Chapter 10
I.
Sakura recently got some new information regarding this world and everyone around it. She begin to jot down useful information that would matter to her. So she made a list.
INFORMATION THAT POSSIBLY COULD NOT GET ME KILLED
1. It seems that in this world, everybody is a shinobi. Skills of a Ninja. So if I don't want to get killed, I better learn some jutsu.
2. Well, it seems like it's too late for me to start being a ninja. Apparently it's a skill that needs years of training.
3. Also I am trapped within the walls of Hyuuga forever. I still don't know why I am here.
4. Why is it that I don't know what am I supposed to steal or take? That bastard sent me here for nothing?
5. Regarding the book of immortality, if everyone firmly believe that it exist, it probably is.
6. But it is definitely not in the Hyuuga Household.
Up until here, Sakura looked over her list. She wrote it in English with a brush and ink. The kind that could only be seen in movies. Apparently in this world when she opens her mouth she could speak Japanese. But back in her own world, she predominately speaks English because... it's the way of the world.
So there is no need for anyone to read this list. Because nobody other than her could. But this list means she's getting nowhere. Seriously, without any power of any sort, she could only stay here as a sitting duck.
On another note, she is illustrating the basic designs for a automatic logger. Recently she's banned from kitchen duty, so the duty of splitting up logs falls on her. At first she was confident, because she has camped and went on summer vacations in the mountains, she was confident in her ability to split up a couple of logs.
Boy was she wrong.
It was entirely a different thing over here, because over here, she starts with a round log. It's usually the diameter from her forearm to the tip of her fingers. It takes a lot of her just to carry one onto a cart, let alone start chopping them to bits.
So when she saw the gigantic rounds of logs she just stared, and gulped, then asked very carefully, "Couldn't we just burn them?"
"Silly girl, they wouldn't fit!" Ari laughed while patted her on the back, "you said you're so good at it, be my guest!"
She left, leaving poor Sakura in the yard with a cart full of round logs and a small axe. Because she couldn't even lift up the bigger one. She tried chopping up logs over here, but the splinters almost blinded Hisaki, the old butler of the house, so he ordered Sakura to go somewhere else and chop them.
With some very sad Korean drama background music, she could act as a poor slave girl, dragging a cartful of logs to the edge of the compound, where the huge yard and the vegetable garden was.
Neji was practicing his ninjutsu there, when Sakura walked in on him. At first she was beyond terrified, because she has never seen a powerful move that could shake the walls. It was until Neji finished his basic training he turned to her and frowned. "What are you doing here?"
He stood there in complete white, and his hair tied loosely down his back with his cold eyes and breeze in the wind...
Sakura was a little mesmerized by his face, but she quickly shook her head and said, "that was pretty good."
Neji thought it was a contempt comment, because he knew she spent time with Uchiha Sasuke. So he made a single syllable "hm" from his nose and turned away.
The pink haired girl refused to be ignored. She cleared her throat and said, "It's pretty impressive to be chopping up dummies with your hand, but could you do it with... logs?!"
Neji turned around to look at her in confusion.
"Here." Sakura lifted the logs from her cart and carried them and lined them up in a single file row in front of Neji. "Can you chop each of them in six pieces in one move?"
Honestly Neji practiced ninjutsu for battle and self defence. Such a strange request poses a challenge for him that he has never done before. He felt a little excited as he nodded and said, "I'll try."
"Eight Trigram Vacuum Palm!"
And to both of their surprise, the logs split into eight halves individually, leaving a pile of logs that is directly symmetrical to one anther in a perfect slicing motion. Sakura clapped her hand and jumped up and down, "Neji, you are so cool!"
He narrowed his eyes at her.
She quickly gathered the logs and put them in the cart while Neji suddenly said, "You don't have to do that, I'll have someone dispose it for you."
Sakura almost melted with affection. Awww, it turns out this head of the house is actually kind. He pities her when she does work that is beyond her ability. But the heck, if she doesn't return these logs none of them will have any food for dinner. So she turned and smiled at him, "Thank you so much, but I can do this!"
She then dragged the cart full of perfect sliced logs back to the kitchen while Neji stood in the yard contemplating over her behaviour.
When Ari saw the logs she was astonished.
"You weren't kidding when you said you are good at chopping firewood." She gasped.
Sakura had no humility. "Of course! Hahaha!"
"Ok, then from now on, you're in charge of this!" Ari clapped on Sakura's back.
"What?" Sakura blinked, "Uh, does the young master, I mean, Hyuuga-san, practice ninjutsu everyday?"
"Of course. Each morning." Ari blinked.
"Then let me be in charge! I am the master of fire!" Sakura said.
That day, when she was eating dinner, Neji went into her room.
He frowned upon the piece of paper scribbled with weird letters and symbols, then he looked over a book lying on Sakura's desk, and the cover reads, "HOW TO WRITE JAPANESE-CHILDREN'S EDITION".
He opened it, and saw the list of words Sakura tried to learn, which is the basic and the simplest symbols such as "people", "mountain", "one", "two", "three"...
Thus he determined, not only is she suffering from post-traumatic memory loss, she also became illiterate.
The next day when Neji went to for his morning routine, he saw Sakura waiting for him with another cart full of logs.
Before he spoke, Sakura said, "Neji-san, I know that you were awesome yesterday at chopping logs, but what about chopping them all at the same time!?"
She laid them down one by one, and Neji felt a little bad, having her doing all that. Sakura shook her head and said, "Let's see if you are powerful enough to do that."
He stood there and said, "If I do them all at once, the best way would be to... use gentle palm."
"Ok." She said.
Neji said to her, "you have to get behind me."
Little did he know he's going to say that many many times to her after.
She quickly scurried behind him while containing a few giggles.
He calmed down and held his chakra within himself, and when he opened his eyes, he sent a series of chakra waves across from his palms and and chopped all the logs into perfect pieces.
This took a bite out of chakra reserve, but he's happy that he has done it, so he smiled a little when Sakura clapped enthusiastically, "You are the best! Neji-san, not even Uchiha Sasuke can beat you!"
Neji raised an eyebrow. "You don't remember him?"
She shrugged while picking up the logs, "well, supposably I am married to him, but honestly I don't remember anything that has happened, and personally I think he's a bit scary and mean. So I don't really care about him."
Neji stood there and stared at her. He wasn't close to her when she was a child, but when they were all young, he remembered there was a group of girls always chasing around the stoic blacked haired boy. This girl was one of them, and she was so absolutely insistent upon marrying him she that she gave everything to him...
Then he was snapped back out of his memory when Sakura clumsily tried to pickup a bunch of logs at the same time but failed. He quickly walked up, "let me help you."
That was the moment when Neji upgraded from a punk ass cold bastard to a warm and affectionate while unicorn like creature in Sakura's eyes.
II.
Neji told everyone at the family meeting that he must go on a journey to the jounin Exam in the Kumogakure in representation of one of the four great family in Land of Fire. And to do this, he must bring a few people with him to make travelling easier, and also not to loose too much face when facing the Raikage.
He picked to bring the butler, a cook, a few henchmen, and also Naruto and Shikamaru. Although the last two technically isn't part of his family, but they were going to go to Kumo anyways, so they all might as well travel together.
He decided to deliver this news to the staffs in person, because they leave the day after tomorrow.
In the kitchen, Ari was praising Sakura from top to bottom. She told everyone how great Sakura is at chopping up logs, and how perfect the cuts were that all logs were practically the same size. There was no splinters at all and they stack together nicely. Sakura ate noodle soup while listening to Ari's praise. At last she said, "Sakura-chan, I think you're doing such a nice job that I should tell our young master just for the heck of it. I bet he will be so pleased with your progress, and also he won't think you're useless."
Sakura nodded while drinking soup, "yep yep." Then she thought about it, "He thinks I'm useless!?" She raised her voice and accused.
Ari laughed a little "Well not entirely, oh look here he comes."
Indeed here comes Neji with his white robe and black hair all flowing in the wind. It all romanticized itself in Sakura's mind, because forgave her, she has been without a man for too long. But through all these fantasizing, Neji walked close and opened his mouth. Ari cut him short and quickly dragged Sakura in front of him, "Neji-sama! Did you know, Sakura-chan is incredibly excellent with chopping up wood-"
Sakura had the sense to stop fantasizing and yelled, "Stop, stop stop-"
"-And she hauled back cart after cart of pieces of perfectly cut logs into the kitchen ever since last week, and I daresay we have enough wood for the winter!"
Sakura could literally see the colour on Neji's face turning from confusion, then astonishment, then annoyance, and finally anger. He turned to her and bit out, "you used my ninjutsu to chop firewood?"
Sakura quickly said, "because you're practicing anways, I just think it's convenient..."
"The way of a shinobi is not to do chores!" Neji scolded harshly.
She grumbled something similar to, "...it's not like we're at war..."
Neji breathed in and out to calm himself down, and then he turned to Ari and said, "Ari-san, we're going to travel to Kumogakure very soon. You need to pack, also Haruno, you're coming with us."
Then he turned around and walk directly back to his quarters without sparing another glance at the two of them.
"What's gotten into him?" Ari asked Sakura worriedly.
Sakura cleared her throat, "I think he's having a tantrum."
This reached Neji's ears, because he did not walk that far away yet. He pulsed a little before making walking briskly back while fuming.
III.
Sakura was packing that night around the room while the Kyuubi lie on her bed comfortably and eating a peeled peach that Sakura peeled especially for him. At first Sakura was reluctant, but Kyuubi sharpened his claws and opened his wide mouth. Sakura immediately picked up a knife and started peeling.
He has the funniest way of eating a peach. First he lick the entire thing before its juices drips on his furs, and then he put it within his paws and slowly such the juices bit by bit. Sakura craves peaches just by looking at him. However she couldn't only get one from the kitchen, it was not peach season.
She shoved some of her clothing into her small bundle, and decided to burn what she wrote. Except she kept her Japanese exercise book, she plans to continue on learning some Japanese so she wouldn't be illiterate.
"Kurama, I think my Japanese is getting better." Sakura said to him, "Look at these words, I can memorize them."
Kyuubi rolled his eyes while softly slapping away her hands holding her exercise book while inching closer to him. "Get away from me, I heard stupidity is infectious."
"I am not stupid!" Sakura insisted.
"Whatever." He said, "I would never understand why someone would chase Uchiha Sasuke so persistently."
"I chased him?" Sakura asked in surprised.
Kurama cleared his throat, "In a race. You used to love to train... running and fitness ... whatnot, against him."
"Oh." Sakura said, folding her book back and said, "I think this book is helping me a lot..."
"Where did you find it?"
"Beside Konoha Academy garbage bin."
"Woman, have you no shame?"
"... Why? Learning is a noble exercise in itself."
"Indeed it is." A deep voice appeared in front of them.
Uchiha Sasuke, in all his glory.
Sakura yelped and threw the book at him. He caught it and flipped through a couple of pages and chuckled at her writing. Then he raised his head and stared right at Kurama, "you're not needed here for now, leave."
The fox gulped down the entire peach and shrugged before going through the windows.
Sakura gasped before quickly scrambled off the bed and closed all windows and doors shut.
"What are you doing?" Sasuke tilted his eyebrow and asked.
Sakura quickly replied, "Are you crazy? Barging in here without a warning! They could've killed you!"
He chuckled, "they won't know."
She turned around and stared right at the stunningly beautiful man in black robe and a white silk belt tied on his waist. His entire aura emit a dangerous and dark kind of beauty, as if a single defying action could be the death of whoever dared to oppose him. He reminded Sakura of a dominant in a SM relationship, and she shuddered when she thought of that. She knew that Sasuke has the tendency to kill and torture people, and so she decided to play it very safe.
"Uchiha-sama." She whispered.
Sasuke raised an eyebrow. "Yes?"
"I, um. Tried. But I can't find anything regarding that manual." She gulped before answering.
"I see. You haven't heard any rumours of it then?" Sasuke asked softly while walking towards her.
"Not a lot." She whispered, "Just the fact that it's a book of immortality... I think forever young... that think actually exists?"
Sasuke smiled a little before cornering her against a wall and twirled a strand of hair in between his fingers. "Tell me what you think about this... honestly."
Sakura thought for a few seconds before deciding that perhaps it really is better to tell the truth, "Well, I think.. I think immortality is just ... impossible. Also it's evil, so I wouldn't advise you to go for it."
"Why?" He asked with an interest.
Sakura felt a chill in her heart no matter when he played with her hair, "Well, I just think, immortality does not mean eternal youth. Would you still enjoy long life when you become a shriveled skin of a being?"
He tilted he head back and laughed.
Sakura wanted to tell him to be quiet, but is scared to, so she quickly looked around and hoped her room is sound proof.
"Sakura." He stopped laughing and ran his fingers through her hair, "Dear Sakura... you are not stupid."
"I am." Sakura admit it, because she could feel his breath on her face. And against life and death, she could not bring herself to fantasizing about this man, regardless of how handsome he is.
"There's something that guarantees eternal youth." He hugged her within his embrace while lowering one hand on her lower back and the other within her hair, "There's something... that proves to be effective against nature, against old age, and sickness."
"Wha...what is it?" She while burying her head against his shoulders.
"It's a spring. A fountain of youth, as you might say. But it wasn't born out of nature, it was created in a lab. There's only three vile of it, and Orochimaru used two of them. The third one was lost-but it resurfaced recently..."
He trailed off, and Sakura felt a chill up her spine, and she cleared her throat and asked, "Well...?"
His velvet like voice dripped into her ear, "Your job, is to get these two items."
She wants to faint.
Sasuke chuckled at her stiffed body, "Well?"
"You over estimate my ability, Uchiha-sama." She quivered.
"Why? You're a clever girl." He took her arm and folded her sleeve up gently and tapped on her forearm. "Look at this."
Sakura almost screamed, because there seems to be dark spots forming on the inside of her elbow. It looked like bruises, but without the green and redness.
Then the great Uchiha prodigy concluded, "It does not matter what your goal is, anyone could strive for it when your life is dependent on it. Use anything necessary to get that information, Sakura. Anything."
She almost cried, "but I'm leaving soon, we're going to Kumogakure."
He laughed before gently kissing her forehead, "why do you think these Konoha idiots venturing over there for?"
Sakura looked up in surprise, and he already disappeared.
She touched her forehead, and felt the warmth where his lips had been.
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A/N: There, some Sasuke action.