Last Hirameki – Chapter X
The Worm Turns
The trip back to the Hidden Village of Lightning was mercifully uneventful. Contrary to Kakashi's repeated notion that it wasn't a nice place, things seemed rather peaceful in the small hours. Sakura made her way through the forest of the Hirameki estate, past a stunning waterfall and a hotpool to the cliff face farther down. She swept over the lovely little village nearby and past a small shopping district and a market which lay quite close to the natural barrier the mountains made around the Raikage's domain.
During the run back at full speed, her breath came out so hard that she made wheezing noises with each exhalation. She pushed herself harder, faster, leaping farther until her chakra was low, burning and wrenching its way through her highway in trickles and spits. Her chest rattled and screamed with each strained pant, and finally, when she could barely continue, her foot slipped. She landed on all fours on the soft, mossy ground beneath the trees, exhausted and bewildered. Ruined, Sakura lay her head down on the ground and cursed quietly to herself.
Hatake Kakashi existed again. He was in sight, in her grasp. She could have stared at him all night if that woman had not called for him in such a familiar way. Aiko's confident voice drifted through the door like she owned the place and him along with it. Hell, maybe she did. He'd even tried to kiss Sakura again like she'd imagined so many times since the first time he kissed her. How she wanted that, yet only an hour before she'd had C's tongue in her mouth. It felt wrong to let him kiss her after that.
And all the while, that woman was creeping up the stairs to his bedroom.
Tsunade should have warned her…
It stung. Like a thorn, it gouged and twisted, infectious. How long had she waited to have this reunion and it was so tainted with his circumstances. She'd almost wished she'd found him bleeding and desperate, wounded after some battle – at least then she would still have a place in his life.
But not now. Now he was gentry, aristocracy, getting married and being a part of high-society. And Aiko would be a beautiful, perfect wife to him, sharing his life, his children and his bed. And still Kakashi had tried to kiss Sakura as his strong body held hers down. It was the worst moment of hope she'd ever had.
All the warnings C had given about Kakashi's behaviour with women, though still hard to believe, seemed to ring true. It was achingly evident that he was a person she didn't know anymore.
"Get up," she whispered to herself. Get up and go on. There was no point wallowing, no point falling apart. He was really and truly gone and it had taken five long, painful years and the last horrid hour to accept that.
Now she could mourn him properly.
The sleepy Hidden Village of Lightning was easy enough to slink through once again disguised as C, and no one questioned her as Sakura walked the stone hallways back to her own room. Even the guards nodded her cloned form in as she sauntered through the door.
Thankfully, C was still lying prone on the bed, snoring like a champ. He hadn't moved an inch.
Quickly, Sakura got redressed in the rumpled black dress she'd worn to the fundraiser. She re-hung her ANBU uniform and couldn't stop herself from pressing her gloves to her nose to smell Kakashi one more time. He was all over them. She'd touched his face and his hair. The scent made her want to turn around and leave again, run back to verify she hadn't imagined him, so she purposefully tossed them on the closet floor and went back to the bed.
She had to be better than this, had to be ready because the shock of Kakashi had made her almost incapacitated.
C didn't make a peep when she slid onto the duvet next to him, closed her eyes, and tried desperately to shut her mind off and sleep.
"Oh, God," C groaned, and then dry-heaved once.
Sakura's eyes popped open in shock. It seemed she had managed to sleep after all and had forgotten that there was a man in her bed. But as her brain awoke, she could smell the scent of alcohol sweat and his stale cologne.
C's hand was shakily covering his red-rimmed eyes and he was breathing heavily, almost huffing. He groaned a few more times and licked his dry lips. Sakura almost felt bad for him because he was in this shape due to her personal agenda – but the more she thought about it, the empty feeling in her stomach had nothing to do with C.
"Are you okay?" she asked gently, her own voice groggy and rough. Definitely not enough sleep.
"No," he whined.
"Do you need some water?"
With great effort, C rolled over to look helplessly at Sakura. His half-mast gaze traced the dress, which was still in place on her body and fully zipped. Then his eyes met hers right before he closed them and groaned again. Was that embarrassment?
"How did I end up here?" he asked weakly and a slight grin threatened to grow across Sakura's face. Best-case scenario was excellent. C didn't remember their brief and pathetic romp before he passed out, and there was absolutely no suspicion in his tone. Sakura 1, Universe 0.
"We were both drunk and you walked me to my room. I think we just fell on the bed and passed out. My head hurts too." She rubbed at her forehead for effect.
"I feel like someone rammed a senbon up my nose into my brain," C upped.
Sakura worked her way to a sitting position and then slid off the big bed; her dress made swishing sounds as she pulled the hem down. "I'm going to grab a shower and get to the patients. If you want, we can meet in the infirmary after you clean up. I'll hook you to an I.V. We should be getting back to work as soon as possible and a hangover won't help."
C grunted something unintelligible and nodded just enough to be perceived. Again, Sakura smiled.
Breakfast was tasteless. The toast was thick and buttery, the eggs creamy and fluffy, and the rice was cooked to perfection. But the few bites Kakashi managed were bland to his palate. Even the coffee tasted wrong.
"Is something the matter, Kazuo?" Isao asked from beside the table as he pulled the half-empty plate to the edge. He stared at Kakashi's bruised cheek with intensity.
"Its fine. I'm not hungry." Kakashi glanced up at the elderly man who was as concerned about him as much as any father would be. "Did your son arrive yet, Isao?"
Immediately, Isao's face melted into a comfortable smile and he nodded once. "Yes! Toshiro arrived last night while your guests were here. He stayed with me in my quarters and is having breakfast there right now.
"Why didn't he have breakfast here with me this morning?"
But just as always when Kakashi tried to blur the line between employee and employer, he could see the stoic gaze cross Isao's face as he picked up the plate and stepped back.
Kakashi was tired of formality. Maybe it was Sakura, or maybe Sato's impending death but he was infinitely tired of being Hirameki Kazuo now. He wanted to read his dirty books in the garden in the big cherry tree with the long limbs. He wanted to be late to whatever ridiculous pompous affair was called for next and to make up outrageous excuses. He'd had "my hakama got caught on the shrubs on the way to the party" tucked in his pocket for ages.
He wanted to fight again. Badly. He wanted the weight of a kunai and the sleek metal of a shuriken between his fingers. The old apartment he left behind smelled better than a thousand gardens or a million perfumed debutantes. And Ichiraku ramen was better than any expensive feast he could possibly have there.
He wanted to smell Sakura's skin after sparring in the training grounds, to live in the scent of weapon oil and her old leather gloves mixed with her sweet shampoo. He wanted to take missions and loaf off and feel the Konoha sun on that small part of his face he would leave exposed while the grass lay cool against his back.
And lastly, right now, he wanted to have breakfast with the man whom he should consider a brother for all the fathering Isao had done to him over the last five years.
"Listen." Kakashi stood up and crossed the space between them to stand right in front of the older man. "Formality is done here. With Sato an invalid, this house is mine to run. Your son will not eat in the guest quarters and neither will you."
"Its not my place…"
"It is your place… more than it is mine."
Sakura slipped through the hallways unhindered. No one she passed seemed to care what she was doing and so she continued on, glancing into the rooms she so often glided by without notice. She crossed by the odd meeting room and an empty office or two. There was a mission assignment station through an outdoor walkway just like there was in Konoha, and at a far double doorway through another, lay the door to the Raikage's office.
When Sakura reached the infirmary down the last hallway, she slipped inside to see her three patients – no different than the day before. The hiss and beep and whine of machines filled the still room but luckily those were the only things stirring. C was obviously going to be incapacitated for a little while, but she assumed that with the lure of an I.V. being such a quick hangover cure, he would not be long. It was important to take advantage of being alone.
As always, the boy was the first one she approached. After a week of being on life support, his body had grown thinner. His skin was pale and his dark hair was limp. It broke her heart to look at him, so young and frail and ready to give up. In the worst way, he sort of reminded her of Sasuke and it made her want to save him all the more. She sat in the chair next to his bed – the same one she sat in everyday.
Kakashi`s voice spoke again in her head.
"If you don't know what sickness it is… You. Then it probably isn't one."
Taking one quick glance toward the door, Sakura turned back and placed her hands on the young boy`s chest.
"I'm so sorry if this hurts," she whispered.
Carefully, she moulded as much of her perfect chakra as she could without killing herself , and then violently blasted it into the boy's body. In the split second before, she worried she'd kill them both, but it was too late to stop. Every ounce of usable chakra she could spare drove from her burning fingers into his highway, disrupting and pushing through him in the fraction of a fleeting second. The force of it was so powerful that it threw Sakura backwards out of the chair to smack against the wall so painfully hard. Her head burst with agony from the impact and tiny glittering stars danced in front of her eyes.
She blinked a few times, trying to refocus on the room, trying to get her bearings when she caught the movement of the boy stirring. A thin hand lifted weakly to his forehead and then he turned his head slowly and gazed at her with wide glassy eyes.
It was the best and worst thing that could have possibly happened.
Of course, right then, the groggy and hungover C strolled in like he usually did, though his hand was shielding his gaze from the harsh fluorescents overhead. But even while enduring a splitting headache, he could easily work out the prequel to the scene before him. His wide eyes went from the boy on the bed to Sakura and back again, his mouth agape.
And as much as she tried to stay lucid, tried to shake the dull kiss at the back of her head, the room uncooperatively dimmed until Sakura felt the darkness come.
It hurt to do, but Sakura managed to awake to mostly silence back in her own bed. Her head was throbbing painfully and when her fingers gingerly probed the back, she found a swollen lump that was excruciating to the touch. When her glazed and unfocused eyes finally opened up, the ceiling of her room swam like liquid plaster above her aching body. This was probably what being hit by lightning felt like – or maybe a speeding bus…
Desperately, she tried to sit up, but it wasn't happening. She felt prone and vulnerable, but her limbs were lead - a ragdoll with no bones.
"Do you need help?" C asked coolly from somewhere she couldn't see.
"Please," she whispered, straining again in hopes that her first attempt had been a fluke and she could do it now. C's warm hand grasped hers and his other slid behind her back, helping her to lurch to a sitting position. When their eyes met, he had a peculiar look on his face – pale and tepid…almost upset.
"What's wrong," she pressed urgently.
"When you can walk, the Raikage expects you in his office."
"The patients…it was a gen-jutsu…"
C nodded, but didn't give her any sort of emotional reaction. Shouldn't he be thrilled? Did he already know?
"I can walk," she breathed out, not entirely sure that was the truth.
"Okay."
C helped Sakura swing her legs over the edge of the bed and she eased up to on her feet. His offer of help was very limited, considering his comfort with touching her the night before, but when Sakura scanned the room, the two guards who were normally outside her door were now on the inside.
Slowly, C's hands slid away from her and she balanced precariously, but stayed upright.
"I'm so sore," she mumbled apologetically. The chakra drain and flying against the wall had wrecked her.
"Understandable." C was vacant. "Let's go."
The first step was agony, but Sakura fought the pins and daggers that lodged in the bottom of her sandals. Her knees shook, but however awkward she moved, at least she didn't need help. Something told her that she would need to appear strong in the next little while.
Yet somehow, the trip to the Raikage's office wasn't unexpected.
The group manoeuvred out into the hallway, and though nothing seemed out of the ordinary, the silence hung around them like a thick scent. To Sakura, the short trip to the Raikage's reception office seemed to go on for miles. She hissed inaudibly when one of the guards nudged her to hurry her up, and it felt like her joints were giving way as they were made her bow at the door before entering.
Sakura was ushered in roughly with a hand on her back that wasn't C's.
Before her, the Raikage filled the room like a menacing statue, hulking and still, fingers laced tightly over the mahogany desk. Every single time Sakura saw him, she was in total awe of how enormous and powerful he appeared, like she'd forgotten. The guards filtered into the room behind her and C had mercifully placed his hand on her arm, half guarding, half holding her up.
Two men, advisors maybe, huddled near where the Raikage sat and they seemed to be in an urgent discussion until C cleared his throat.
"Raikage-sama. Haruno-san is here."
The Raikage's narrowed eyes turned in her direction and he waved a large hand toward the other men, effectively ending their conversation. Slowly, deliberately, he unlaced his fingers and fiddled with a slip of paper that lay there.
"Was there something you wanted from me?" Sakura asked, a touch of fear winding it's way through her limbs.
"Is that the way you address your Kage, Haruno Sakura?" The Raikage quipped with a smattering of anger.
"My Ka - I'm not….n-no Raikage-sama," she managed, confused and suddenly wary. C's hand inexplicably squeezed her arm as she awkwardly bowed.
"C tells me you've solved the issue with the patients. Gen-jutsu. Very smart of you to figure it out. How did you know?"
Sakura's jaw tightened. Was he implying that she discovered their secret? It certainly sounded that way. "I tried everything else, Raikage-sama. It was the only logical conclusion. I acted on that idea as nothing else presented itself."
"Very smart, Haruno. This is why you're so valuable to Konoha."
Sakura bowed again, feeling the strain in her body as it fought to crumple over. "Thank you, Raikage-sama. I'm excited to go back to Konoha now that my work is done. I wondered if I could communicate with my team. It's been days."
The Raikage rose from his desk and worked his way around it slowly, intentionally looming over the tired medic. "No, Haruno. You may not communicate with anyone. You forget yourself."
"I - I'm sorry…?" Her wide green eyes darted to C who looked straight ahead.
"You are seconded to Lightning for thirty days. You've been here eight. For twenty-two more days you are a Lightning shinobi. Do not forget this again."
"But my work is complete…"
C jerked her arm softly in warning, but it was too late. The Raikage was directly in front of her, his hands crossed over his chest. "Your medical work is complete. We'll find other things for you to do." His tone was not kind.
"Please at least let me talk to my squad, give them word…"
"This country is dark at the moment for security purposes. There is no communication in or out. It is not permitted and if you attempt to contact them, we will consider this a direct violation of your orders – as a Lightning shinobi – and you will be charged with sedition. Do you understand?"
Heart racing now, Sakura felt light-headed again as her mouth became like sand. The twinkling precursor to passing out glided around happily in her periphery, but she breathed through it the best she could. All she could think to say was, "Of course, Raikage-sama. I understand."
C pulled her a little closer and tried to turn her to leave, but the Raikage raised his hand. "There's been a letter from the Daimyo, but you were probably expecting this, Haruno."
Again C's grasp squeezed and Sakura heard the warning in the Raikage's voice. The man certainly had no compunctions about letting the anger seep into his face. "You must have some very powerful friends, Haruno. The Daimyo has requested you visit his palace for a few days."
"We had a nice conversation at the blossom viewing party and he had invited me then. I'm sure he's just extending the invitation formally." Sakura was shaking from the effort of staying still and her eyes were losing focus.
"I'll send your regrets…" The Raikage turned on his heel and wandered back to sit down at his desk, but his advisor leaned in and whispered something, being joined also by the other advisor. They conversed for a moment and then the Raikage nodded and gave his attention back to the trembling medic. "On second thought, I think you will attend. I'll arrange your escort."
Sakura glanced at her companion. "C-san…"
"No." The Raikage's eyes finally landed on C. "He's absolved of taking care of you. I'll assign new escort. And C…" His gaze grew intent. "Get her a uniform and a soldier pill. She leaves in an hour."
"Of course, Raikage-sama," C said evenly, and then bowed. Sakura bowed again too knowing it was expected, her joints fighting and screaming. Then almost roughly, C spun them around and dragged her out the door.
"Hey, wait…" Sakura pleaded breathily, ready to drop. "C…!"
But his steps were fast and his mouth was shut as he pulled her bodily down the hallway. However, when they turned the first corner, an unexpected sight met them.
Thumping and banging filled the corridor – so loud like a full on war was going on. Sakura shuffled closer to see at least five people scuffling around, shouting, growling, lurching up against the wall. Guards like the ones by her room throttled around with a prisoner, lifting and heaving until everyone was steady on their feet. One of the other guards had received a bloody nose for his trouble and a second was limping. But it was the prisoner who was the most shocking, right from her raspberry mop of hair to her golden eyes. Sakura remembered her because they'd crossed paths often over the years and spoken at least a dozen or so times.
"Karui!" she blurted out, trying to get out of C's grasp.
At the sound of Sakura's voice, everyone stopped and looked at her. The tight fingers on her bicep tugged her backward.
"Karui…!" she said again, straining at C's hold to try and get closer.
"Haruno Sakura! I knew it! I said you were helping them," Karui bit back before the three men who were still holding her dragged her backwards.
"Wait! Karui? Said to who? What the Hell is going on!?"
The heavy hand of the remaining guard wrench her other arm nearly out of its socket and together he and C dragged her backward down the hallway until the two groups couldn't see each other anymore.
"Piss off," the guard growled. "This isn't your business."
"I've got her," C bit out.
"Then get going."
Sakura was jerked away again with no control, but the anger of the encounter burned her from the inside out. Karui? A prisoner? It didn't make sense. But the whole conversation with C about the rogue ninja was coming back. Perhaps Karui was recruited by the enemy as C had mentioned, but for as long as she could remember, C and Karui had been fairly close – though a bit of a love-hate relationship to say the least with their constant bickering.
"C…it's Karui! C, what's happening…?"
"Don't ask questions," he growled.
"But it's…"
"I said don't!" he shouted.
The world was turning upside down and she was falling off the edge. The thoughts in her head began to swim together with the pain increased with every step. It was too much for her now, all the twists and turns in the last hour and the state of her body. A flash of heat rose through her like fire before she felt her knees hit the stone floor followed quickly by her cheek.
Sakura's new boots were strangely heavy and the single shouldered vest was awkward but tight on her frame. She looked like another person in that foreign uniform with her hair tied back as instructed.
They obviously had plans for her that she had not quite figured out, but sad fact was Naruto had all but signed her over to them, albeit reluctantly, for thirty days. She would not be able to disobey in that time lest she be punished at their discretion. They were completely in their rights to deal with her as one of their own. Her only solace, only comfort was that the Daimyo seemed to be in Kakashi's pocket and they were working to get her away from the centre of it all.
That posed another problem. Kakashi was indeed Kakashi and she wasn't the only person who had decided that. It was sadly apparent that her presence in Lightning was due to his presence in Lightning. They would use her against him. And just as she had promised herself not to become, Sakura was now a pawn and she had no choice in the matter. He was going to be in danger just as much as she was and Lightning had turned out to be a different animal than she had always thought.
The reality as it stood now was that as much as everything about Kakashi was hurting her, she would give her life to protect him.
C nodded from her doorway and his eyes roved her new uniform. He looked blank and indifferent. Who was he really? How had the person so attracted to her yesterday, so sweet and friendly had become so cold and judgemental today?
"You will have to attend briefing before you leave for the Daimyo's palace."
Sakura screwed up her face. "What sort of briefing?"
"This is an information gathering and relation building mission for you. They'll just instruct you on what they expect of you, which is to stay out of trouble, stay within sight of your escort and say nothing. Two other shinobi from our ANBU section will accompany you. I shouldn't tell you this, but they'll be watching everything you do and if anything is slightly suspicious, you'll be arrested and returned for a trial. No one trusts you." C's remarks were matter of fact.
"What?! Why? And why have you turned on me?" she asked incredulously.
"Because I know I didn't leave this room last night, yet apparently I was wandering around the building." He glanced at her with the first touch of hate she'd ever seen on his face. "I don't like being made a fool of, Sakura. And because of your recklessness you are now watched by people who are just hoping for a mistake. I was your only friend here."
Sakura bit her lip. "C…I'm sorry…"
He shook his head. "Too late for that now. Take your soldier pill and let's go."
Sorry, short one. Much more Kakasaku in the next.