitting water out. At my face.

Her eyes opened, worry clouding them. "T-the p-paper!" She gasped. Itachi held it up and read aloud, "Good job with the first clue. Indeed, I am a lake. Onto the next hint: I am a place where many living things are kept. Each day I am filled with fresh straw."

I sat up, ignoring the fact that I was soaked from head to toe. "Straw?" I cried. "Living things? That's easy! It's Naruto's stables!" The master nodded. "Whoever writes this is obviously a very dull person..." He muttered, more to himself.

"Yeah, it's probably because you write them, dear brother." Mr. Uchiha replied curtly. I rolled my eyes. "We'd better get going then." I got up and squeezed the water out of my dress and then smoothened it. By the time I had finished, the two Uchihas were arguing about who got to ride on what horse. They spoke simultaneously.

"You got to ride alone last time, Itachi!"

"But I'm the older, more responsible one!"

"And the one with no brain!"

"I've got the looks!"

"You're a father! To think you'll be talking like this..."

Mr. Uchiha started shaking his head. The master, not wanting to be outdone, leaned closer and whispered something to his younger brother causing his face to turn tomato red.

Finally, they both got onto separate horses, not wanting anything to do with each other. I casually strolled up to them and asked, "So, which horse do I get onto?" The master gestured towards his Mr. Uchiha, a smirk on his face.

Mr. Uchiha reached his hand out and I slowly grabbed his outstretched fingers, as he helped me onto the horse. Then we both nodded and looked away. I felt my cheeks burning. Pah, must be sunburn. I thought to myself.

Let me say this. The stables smelled like shit. Literally! All these horses were just standing up, munching hay and staring at us with moony eyes like cows. A few were even swatting flies away from their tails. Like cows! I was half expecting one of them to say Moo any second now.

"If I were a little clue, where would I be?" I muttered to myself. One of the horses leaned towards me and snorted, it's hot breath touching my face. Not knowing what to do, I patted it's muzzle uncertainly.

"Hey, I think I found something!" The master waved his arms in the air. Mr. Uchiha was a little way away searching through a hay stack with a pitchfork, a few horses moving their heads with his movements.

"Okay! Bring it over!" I called out.

"I can't!"

"Why?"

"It's...It's stuck in...horse dirt."

The horse and I looked at each other with wide eyes. Gross! Now how were we supposed to read it?

Mr Uchiha walked over to it and looked down. "Itachi, you silly goose! That's not paper, that's straw!" The master took a closer look. His mouth formed a O shape and I sighed in relief.

Then, all of a sudden the horse I was standing next to went back to eating his hay. Only, one hay stalk looked weirder than the rest. As the horse grabbed up huge piles of hay, it fell to the ground and I reached for it.

And it was the clue! And I found it! Again. "What do you have there?" I felt a hand on my shoulder. I spun around to see Mr. Uchiha. When did he get here? And why did his touch feel like an electric spark? I felt my face start heating up again. I handed him the clue and looked away.

He read aloud, "We are what keep you warm in the winter, though in summer it gets a little warm for us. We travel in a flock and are guarded by a really big dog. Can you guess where we are?"

The master came up to us and groaned. "Please no more animals! I don't want to smell like crap all day!" I looked at the clue. Flock. What travels in a flock and keeps us warm? The master cleared out his throat. "Okay, let's see what all travel in flocks. Flocks of geese, flocks of birds, flocks of...sheep. Sheep? Sheep! Kiba's sheep! They have wool and Akamaru's the big dog!"

Mr. Uchiha and I exchanged glances. These clues were actually pretty easy now that I thought about it. "To the hills!" Cried the master. "It's a little out of Uchiha Hall, but pretty near by."

Never in my life had I seen so many sheep. And they were all so fluffy! They looked like little clouds on the ground and they were so adorable. I went up to pat one and it just baa-ed angrily at me and moved away. Now they weren't so adorable.

"We should split up." Mr. Uchiha suggested. "We might be able to find the clue faster." I walked towards a clearing with tall thickets. It looked like the number one candidate for the clue's hiding spot. I pushed the leaves and stems apart with my hands looking for a tiny scrap of hope that could get us out of here.

Without realizing it, I was moving as I searched for the clue and I was making a hell of a lot of noise too. Suddenly, I felt something grab a hold of my skirt and pull me in. I started thinking about the evil tree spirits that kidnapped people if they were disturbed and all those stories people used to scare each other with.

I started letting out a high pitched wail, only to be cut off by a hand covering my mouth. I spun around and saw Mr. Uchiha. He put a finger to his lips and gestured for me to follow him as he crouched behind the thicket.

"Wha–?" I began loudly. "Shh!" He whispered. "You see that sheep over there?" He pointed to the very same sheep I tried petting. I scowled. "What about it?" I asked. "Look closely." I examined the sheep and saw hidden among it's wool was another piece of paper.

"When I say go," Mr. Uchiha whispered. "We slowly make our way to that sheep and get that clue, okay?" I nodded. He got up slowly, careful not to make any noise and I tried doing the same.

"Go!" He hissed. We started advancing slowly towards the sheep who took no notice of us. Mr. Uchiha reached with outstretched fingers to the clue and was just about to grab it when the sheep suddenly looked up and stared at us. We froze. It froze. Then it made a loud noise and started running faster than the average sheep.

Without thinking I started running after it too. Holding the skirt of my dress and running at the same time, trying to dodge a whole bunch of glaring sheep isn't easy, mind you. It requires a lot of skill and of course more than one person.

The sheep started slowing down and I almost got up to it. I was getting closer and closer, my hand almost grabbing the piece of paper dangling in the sheep's wool...

A force knocked me to the ground and the sheep got away. I looked up and saw Mr. Uchiha on top of me, his arms pinning me to the ground. I looked at him with wide eyes. What was he thinking?

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

I am so terribly sorry! But sorry's too bland a word, isn't it? But I'm so sorry for those of you who've waited for such a long time for this idiot of an author to update. Eighth grade's tough! And my math teacher shows no mercy! He gives too much slope homework and my Social Studies teacher makes me do lots of useless stuff with Cornell Notes... I hate Cornell Notes... But all the same I feel really horrible I couldn't update for a while. Please review to make my day! Or not, if you think I'm a meanie... I'm really sorry! -EnemyField

Recommended: Glass Slipper by Pink Cherries (you can find it on my page)

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto... I'm too dumb to make up such an awesome manga like that... It belongs to Masashi Kishimoto