Summary- In the natural scheme of things, the dead stay dead. But in the world of ninjas, nothing's for certain anymore. Sasu/Saku.
&the standard disclaimer is rightfully applied.
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chapter xi
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March 19
Location- Sound
The ship rocked, swayed, creaked, and groaned the whole way there. If there were ever a time when Sakura could get sea sick, it was on that godforsaken boat. But she had been better off than Karin, who couldn't eat anything for the three days they were on the boat. Sakura had just hidden out in a corner in the hull as close to the front as possible; around the foremast sometimes, but the sailors kept moving her out of the way.
"Hey, Sakura, ahoy! Land ho!" Suigetsu called from along the side of the ship, waving a hand over his head to catch her attention.
She threw off the smelly, gray wool blanket one of the sailors lent her onto a wooden crate and marched up to the deck. The chipped railings didn't help the journey upwards much, though. Waves crashed against all the ship's sides, sending it back and forth, back and forth. It was like none of the ocean wanted to carry the rickety piece of dry rotted wood either. To think anyone would ride this thing, Sakura wondered.
Gripping the end of the railing, she climbed the last stair and jogged to the side where Suigetsu was, with the help of the boat's swaying. He sat on the ledge and she traced his arm all the way to his finger, pointing off to the speck of green on the horizon.
"Finally," she couldn't help but mutter under her breath.
Suigetsu's chest shook as he laughed. He caught her eyes with a sideways grin and winked. "But I think Karin beats you, as far as wanting to get on land."
Sakura judged the distance of the blue waves. "Yeah, I'd think so."
Another half an hour and they docked in Sound. Children scuttled around the cramped hallways, sailors loaded up their arms with luggage and barrels and nets, and it was all but too easy to get off unnoticed. People were growing more and more unobservant every day; it was a wonder how anyone got caught.
Sakura eyed the docking area with distaste. Water splashed around her ankles as she wandered behind Juugo. Before, she would've thought that most anywhere, people looked at her. Blending in with a crowd was one of the hardest things she had to do as a ninja. That's why she was always the one to distract a crowd. With bright pink hair, if she made the effort to be loud, she could attention easier than anyone.
Suigetsu loitered around casually, his massive sword hanging behind his back. Sasuke was still clearly armed. And not so much as one lousy glance was spared in their direction.
Looking over his shoulder, Juugo interrupted her thought. His low murmur was hard to hear over the crowd. "Looking for someone?"
Sakura shook her head. "No. It's just I've always wondered how ninjas in the bingo book travel with so many people around. But I think you'd have to parade with a banner and a trumpet to get someone's attention here."
Juugo slowed his pace down to walk beside her. His stride was still twice as long as hers. A small grin edged the corners of his lips up as he looked down to answer, "As big of a deal the bingo book is to the ninja villages, people in general –especially civilians- just don't care. If you mind your own business, they don't consider you a threat. They don't notice enough to usually even see us."
Her eyebrows rose and Juugo shifted his eyes away from hers. Quietly, he continued with, "And you know, some of the leaders in the villages are paid off. Not to report certain people, or sometimes any of the visitors at all."
The edge of the docking lot was drawing closer and Sakura leaned in her head. "But –but why would anyone accept the money? It could endanger the villagers, not to mention lead to political disputes. They could start a war with that kind of thing, depending on the consequences. Why risk all that just for money?"
He laughed at himself, a low, sharp chuckle that she couldn't hear well over the noise. His bright, yellow eyes look downwards at the top of her pink head without some of the shyness that was normal. "Not everyone is as honest as you are, Sakura. Not everyone puts little thought into money."
Sakura shook her head. "But that would mean the records for the ships, the visitors, the papers –all of it's wrong. What if a war were to break out, no one could track the ones wandering in and out of countries."
"Why would lying politicians care about honesty, Sakura?"
"Yeah, but…" Trailing off, Sakura look ahead, gravel crunching loudly under her heels. They were somewhere in the middle of the crowd going into… into town. "Hey, are we… are we staying in town tonight?" Three full days of traveling left them at sundown already. There probably wouldn't be any rooms left; civilians wouldn't travel the night.
Karin snorted in front of her. "If room is what you're concerned about, what innkeeper turns away a group of ninjas?"
Sakura let her eyebrows rise at that.
Dusty gray rain clouds covered the waxing moon, hanging low into the city. Sakura sat on the ledge of the window sill and looked out into the street. Cramped inns crowded the sides of the road; sheets hung out of the windows and random lights shone out of the rooms.
Their own light was turned off. One room with five people left little space to occupy –Suigetsu was sprawled out on the single bed, while Karin lay on the bed as far away from Suigetsu as possible. Juugo was a heap on the faded, worn chair in the corner; and Sasuke casually sat against the wall, his sword in between his legs and lying against his chest.
With a small sigh, Sakura leaned her head back and closed her eyes. The air was strangely hot from the confined quarters, stuffy and humid. She brought her other leg up to rest on the window sill and let her head fall against the window pane. It was well past midnight and most of the lights had all been turned off by now. Her eyes watched the lengthening shadows; she looked up as one bent and curved to the right.
Ninjas. They lined the tops of the building while they crept overhead. Several of them, and without any headbands glinting in the light. One by one, each jumped over the series of inns and disappeared from view.
A frown pulled on her mouth as sleep found its way to her. Sound wasn't a ninja country anymore, not since they lost their leader. Since when did they have enough for an army?
Six hours later, Sakura woke up from the tapping of the rain on the window. Water drops running down the glass blurred the image of the streets, and the rain clouds were low across the ground. A few lights were on in the inn opposite from them, shining blearily in the downpour.
The cold rain had half-frozen her cheek and Sakura pulled away from the window to sit against the wall on the carpet. She could hear Suigetsu snoring lightly. Karin and Juugo were still asleep, but as Sakura leaned up from the corner, she noticed the empty spot by the door. Sasuke had taken his sword, too, apparently. Pushing with the heels of her hands, she stood up and rounded the bed to the door. She hesitated as she held her hand above the doorknob.
Shaking her head, Sakura opened the door slowly, listening for the hinges to creak, and leaned out the doorway. She got about half her body outside the room when Sasuke turned around the corner, padding silently down the halls. Looking fairly drenched, Sakura noted as she listened to the rain pour on the roof of the building.
He stopped the breadth of a hair in front of her, water dripping off his bangs and onto the floor. A fine, dark eyebrow rose as he looked at her and shifted her inside with his left hand. Sasuke slid around the door after her and closed it, dropping a bag to the floor and muttering under his breath the same jutsu from before to dry off.
"Sneaking off, are we?" Sakura whispered, eyeing the bag on the floor. Her eyes traced his movements as Sasuke leant down to pick it back up. He straightened and thrust it into her arms.
"Hardly. It's yours."
She hummed in a response while gingerly opening the bag. Sasuke stood leaning on the cabinet with his arms folded across his chest, watching her rifle through the bag and pull out jars and tapes.
"You bought me medical supplies."
Sakura stood staring at the different contents of the bag; vials, herbs, even an ointment for burns, too.
"I think that's obvious, Sakura," his voice dry with sarcasm and boredom, but soft in comparison to the rain.
She threw a look at him and continued sorting until she pulled out an herb. "Yes, Sasuke. But you bought me medical supplies." Sakura paused and slipped the medical tape into her right pocket. "You also bought me exactly what's in the anti-venom I used on Juugo. How do you know so much about medicine, Sasuke?"
The gray light from the sunrise slanted into the room and she couldn't help but think Sasuke looked like a ghost in the dim lighting as he stood there silent. His sharp, angular features hadn't changed; neither had his posture, Sakura thought, looking at his hands firmly stuffed into his pockets.
He didn't answer and she restarted, "Kabuto's making the poison, isn't he?"
Sasuke looked up from the floor and raised his head. "What makes you think that?"
"I don't know, how else would you know what to buy?" Briefly, Sakura wondered if he knew quite a lot from being around Kabuto for so long.
The rain picked up and muffled his words as he said, "But that doesn't mean he's making them, just that he might have made it before. He's supposed to be dead, remember."
Sakura laughed and glanced down at the jar in her hand, fingering the white seal. "Lots of people are supposed to be dead; that doesn't mean they are. And replicating a poison –a good one- is difficult. I don't think just anyone could. And what medic ninja would have the same exposure to poisonous snakes as he does?"
She licked her lips and look back at Sasuke, adding in low murmur, "Besides, I bet you know very well if he's alive or not."
The corner of Sasuke's lip curved upwards as he didn't answer. Pushing off the wall, he shrugged. "I'm only concerned about one person being alive or not, Sakura."
"But what will you do when your only concern is over?" His eyes took on a different expression, one she couldn't quite name, but just… guarded. "What matters then?"
She watched the dark hair of his bangs fall on the side of his face as he titled his head. His voice was flat, sardonic. "Don't tell me to go back to Konoha, Sakura."
Her eyebrows pulled together, wrinkling her forehead. "That's not what I said."
"That's what you were getting at."
Anger put a spike into her heartbeat. Her mouth fell into a thin line and she sighed. "No, it wasn't. In case you've forgotten, Sasuke, I can't even go back to Konoha right now." She set the plastic bag onto the nightstand and glared at the door. "But just because you don't want to think about it doesn't mean you won't have to make a decision eventually."
Hesitantly, she looked away from the door and shrugged. "I know what you're doing now; what will you do later?"
Sasuke planted his hands behind him on the cabinet and frowned. "And what are you going to do when it's over, Sakura?"
Sakura snapped her head back toward his and blinked. Of course he was just being sarcastic, but he was really asking her. And the more she thought about it, she didn't have an answer. What was left? "…I don't know."
"It's not so easy, is it?" Sasuke kept his eyes on her face, studying her expression while she looked away.
Pursing her lips, Sakura figured he might have felt like that before, at least once. She stared at the floor and began answering his question slowly; what would be the first thing to do? "Well," she paused, and then fought the strange smile on her face, "I think I should stop being legally dead, for starters."
Sasuke angled his gaze back to hers in silence. "Then maybe I'll try to break whatever amnesia jutsu I have. So I can remember what happened. Then… then, who knows?" Sakura bit the inside of her lip and averted her eyes back to Sasuke. "Nothing's ever set in stone… Maybe under the right circumstances, the Council would let a missing ninja come back. You never know."
His look was doubtful, but he didn't say anything as he moved across the room and woke the others up.
a/n.
This one's shorter (only 25 hundred w.), but I wanted to end there, so it didn't turn out as long; it's really only a transition kind of chapter, anyway (plus, I needed another scene with Sasuke and Sakura. :P). But I'll be updating again within a week; it'll be much longer, too. And this is a rough estimate because I'm not sure if things will go quite that quickly, but I'm thinking only three chapters are left. Depending how I write it, maybe five. I'm not sure yet.
review, lovely reviewers! :D and thanks to all the reviews I have gotten for the story; I very much appreciate it.