DESERTED
DESERTED
Chapter 7
"Waiting for Never"
With dusk quickly approaching, Sakura and Genma passed through the dark canvas door-flap before Sakura realized that this is what the ANBU did in their spare time. A busy woman such as herself thought of it as insane. To be dancing and drinking when there was a war going on only several kilometers from where the base camp was established.
Her jaw slightly ajar, Sakura walked aimlessly until somebody called her name. "Ohaiyo! Sakura-chan, get your senbon-sucking friend and come have a drink with us!" the voice was oddly familiar. Feminine, and loud.
Turning her head, her jade orbs caught sight of five pineapple ponytails. One was brown. "Temari-chan! Shikamaru!" she gasped, yanking Genma in their direction. He smiled, following behind her.
"Shika-kun, you perv!" Temari hollered, stepping away from his lap. "This is not the time or place." Her face resembled a tomato.
"Fine, fine. Troublesome." Shikamaru said, sipping on his seventh glass of sake.
Sakura stood behind Shikamaru's chair and Genma behind her. "Oi, Sakura-chan. This is the initiation party, so enjoy yourself. You're an elite now. Here, have a drink!" Commander Nara poured her a tall glass of sake and shoved it at her.
Giving Genma a skeptical look, he smiled apologetically at her, and backed off a bit, his hand sliding from her hips. "Here, you drink." She huffed, roughly pushing the glass at him.
As she was about to go find some of her other friends, a pale arm grabbed her wrist and jerked her in its direction. "Yikes!" she yelped.
Sakura's bottom hit a cushioned seat, and she found herself glaring at Gaara. Apologizing, she looked at the blonde next to her. "Ino!"
The blue-eyed, model figured, 'miss lovely' chirped at her friend, "Hey Uchiha, what's up?" Ino drummed her thumbs on the table they sat around.
Sakura hadn't forgotten what Gaara had told her earlier. "Nothing really. Actually Ino, did you know that your precious Kaze-husband here carried you nearly the entire way from Konoha. I asked him what was up, but he said I should ask you instead. So spill it, why have you been so…weak, lately?"
Ino glared daggers at Gaara, but he remained unscathed. With a sigh, Ino hung her head and stopped the thumb drumming. It was hard to avert her gaze from those piercing jade eyes, so she looked Sakura straight in the eye and spoke.
"Promise me you won't freak, Sakura?" she asked beforehand. The bubblegum haired kunoichi nodded instantly.
"Well, Gaara and I decided a few months back that we would eventually have little Kazekages running around. Apparently (Ino looked at Gaara as if he was to blame for something), somebody wanted to start a bit early. So now, I'm pregnant." Ino readied herself for a brutal lecture.
Sakura was awed. She sat back and stared at nothing in particular. Many silent, awkward minutes passed between the thick airs surrounding the three.
"Saaaaaakkuuuuuuurrraaaaaa?" Ino shook her arm slightly. The ANBU elite kunoichi retreated from her reverie.
"You know Ino, in some weird way…sort of like an instinct; I knew you would be the first to start a family. I'm enthralled, completely happy for you! Ino, you're having a baby with the man of your dreams! You're so lucky!" Sakura couldn't sit still. She went from leaning back, to beating her fist on the table, to touching Ino's arm encouragingly.
Ino smiled and said something without thinking; "Well you would have been the first to have a family if Sasuke hadn't died!" she slipped.
Sakura froze. Her eyes widely stared at the glossy table. Her reflection was blurred. She felt the irony. Absent-minded, the Uchiha widow slid from the bench cushion and stood with her back turned to the couple.
Ino covered her mouth and began to cry. She felt horrible. "Sakura, I'm so sorry! I never mea-" she cried before Sakura cut in.
"I forgive you." Uchiha Sakura's pastel tresses curtained the side her face. Her fingers traced a line across the edge of the slick table. As if she were a ghost, Sakura then began to walk away, not caring about the others bumping into her, and elbowing her in the head.
At the bar, she demanded the tallest glass of Whiskey allowed. Her shoulders hunched over, elbows up, she waited…
Uchiha Sakura always waited. She waited for Naruto, and Sasuke, and everything else in her life. Eventually the waiting always paid off, but this time she realized she would be waiting forever. Even in her grave. She realized that she was waiting for never.
In her hazed reverie of darkness, the man clad in silver, sitting in the back of the tent scooted up beside her. "Who might you be, kitten?" he cocked a smirk.
Slowly, Sakura's face became visible. Her eyes were burning wildly. She wasn't glaring, but the man could definitely tell she was watching venomously.
"My name isn't kitten." She growled. However; the damned asshole protested, and slouched even closer still.
"Come on kitten, can't you spare me some entertainment." He cooed, twirling a strand of her hair in his dirty fingertips.
Like lightning, Sakura grabbed his wrist and squeezed until her let her hair fall. She then turned to him fully and threw him across the tent, smashing into a table.
"Miss, your drink." The bartender seemed not to care. He walked away again. About to down the glass, the kitten calling bastard rose from the dismembered splintering wood pile, wiped his mouth of his own crimson, and he hollered.
"God damn whore. Who the hell do you think you are, kitten?!" he charged at her with his fist.
Not even phased, Sakura set her drink back on the bar and nonchalantly hammered her fist into his nose. After he fell into a second table, Sakura grabbed her drink and walked up to him.
As he glared, she said. "My name is Uchiha Sakura." To finish it, she poured the auburn alcohol on his head. "That one's on me." And then she left.
After the little scene, Genma noticed Ino was devastated and she was shaking violently. Rushing to her aid, he questioned Ino and her husband to find that an innocent conversation was the cause of her monotone attitude during the destruction.
Slipping his senbon back into his holster, Genma sprinted from the tent to find Sakura.
sorry for the short-ness of htis chapter!
school is a bithc these days.
and finals/HSAs are coming up soon.
and so is my birthdddaaaayyyyy!
HAHAHAHAHAHHA.
i'll update again ASAP.
love you guys! thanks.
love.RaHatake.
