This would have been up last night but Ugly Betty distracted me ) Have fun reading chickpeas

Porcelain Chapter 9

Sakura's world was constantly being threatened. Everything that she had thought absolute was crashing down around her- and she couldn't help feeling sorry for herself. Sakura had always been weak minded. Always concerned about her own well-being not once taking the time to consider others' feelings- but maybe that's what made her human.

She quivered a little and her tiny trembling hands grasped her rigid elbows with vigor. The scars on her door mirrored the ones on her skin both a harsh reminder that reality wasn't so perfect. She cleared her throat gently and turned to the others.

"Hinata-chan?"

"H-Hai…" came Hinata's unsteady answer. She lifted her dark head and looked into Sakura's opal orbs with her own thickly lashed, ghostly ones. Sakura pleaded with her eyes; she begged for Hinata to tell it would be alright.

"Please, Hinata-chan. I just want to be able to sleep at night" she whispered imploringly.

Hinata fidgeted uneasily and shot several, fleeting glances at all the men. Each one doggedly refused to meet her gaze. They were ashamed and too stubborn to voice their thoughts. Hinata shifted her weight from foot to foot as if she was considering bolting from the scene.

"Ano…" she started but was silenced by a sharp, warning 'Tsk' from Sasuke.

Sakura squeaked at him in annoyance and waited for some explanation for the curt interruption; after all the discussion was about her safety.

He did not grace her with an answer but only stared stonily at the splintering door. Sakura was about to protest at his actions, she could not believe he was being so cold about her life- wasn't he one of the ones to save her in the first place? What was the point of saving her if he was going to leave to what ever that "thing" was?! However, Shikamaru coughed importantly.

"Though keeping Sakura here appears to be Troublesome, I do have a solution" he yawned, disinterestedly. Sakura stared at him in disbelief 'Does no one care if I die here?' she angrily thought.

Naruto, ignoring the bored tone, bounced with the anticipation and jarred Kiba and Lee beside him with his pointy elbows.

"What, What?" he jibbered.

Shikamaru patted him on the head condescendingly and raised an eyebrow at Sasuke. Sasuke stared him, analysing him; when Shikamaru jerked his head to the side towards Sakura. Sasuke seemed to consider something.

"Aa" he grunted plainly. Naruto twitched excitedly and squirmed where he stood. After a full minute of silence he could no longer take it.

"What? Why leave out with the knowing looks and superior glances? For Kami's sake tell me what?!" Naruto bellowed, pink faced from the violent exertion.

Sasuke scoffed and ignored Naruto, while Neji gave Naruto a withering look after his "little" outburst. Naruto turned red with embarrassment from being so easily shrugged off. Sakura, who didn't wasn't to see Naruto's face go through the whole colour spectrum, intervened bravely.

"Yes, leave out the insiders' gestures and please do tell"

Shikamaru eyed her lazily. It annoyed Sakura that he didn't remotely care; but then again what did he care if she was annoyed. She took in several deep, calming breathes. Shikamaru yawned rudely- forgetting to cover his mouth and stretched.

"Well the 'Resident' appears to have taken a liking to Sakura," he paused to crack his knuckles "The 'Resident' clearly knows where she is staying. If…"

He paused again and yawned loudly, a few of the men rolled their eyes in exasperation.

"If, we move her- from room to room. The 'Resident' is less likely to find her. Also she will not come near if we are close by"

'She?' wondered Sakura.

"Therefore, Sakura can stay in our rooms alternatively until the "Resident" tires of pursuing her".

Kiba and Lee muttered excitedly then Kiba's face morphed into a lecherous grin. Lee, on the other hand, beamed avidly. He rushed to Sakura's side and bowed deeply.

"Fair Sakura, I offer you my room tonight!"

"Erm… well…." she started, desperately trying to think of an excuse.

"I think it would be suitable for Sakura to stay with Hinata-san tonight" suggested Neji level headedly. Sakura squeezed her eyes shut and clasped her hands, silently thanking him.

"But!" wailed Naruto.

"But, what? Dobe?" Sneered Sasuke. Sakura's brow creased into a frown- did Sasuke have to be so condescending all the time to poor Naruto. Naruto only got a little overexcited; she found it sweet that he had such a passion for life. It looked like the others in the house didn't care about this however; she was starting to see a hierarchical pattern among the men. Though, couldn't place where Lee and Shikamaru went.

Sakura was feeling very analytical today. It didn't seem to be helping her situation, however. She exhaled the breath she hadn't realised she had been holding through her nose loudly. Sakura wanted to move on now, the longer she thought about last night, the longer she would feel depressed.

"Ano, when should I move my stuff?" she queried.

"Don't worry about it, the mai-" started Kiba. He stopped abruptly and glanced guiltily at Hinata. Sakura felt her heart drop, they had given her false hope again.

"Mai- what?" she asked sadly, already knowing the answer.

"We-well…" Hinata twiddled her fingers nervously. Sakura didn't give her time to answer and interrupted a little accusingly.

"You already have a maid don't you?" she couldn't keep the disappointment out of her voice. Despite the fact that Hinata had created the whole roués to make Sakura feel more at home and less in debt.

Hinata began to shuffle her feet, staring at the carpeted floor. Sakura shrugged in Sasuke-esque fashion.

"I don't know how I am ever going to pay you back now" she laughed a little bitterly. They are backing me into a corner with no escape, Neji is my only option now she reflected moodily.

"Let's eat breakfast?" barked Kiba- partly to dispel the thick tension in the air, partly because he was hungry (again).

Everyone nodded wearily and proceeded down the stairs. Sakura trailed her feet sulkily- upset by the morning's events. She was astonished when Sasuke turned around and glowered menacingly at her.

"You are acting like a spoilt child, stropping around like that; are you ungrateful that we saved you or what?" he snapped angrily. She eeped and shock her head furiously. He looked her up and down and stared daggers at her pyjamas

"And put some real clothes on! This isn't a brothel" he scolded sharply.

Sakura, who was both intimidated by him and brought up following the voice of authority spun around on her heel and dashed into her "room" pulling on some fresh (decent) clothes and made her way swiftly downstairs.

She ran into the dining room and skidded to a halt. Sasuke "hmphed" at her from his chair. Sakura took the prompt and scurried over to Hinata, whispering a quick apology in her ear. Hinata was a little surprised but accepted it graciously. Sakura straightened and addressed Hinata in her normal voice.

"Ne, Hinata-chan, if it is alright I would like to skip breakfast and clear my head?"

Hinata nodded, understanding that Sakura was having a particularly tough day. Sakura scampered out the room, trying to avoid eye-contact with the men.

For a while she wondered around the stately house; peering at the old portraits and busts and snooping a look at the books on the shelves. Her meandering path took her to the drawing room with the magnificent ceiling. Sakura lay on her back and stared at it for a good long while. She stared at the lush green vines which curled delicately, enhanced by the subtle gold filigree and the rich, purple grapes. Her eyes moved to the centre and stared at the angels again- so perfect. They were so very beautiful, slender bodies and angular, exotic faces. She stared at the dark eyes one again; she thought that his face, though young held so much knowledge.

It was a little musty in the room but Sakura continued to stare at the ceiling. Her eyes travelled to the other angel- it looked so naïve, more carefree and happy than the other. It looked almost ignorant. The dusty room soon proved too much for her she picked herself up and pushed through the French windows and moved into the garden.

Casually, the green eyed girl made her way across the garden. Her strides were freer and longer than the previous day and soon Sakura stood by her patch of earth- it was clumpy and wet looking. She knelt and crouched over the edge of the tiny garden. Sakura began to methodically turn the cold earth wit her bare hands. The winter soil bit at her fingers but she continued to turn it.

Sakura carefully broke up the solid clumps of earth and dug shallow channels, scraping clods of mud up and down in long straight lines. She was content in her work, not caring that the dirt went under her nails or that she whipped it across her face when she tried to swipe stray hairs from falling into her eyes.

Zetsu watched the girl who didn't seem to care about keeping herself immaculate but tended to the garden with a precious tenderness that he had not seen in years. She had been at it for a while now. Slowly, he crept to his shed as an idea formed. He entered the rickety wooden hut and pocketed a few bulbs then returned to his watching.

"Here" he rasped. Her pink head shot up with surprise.

"Oh, good morning Zetsu-san" she greeted him nervously.

"Here" he repeated monotonously, thrusting a hand forward. Sakura looked at the small wizened bulbs with their gnarled surfaces and reached for them. Carefully she took them.

"What are they?" she softly asked.

"Crocii" he murmured, then turned his back and strolled away. Sakura called after him;

"Thank you!"

She leaned back over her garden and smiled. With much thought she chose the corner nearest the green house for the crocii. That way Zetsu could see them growing from his work station. She couldn't wait to see each little crocus face appear as it bloomed. Sakura wanted to see what colours they would be; she had always been obliged to picking a purple one and slipping it behind her ear.

She wiggled with her index finger dug a round hole in a channel for the first crocus. Cautiously she took a brown bulb and pushed it into the little bed she had dug for it. Sakura folded the earth back over it and patted it down satisfied with her first one. She repeated it until all the bulbs were planted and sat back to admire her work.

"You took a long time to do that" remarked a stoic voice.

"It will be worth it" she replied without looking around. The figure behind her approached and knelt beside her.

"How do you know they will all grow? If any at all?"

"I don't but it's nice to hope isn't it?" she smiled and turned to her new companion. Sasuke "hned" and she smiled placidly at nothing in particular.

"How long had you been watching?"

"Long enough" he answered.

Sakura enjoyed the moment of silence, it was comfortable. Sasuke seemed to appreciate this decision and gazed blankly at the rows and channels that she had spent the morning digging.

"Sasuke…" she whispered. He groaned a little, the moment filed away in his memories as peaceful. His silence invited her to continue.

"I'm sorry about being disrespectful earlier, it wasn't my place. I had no excuse" Sakura apologised simply and sincerely. The silence settled again and the two sat doing and thinking nothing in particular.

"Aa" came his reply.

Crocii: Plural of Crocus, despite what your spell check may say. I learnt it in English language you see, it's a Latin word and the pluralisation does not follow the standard s on the end its ii. Just incase you were wondering.

I know it's late. But the only reason it is up at all is because of my wonderful Beta for my story Front Line (which is totally different to this fic). So if any fans want to be angry be angry at me, if anyone wants to praise the chapter praise Paprika012345 since it would not be up if it wasn't for her.

Pappy, I will try and get a certain someone in the story again (Belongs to one of your favourite pairings) that's how much I love you )

Griggy if you're out there I hope all is well and to speak to you soon!

Thanks to all my reviewers, you have given me immense support and I thank you whole heartedly for it- look at me go mushy. Love Merry xxx

P.S. I figured out what the thing is