As The Falcon Flies By
(Chapter 10 : As The Threads Fall Apart)
Enjoy!
U＾ェ＾U
"We've got to go back." Genma's insistent whisper carried far in their silent room. He had put up a simple undetectable chakra-barrier, blocking all sounds from escaping the room.
The downside was that they couldn't hear any sounds from outside their room either. They weren't to worried about a possible enemy shinobi, as Shikamaru could easily detect him and warn them.
Sakura was still lying on her back, in the same position she had woken up in. The only difference was the extra cushion propping her up and the tea warming her hands. For late summer, it was already becoming fresh in the mornings. She was grateful of Yume for having brewed her a pot.
"It's not safe." Genma continued, one leg folded under himself, the other hanging over the side of the bed, dangling inches above the hardwood floor. His voice was still a bit gruff from just waking up.
"I didn't know being a shinobi was ever safe." She calmly responded.
He snorted. "More unsafe than usual, then."
Silently, she pondered his words as she carefully took a sip of the hot tea.
It was already later in the morning, later than they had wanted it to be, and the birds were singing loudly outside their window. From where she was sitting, she could just see Neji with his back against a tree, reading what seemed like his logbook. Akamaru and an equally enthusiastic Kiba were running around and laughing in the tall grass. Amused, she watched Neji ruefully shake his head without looking up from his notes when Kiba slipped and fell on a patch of mud.
This prompted Akamaru to bound to him and playfully nudge him further into the mud.
Sakura suspected Kiba was letting him do a little, as she heard Yume laugh and cheer them on out of sight.
That would be cute. She thought. Yume and Kiba.
It seemed like such an idyllic place. And yet, she hadn't felt this uneasy for a very long time.
Straightening her back, she shifted the pillows more cozily, making her aching muscles scream in protest.
She met Genma's annoyed gaze and just winked back.
Exasperated, he sighed and dramatically fell back on the bed, causing her tea to nearly spill.
With careful movements, she topped it up with warm water.
"You're right. It isn't safe here." Before Genma could interrupt, she held up her hand.
"However, we can't go back."
Genma leaned up on one elbow, looking up at her from the end of the bed.
"Why in the world not?"
"Because," she said, keeping a stern face, "I don't want to."
He just slowly blinked.
"That's unfortunate. "
She pouted, as he just laughed softly.
He crawled up to her when she kept on frowning at him in displeasure.
She raised an eyebrow when he took her cup of tea away and put it out of reach, on his night table.
When he turned back towards her with a smug little smile, she contemplated using the little chakra she had charged up to fling the cup against his back with a chakra-string.
Severe chakra depletion, but revenge, or safe and sound?
Choices, choices.
She slowly lifted her hand, ready to swiftly gather a tiny amount of chakra.
"Don't even think about it, Tiny. "
She raised her eyebrow in surprise at his old nickname for her.
"Who you calling tiny, old man?" She made a half-hearted move to push him of the bed, already aware that wouldn't get her anywhere.
She felt even more glum as she saw that perfectly good pot of hot water next to her just go to waste.
"With who are you in a relationship, Sakura?" He shook his head, already anticipating her strangeness.
"With tea."
He rolled his eyes. "I think you meant with me."
"Whatever, you're not even food."
He burst out laughing and turned on his back, to dodge one of her little, but always painful fists.
His smile quickly disappeared again behind a face of worry. Something's bothering him.
He held her left hand and started drawing over the ink lines of her forearms with his index finger.
"So what happened?"
She groaned. "We already went over everything."
"Again. We've got to think. You're bedridden, for Kami's sake. When's the last time that has happened?"
She smiled when she remembered. It was a typical case of 'horrible-when-it's-happening-but-funny-later'.
"That time I took up Gai-sensei and Lee's challenge to eat a whole bowl of the Curry of Life." She was grinning fully now. "I spent a week in the hospital after that. And I detest spicy food now." She cringed as she remembered that awful challenge. And shisou's endless tirade.
He slowly nodded, than froze and frowned and finally, he burst out laughing.
"Wait, what? Curry of Life? No, never mind, I don't want to know. You might get me involved next time."
"Oh, for sure, Genma." She grinned, poking him lightly in the stomach.
When he raised an eyebrow, she shook her head, as if clearing it. "Oh, right. What happened. So, I fell asleep easily. We'd already checked extensively for set traps, enemy genjutsu,... We checked our own weapons then, making sure we had some ready in case of an emergency, as per mission protocol."
He nodded, prompting her to continue.
"We concluded that there were no enemy contraptions of any kind in our sleeping quarters, nor an actual perpetrator."
"That can all go in the report, go on."
She swallowed, wishing she didn't have to talk about this again.
"After falling asleep easily, I seemed to wake up in an unknown place, unrecognizable by any key characteristics, due to there being so little light.
I felt my legs being paralyzed by something unknown. The seemingly paralyzing darkness slowly crept up, leaving me confused and dazed and scared. Memories started resurfacing, as clear as if they were on a big screen in front of me."
"What memories?"
She shook her head. "They passed by to quickly to remember anything. It was as if somebody was flipping through a Rolodex of my life." She paused. "But don't put that in the report. It's a little to cheesy."
He rolled his eyes and waved her on.
"After that, the dark glue like, syrupy thing incapacitated my torso and started to move around my neck. That is when I thought of using the medical jutsu for chakra scalpels, to...uh, slice and dice it!"
"I'm not putting that in either." He said, smiling lopsidedly.
She stuck out her tongue.
"I woke up in our room and too exhausted to wake anybody or warn you, I fell asleep. From all this we can conclude that I probably never left the room, and it was a genjutsu. And that it was a highly skilled shinobi, who might be our neighbor, yada yada yada... There, I practically wrote that report for you."
"I hate paperwork." He grunted, already tired just thinking about the paperwork he would have to fill in once he got back home, explaining why he had let one of his teammates, and a medicin-nin at that, get hurt. Never mind that she was his superior back home or that they probably couldn't have foreseen it.
"Have you decided how to go ahead?
He frowned, seeming to not have heard her.
"Genma."
He turned over her hand and pressed two fingers against her pulse.
"Genma." She growled.
He laid a hand on her forehead. She tried to suppress a shiver caused by his cold hand against her skin.
"You've got a fever."
"I know, doctor."
"Maybe you're 've suffered from severe chakra-depletion. We can't travel today. Not at a reasonable pace anyway."
"But you still want to go back to Konoha." She somberly said.
"What about the attacker, Sakura? It's quite a big possibility he's the other guest. And I don't want to jump to conclusions, but there's a big chance that we aren't dealing with just any shinobi."
"You mean Akatsuki."
"I mean Itachi."
Sakura frowned, "Now you are jumping to conclusions. "
He rolled his eyes. "Logical conclusions. I don't know many people who can do such a high level genjutsu, do you? You said yourself that it had to have been a highly skilled shinobi. I've never even heard of something like that jutsu, let alone experienced any of it. It's dangerous, Sakura."
"You don't have to tell me that." She bit out, annoyed by the whole situation. She could sense Genma's muscles tightening with her sharp tone, as if steeling himself for a confrontation.
She quickly softened her face and breathed in deeply. Pleadingly she looked at her partner. "We can't go back Genma, it's dangerous."
His eyes narrowed a little in distrust, an expression so out-of-place, it took her back a little.
"It's not more dangerous than staying here, or going on to the city! What is it with you, Sakura?"
"What are you trying to say?" She hissed, suddenly very weary and definitely not in the mood for a discussion. He was right of course, but she couldn't, wouldn't let this opportunity to help Naruto slip by.
"You tell me, Sakura." He ground out, alarming her with his unusual behavior.
He had dropped her hand a while ago, and she clasped them together, to hide the fact that they were shaking a bit with fear and exhaustion.
"I don't know what you're talking about."
Had she been less shaken up, she'd have gone about this a different way.
Had she been a lot more rested, she might have been able to use more tact. And had she been just a little more goddamn awake, she might have prevented his outburst.
But she wasn't, and she couldn't. And now she could clearly see his distrust in his eyes.
He stood up stiffly, as if Sakura was merely a stranger, and a detestable one at that.
"I'm so sick of it." His words bounced around in the room, sticking and clinging to her and turning her stomach around. She didn't want this. Didn't like it. It made her feel upset and queasy. Before she could ask him to stop, he continued, turning her mouth dry.
"So fucking sick of your little quest." He spat out the last word, whirling back towards her, his back towards the window. She stared up at him, her mouth hanging open a bit in shock and surprise at this quick 180-degrees turnaround of their feelings.
If she stretched out her hand now, she would be able to touch him. She quickly rejected the notion, as she saw his cold and furious stare looming down on her.
Her voice croaked when she spoke. "What do you mean, quest?"
She braced herself for an outburst, bu he just completely stilled, his face a mask of frozen disappointment. Once seething, he was now cold as ice.
For a moment, he reminded her of that infinite and stifling darkness. But Genma possessed more emotions and expressions, even though he was trying to hide them from her now. He wasn't as clinical. He had never wanted to kill her.
She had to suppress a shiver. Blankly, she stared over his shoulder, through the window, at a scene which still seemed as mockingly idyllic.
When she looked at his eyes again, she saw something dangerous and unreadable flicker in them.
"Sasuke."
He spat the name, his bitter emotions resurfacing briefly in his disgust for her old teammate. "Don't manipulate me, Sakura." He whispered it, barely loud enough to be heard.
She stared at him, cold shivers crawling up and down her back. "I don-"
"Every single time we make up," he drawled, "you tell me how little you care about Sasuke. About how you're so indifferent as to whether he comes back or not. Even as to whether he dies or not."
She breathed in deeply, ready to stop him with anything. Please, this isn't necessary. Not now.
"Please just-"
Again he continued, speaking so deliberately soft that she had to keep quiet to hear him.
"But then every single fucking time we get close to Sound Border, it's as if you turn into your thirteen year old self again."
He turned away from her as if refusing to look her in the eyes. "And the idiot I am, I go along with it. And I forgive you, and just wave it away, and just try to forget it, and..."
He breathed in deeply, letting his rush of words sink in first.
"And…it needs to stop." There was a finality in those five words that hang heavily between them.
She cleared her throat. Her voice still sounded gruff and alien when she spoke. "You know I try to bring him back for Naruto. He made me a promise all these years ago to bring Sasuke back. He's been hurt by all of this. Everybody has been hurt. We just need closure, especially Naruto. I do it for him."
"Mhm," he said, seeming totally unimpressed, "then why does it always turn out to be about Sasuke? You miss him, don't you? I wonder who you'd dive in bed with if he were here." He said, his heated face alight with mockery.
"Enough!" She screamed, slapping her hand hard on the night table next to her, making Genma lean back a little in surprise.
"Stop it, just stop it. Don't make a fool of yourself, Shiranui." She hissed. "I did nothing to earn this." Her voice broke halfway, but she didn't care.
"Nothing, huh? You "despise" him, yet you still want to bring him back? Konoha is better of without him, don't you see, Sakura!?" He was breathing heavily now, his hand clasping the windowsill behind him, turning his knuckles white.
Her heart felt heavy as she whispered a few hoarse words, almost choking on her held back tears. "You try losing a team member, Genma, I swear..."
He let go of the windowsill and stood up straighter.
Once more he looked her in the eyes. "I have, Sakura."
And then, as if nothing had happened, he calmly walked towards the door and let his hand rest on the cold copper door nob.
"Genma, what are we going to do then?" She said, holding her arms around herself, as if to physically keep herself from falling apart.
There was a short pause of silence, in which she refused to be heard crying and sobbing.
She could see his shoulders relax a little, and he finally spoke in fast, clipped words.
"As team leader... I say we move forward and complete our mission, as requested by the Hokage. We'll just have to wait another day for you to recuperate and then we'll take it slow. As for that enemy, I'll send the Hokage a letter, but I'm sure she'll agree to take the risk even though it could be Akatsuki. Konoha needs that money."
Sakura tried to blink away the tears, but it just caused them to heavily fall down her face. Her mouth already tasted salty.
"But... What about us?"
"I- I don't know what you want me to say." He stood there uncomfortably, pulling a hand through his hair. "There is no us. And if you're just a little bit honest, you know there never was a 'us' to begin with. We just use each other."
"But you're my partner." She choked back a sob.
He turned his head slightly, so half of his face was visible to her.
"I've got nothing more to say about that, Haruno." A sad smile appeared for a brief moment, and then he was gone.
The door clicked shut behind him.
U＾ェ＾U
Hi! I'm glad people are reading this! If you have some feedback or a comment, leave it here or PM me.
Things are finally starting to get going! So much tension, haha. This fight was surprisingly easy to write, though I wish I didn't have to separate these two for now. The plot comes first! Maybe in the future I'll try to write something about Sakura and Genma.
Until Chapter 11 :)
-A