Chapter TWENTY FIVE
By 'far', Gaara had meant the border of Fire country, possibly over it.
However, Sasori seemed to have other ideas.
Gaara scowled but wordlessly dropped them off at the edge of the Forest of Death.
If Orochimaru was even a little bit intelligent, he would have made his escape as quickly as he could. He was fully paralyzed, but Gaara doubted he had charged in unprepared. Even if the Snake still had things left to do in Konoha, he would have at least pulled away from the Forest of Death.
They hovered over the border until the sun had begun to set. Sasori had quietly said that they would depart the moment night came, simply because after events like this, patrols were sent out to scout under protocol.
"Are you sure he will come?" Gaara asked. His eyes scanned the distance. He wasn't used to feeling as tired as he was and he couldn't bring himself to form his third eye. He wasn't worried, thought. All three of them were still pretty sensitive form the previous battle and he was sure one of the would notice if something happened.
Sasori nodded.
Sure enough, just as the orange sun had become nothing more than a faint strip over the borderline, Itachi appeared in a flurry of crows.
Sasori stood up from where had been sitting on the ground, fiddling with a puppet, and with a single hand gesture, he led the Uchiha off into the trees.
Gaara felt eyes on him and turned to look at Sakura who blinked at him. "What did you think?" She asked.
"About?" Gaara plopped down on the floor beside her. "The exams or the snake?"
"Both." Sakura reached out and absentmindedly ran a hand through Gaara's red hair.
"None of the Genin are worthy of becoming Chunin." Gaara replied, tone sure.
"But we didn't finish watching the whole of the exams." Sakura said. "The preliminaries were to start after five days." She paused. "That will be today, no?"
"So we missed the chance to watch a bunch of kids try to kill each other." Gaara sighed. "I was looking forward to that."
Sakura let out a soft hum and leaned her head on his shoulder. Gaara curved his neck to tuck her head into the crook of his neck. "Remember what he said at the end?" He asked softly.
He felt Sakura stiffen but wrapped an arm around her waist to stop her from pulling away.
Sakura let out a soft sound of affirmation. "Of course." She said.
"Do you think it was him?" He asked quietly.
"Perhaps." Sakura let out a shaky sigh. "He seemed to know about it, at least."
"Yeah." Gaara took a deep breath. "Sasori could tell." He said.
"He could." Sakura agreed. "And Itachi-san is here too."
"What do you think we're going to do now?"
Sakura raised her head and looked at where Sasori had vanished off to with Itachi. "Whatever he is going to do." She said.
Gaara smirked a little. "Right."
"Did you catch him?" Sasori asked, though he knew that the man had gotten away.
"No, all we found was a mud clone." Itachi replied, equally aware that Sasori knew.
"Hm." Deciding that they were far enough, Sasori stopped walking. Itachi does the same a second later.
"He brought it up." The Puppet Master said quietly. "When you saved them."
Itachi narrowed his eyes. "I had my suspicions." He said quietly. "The men sent weren't exactly discreet."
Sasori nodded. "What worries me is how they disabled Sakura's sand." He narrowed his eyes and fixed his gaze on Itachi. "I take it you know?"
Itachi met his gaze. "All I could tell was that it was a wave of sorts that disrupted the magnetic control."
"It was a planned assault." Sasori said. "Orochimaru was behind it and he threatened to go after them again."
Itachi did not speak.
Sasori sighed. "What do you plan to do now?" He asked. "Or better, what do you want us to do?"
"Orochimaru's exit from the Fire country has not been confirmed." Itachi said. "While I doubt he can be tracked if he does not want to be found, I also do not think he would have entered Konoha just to go after my brother."
"You think he has more planned."
Itachi nodded.
"And?" Sasori asked. "What do you want us to do?"
Itachi opened his mouth, only to close it again.
Sasori rolled his eyes and let a lazy smirk grace his lips. "Well, seeing how incompetent your shinobi are, I guess I cannot just leave you." He pulled his lips back in the beginning of a snarl. "And I have things I want to say to the Snake."
Shisui was both relieved and horrified when Itachi returned with a scroll that summoned a pile of sand that turned into the three missing nin he had come to know over the past few days.
"You're okay!" Shisui exclaimed. "Well, there were no signs on heavy injury and Tachi said that you were but I dunno, I was still worried."
Gaara snorted. "As if a single snake can land a scratch on us."
Shisui roughly ruffled his hair. Gaara let out an indignant yelp and pulled away. "The whole village is on look out for suspicious people so I have no idea why you're back." Shisui grinned then hugged Sakura before she too could step back. "But really, I'm so glad you're alright." He grinned suggestively at Sasori who had whipped out a poison dipped kunai to guard himself from acts of affection.
"They will be staying here for the remainder of the Chunin exams." Itachi said.
Shisui blinked at the heir, who was rolling out the futon, and his eyes widened. "What?"
Itachi turned to him. "It is just as I have said."
"Wait." Shisui rushed over to his cousin. "Wait, hang on, do you understand what exactly is going on? The whole entire village is on the lookout for a S-class missing nin! Sasori-chan and his minions will-"
"Not get caught." Sasori tilted his head in the most superior manner and eyed the Uchiha.
"The village is worried about Orochimaru to the point no one will notice." Itachi said dismissively. "And they know not to get caught."
"And if we do, you two had nothing to do with this." Sasori added.
"I want to see who makes Chunin." Sakura said.
Gaara rolled his eyes. "I doubt anyone will. They all suck."
"They do." Sasori agreed.
Shisui looked helplessly between Itachi, who was patting down the pillow, his perfectionist side coming out, Sasori, who was for once agreeing with Gaara about the low skill level of Genin these days, Sakura, who was trying to tie a knot into her own hair and Gaara, who venomously insulted a Genin from Kirigakure.
He huffed and grabbed the second pillow before moving to roll out the second futon.
They were all going to get arrested for treason and none of these idiots cared.
Darque: I really like the relationship here.
Raven: Me too, especially because I can relate.
Darque: Relate? To what?
Raven: Shisui.
Darque: How?
Raven: The 'Oh gods we're going to get caught and utterly chewed out but no one cares we must all be stupid' feeling.
Darque: Hm...
Raven: I get it whenever I get pulled in to one of your stupid endeavors.
Darque:...Uh...Don't use big words plz.
Raven:...I meant your 'adventures'.
Darque: Oh! But they're awesome! Like someone once said, 'It's an adventure, Harry, it's good for you.'
Raven: Don't quote Mamma Mia at me. Go find a Harry for that.
Darque: But it really is good! And we've never actually gotten caught.
Raven: That's because the entire world has given up on trying to fix your brain.
Darque: I agree.
Raven:...Huh?
Darque: I too, have given up on the real world. However, I haven't given up on myself.
Raven:...
Darque: Don't worry, stupid people can believe in anything, so you can believe in yourself!
Raven: What is with you and quotes today?...I'm going to run- I mean, go to sleep. Bai~
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