Disclaimer: I do not own NARUTO.

WILL OF STONE

CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE: "Will of Stone"


Sakura returned one day to find Sosano waiting in her bedroom.

It was the day before Midsummer Festival. Even the barren courtyards of the Zoo were covered with festival decorations, strings of lights and incense and paper lanterns. The summer solstice, the longest day of the year. Though it was late when Sakura came back from her training, the sun had still not set.

He sat sprawled against her bed, his face aglow in the soft crimson light. "Haruno Sakura. I see you." In his lap he held the pig Tonton, scratching at her fat pink belly. Tonton squealed happily, milling her arms in the air.

"What are you doing here?"

"Surprised?" Sosano grinned. "My father has recently given his blessing to our relationship. I came to the Zoo to find you, but you were out training. In the meantime, I had a most fascinating conversation with Sabaku Temari."

Temari was the other person in the room. She sat in the corner with her arms crossed, and did not take her eyes off the stone-nin boy for a moment. "Yes. Fascinating." The tension between the two was so thick Sakura could cut it with a knife. She does not like him, or trust him. And he does not care.

Sosano only smiled. "Shall we go, Sakura?"

They headed out of the Zoo and across Shitamachi to the Slug Bridge, towards the Sagewood. "Your teammate Temari is a most exceptional woman," continued Sosano when they were alone. "I saw how she fought in the First Trial to protect the life of the cloud-nin Juukan Dee. A truly selfless act… yet she conceals that truth as deep as she can. I wonder why that is?"

Sakura was not sure how to reply. "You have quite a set of teammates, too."

"Ah, Geigin and Orajuchi? Geigin is not important. A xenophobic hothead with daddy issues—a pawn, not a player. Orajuchi… Orajuchi is different. A boy in whose blood runs the very essence of darkness, of transformation, and yet he does not truly know his own nature. If you would seek to understand any genin in Iwa, Bakura Orajuchi is the one to watch. Sometimes I fancy he is the most dangerous of us all."

"More dangerous than you?"

"You flatter me. I am predictable, and no threat to those who understand my motives. Yet no one knows what Orajuchi will do… not even himself."

The Sagewood loomed before them now, a forest of twisting black trees. They'd taken several walks in the Sagewood before, and Sakura knew many of the trails that winded through it. But this time Sosano led her down a path she'd not taken in a long time, not since the first day she had arrived in Iwagakure. He is taking me to the ruined temple.

The Cathedral of Faces, it was called. Like the other great Cathedrals it had been constructed many centuries ago by Shiva monks, and like the others it had been abandoned after the coming of the Sage of Six Paths. Fragments of broken stone littered the forest as they approached, half a granite head there, a moss-covered pillar there. Everywhere, the ghosts of long-forgotten prayers. Colossal ruins grew from the surrounding trees, stone walls and stone towers and stone faces. A sloping path led into a ravine, the center of the Cathedral of Faces.

At last it was growing dark.

"There," said Sougon Sosano. "This is the right place."

In the center of the derelict temple, squatting on the ruins of a stone pyramid, stood a huge pine tree, so big and old that its branches bent down toward the ground. It was where Sakura had met Sosano for the first time. It must be fate, he'd whispered in the cool daybreak. Stay a while, and I shall show you.

"Why do you come here?" she asked softly.

His face was all in shadow. "Because it is mine. Mine, as Sougon Castle can never be. There is a place deep beneath the Overlook, a buried shrine older than the castle itself. The Vault, it's called, and within its walls are locked away the ghosts of all the Sougon who have come before. My great-great-grandfather Sougon Uzaemo the Furnace is buried there, and my great-grandfather Muu the Mummy, and my grandfather Onoki of the Third Light. My mother is buried there. I will be buried there, after I die. Yet here I live. Here, in this once sacred place, surrounded by the beauty and vastness of the mountains, I am all alone, and I do not want to sleep. Not yet."

Sakura remembered. "You called it your garden."

"And so it is. A garden is a private place. Walled from the outside, it is a refuge for contemplation, for those who wish to understand themselves. Once a thousand pilgrims came to the Cathedral of Faces to seek their true destinies, yet now I am the only gardener who remains."

"A secret world?"

"Just so." Sosano sat under the pine tree, leaning back against the gnarled trunk. Sakura joined him. Faint starlight trickled down through the tangle of branches, etching the boy's Iwagakure forehead protector in uneven shadows. A rock with a rock, secrets within secrets. He smiled, leaning close. "My secret world, and yours as well. Tell me, Sakura. What are you hiding behind those lovely green eyes?"

"I told you, I'm not that interesting."

"Yet you never talk about your past."

"I'm not hiding," she insisted. "What do you want to know?"

"Tell me about your family."

"My family?" Sakura frowned. "They're not that interesting, either. My father was the first ninja in his family. His parents—my grandparents—were farmers on the outskirts of Konoha. They died way back in the Second Ninja War. My dad was a great ninja, a hero of the Third Ninja War. Haruno Arashi the Demonslayer. But then he got sick and died, too. Tuberculosis. My mom is a librarian. Her dad was a soldier—not a ninja, just a regular soldier—and her mom was a seamstress. They passed away two years ago, right before I graduated from the Ninja Academy. I have a sister, Kyoki. She's eight—well, nine now, her birthday was last week—and she doesn't know what she wants to be yet. Maybe an astronomer, because she likes to look at the stars. We have a telescope, that I picked out of a junkyard. It's sort of dented and stuff, but it works. So she likes to look through it at night, at all the constellations and things like that. I don't know much about it."

"How did they meet? Your parents?"

"At a library. My mom always loved to read, she'd spend whole days there, her nose buried in a book. Dad wasn't the reading type, but I guess Mom was his. He read all her favorite novels just to have something to talk to her about. They were different as cats and dogs, you know. Mom was always so careful. Dad… he did whatever he wanted. He was a man of great appetites. He loved to laugh, eat, fight, go on great adventures. He was… he was generous with money, too." Her voice trailed off. Why is it hard for me to talk about it, even now? "Lending it away to friends. Giving us gifts and presents. Gambling. Dad was so strong he thought he was invincible. He didn't understand money... that debt creates more debt. While he was alive, it was okay, because he could always do missions for money. But then he died. And then there wasn't anyone to pay off our debts."

"And your father's friends? Did they not try to help you?"

"They did, and there was a pension from the government, but there was… so much debt. Maybe if the Uchiha clan… my dad was best friends with Uchiha Fugaku. They were rich, they would have helped, I know they would have… but then, you know, the Massacre happened. So that was the end of that. And the debt was still there. Too much. And my mother was only a librarian… we had to sell our house, all our stuff, move into a tiny apartment. Even then, the creditors were always hounding us." Sakura forced a smile. "We're still paying, you know. I guess that was part of the reason I wanted to be a ninja, too. Free schooling, and if you're strong, you can make a lot of money, more than any other profession…"

"I see. No child should ever have to bear such a burden."

"It's fine. There are people a lot worse off, you know? We made it out okay."

Sougon Sosano smiled. "Yes. You became a very fine woman."

I became a kunoichi of Konoha. Sakura hugged her knees to her chest and wrapped her hands around her shins. "Well, that's all. That's the story of the Haruno clan, such as it is."

"Then tell me about the Uchiha."

Sakura looked at Sosano sharply. "The Uchiha are all dead."

"I did not realize Uchiha Sasuke was a ghost."

"You know what I mean. Itachi killed them all, everyone except Sasuke. That's why Sasuke left the village, to kill his brother." Forget me, Sakura, he'd whispered with his last words, and she had never seen him again. "I was just a little girl."

"A tragedy." Sosano's amused tone said otherwise. "The Uchiha clan is one of the three most famous bloodline clans, along with the Hyuuga and the Sougon. The Eyes of the Three Secrets, our bloodlines are called, for our unique powers to see into the hidden depths of reality. The Sharingan can see thought. The Byakugan can see spirit. And the Enshogan can see life itself. Our clans have much in common, but in that we differ, our perception of the world. Tell me, Sakura. Was there anyone in the Uchiha clan that is like me?"

Sakura knew far too much about the Uchiha clan. It was hard to avoid, being Sasuke's admirer and then girlfriend, not to mention all that time she had spent around the Uchiha as a child. I know the secrets of people that are all dead.

"Uchiha Shisui," she said. "He's the one most like you."

"Shisui of the Body Flicker. His reputation is still known, for someone who died so young."

"He was Itachi's best friend, before Itachi killed him and took his eyes for himself, to get the Mangekyo Sharingan. Before Itachi killed everyone. Shisui was very charming… very smooth. Always smiling, always making others laugh. People loved to be around him. But he had a sadness about him, too. An aura of tragedy, of despair. I think it was because of Shion… that's his younger brother. Uchiha Shion was just a baby when he disappeared during the Third Ninja War. Just vanished, like into thin air. It was a big thing back in the day, a huge mystery and scandal. The Shion Affair. No one could understand it. People thought he had been kidnapped by enemies, by stone-nins. There was a big investigation, and they even found a buried body that could have been him, but no one could confirm it. It was never solved. Shisui took it hard, and his parents even harder. Whenever Shisui smiled, there was always something else behind it. Something dead, or something that was waiting to die. And you… Sosa, you're like that too."

His smile was sweet and sad all at once. "An insightful comparison."

A deathly comparison.

Sosano did not speak again for a long moment. "And Uchiha Itachi? Who was he like?"

"Itachi…" Sakura remembered. "Itachi was like your mother."

Sosano narrowed his eyes. "What do you mean?"

"He was like Seurin Shadowstar. The way people around here say it, you know? Seurin Shadowstar. Like she's some sort of deity, more than a human being. Like a god. Itachi had the same prestige in Konoha. Itachi, the Prince of the Leaf. That's what we would call him. Everyone, from kids like me to the Hokage himself. His reputation, the way people looked at him… he was perfect. Everyone loved him, looked up to him. We all thought he would change the world. And then he killed everyone, he massacred his whole family. So he was like Seurin Shadowstar, before that. I don't know who he's like now."

"Like Senju Tsunade," said Sosano.

"What?"

"To the people of Iwa, when you think of Itachi, and his betrayal, that is also how we think of Senju Tsunade. The Betrayer."

Remember who you are, Sakura.

"That's not fair," she said.

"Fairness has naught to do with it." The boy sat so close to her that she could feel the heat of his body. His breath was summer smoke, his eyes haughty and enigmatic in the darkness. "Have you heard of the Will of Stone?"

The Will of Stone?

"That's a earth-kin philosophy, isn't it? Like the Will of Fire, except for stone-nins."

"Yes." Sosano's teeth flashed white in the dark. "But they are not the same."

Sakura thought back to what Tsunade-sensei had told her. "In Konoha, we believe that a shinobi's true strength will manifest when protecting something important. Everyone in the village is like a family, looking out for each other, sacrificing for each other. From those bonds, we find the strength to fight. From this sacred covenant, we find the meaning of our lives. That's the Will of Fire."

"A good saying. Yet fire is a fickle thing. No one knows which way a flame will go. Love for your comrades… a powerful force, yes, but hard to control once unleashed. Sometimes friends do evil, and sometimes the enemy is your friend. Like fire, love is impulsive, unpredictable, blown any which way by the wind. Those who start fires are liable to burn down their own homes. And how often fire, like a summer blaze, flares up for a brief moment, burning in glorious rage, but then goes out just as quickly, once all its fuel is spent. The poet Kishimo Jiraiya says that separation does to love what the wind does to the fire: it puts out a small love and fans a big one. Perhaps it is the same with shinobi."

I thought my love for Sasuke would burn forever, but only embers remain. "And the Will of Stone?"

"The stone keeps to its path." Sosano stood, picking up a rock at the base of the pine tree. He raised it above his head, then dropped it. "You see how that stone falls? Straight. The stone does not waver. It does not complain, or cry out, or change its mind. It only goes onward, ever constant, whatever its final destiny may be. Enishi, we call it in the Earth Country. Fate. And were all the world destroyed, were all to fall in chaos and confusion, even so, the stone keeps to its path—until it is finally stopped." Sosano gestured to where the rock he'd dropped had thudded into the ground. "Of course, this is just a pebble. Some stones are much larger."

Sakura stood up as well. "You mean the ninja should be like the stone. Strength can come from outside yourself, like the fuel for a fire. But for the stone, its strength comes from inside. Not from love, but from self-reliance, honor, duty. From sheer endurance."

"Endure. In enduring, grow strong."

"But I don't get it." Sakura shook her head. "The Will of Fire is about fighting to protect each other. If you stone-nins don't believe in that, then what are you fighting for? But then what's the path that the stone takes?"

Sosano's eyes shimmered like hidden rubies. "The path is fate. It ends only in death."

For a long time they did not speak again.

Silence, upon silence. Sakura felt like her heart was going to burst with the tension.

Then Sosano grinned, his slanted eyes crinkling in laughter. "Tell me, Sakura. Did the Betrayer order you to spy on me?"

Sakura was in no mood to play at words. "Did your father?"

"Of course. He thinks you are Tsunade's weak spot. He asked me to do whatever it took, to win your trust." He paused. "But that is not the reason I am here tonight. Tonight, I am not here as a shinobi. I am not here as my father's son. I am not here for any other reason but as a man… a man who is in love with a woman."

"I thought you stone-nins didn't believe in love."

"Oh, we do. I only said it was dangerous." Sosano clasped her hand in his own. "Sakura… I want you to be here not as anyone else. I want you to be you. I want you to be mine, as I am already yours. For just this one night."

"And tomorrow you will be someone else again."

The boy turned away to look at the branches of the pine tree. "Yes." His voice was bitter. "I cannot help that the Tsuchikage is my father, nor can I assuage his hatred for Konoha. No more than you can change your own enishi. Fate goes ever as fate must. Yet sometimes I wonder… I wonder what it would be like, if the world had been different. If my mother had lived. If Iwa had won the war, or the Silla Brotherhood had not murdered Enyo Kayura. If I had not been born a Sougon at all. But then I would have never met you."

"No." Sakura felt the goosebumps prickle along the flesh of her bare arms. "If we can't change the past, we can still change our future. I believe that."

"Run away, you mean?" Sosano smiled. "Perhaps. I always wanted to be a cook."

The absurdity made Sakura laugh, despite everything. "A cook?"

"Oh, yes. I'll start a little noodle shop somewhere. Somewhere deep in the Scar, hidden in the Dreamstone Mountains. One of those lonely places where mist rolls across the peaks like painted curtains, and in the night you can hear the unbidden cries of golden monkeys. A place where you stand still and stop the sound of feet. There wouldn't be many customers, but sometimes a few might trek on by on their way up or down the mountain. A peasant hauling bamboo cuttings down the stone steps, red-cheeked girls going to wash their clothes in the running brook. Maybe even once in a while a traveler; a pilgrim to Senso-ji Temple on the mountaintop, or someone who had simply come to see the sunrise. That's the best thing about my little restaurant, I think. The dawn. The sun rising over a sea of clouds, burning through the mist, and for a single moment all of the Scar is spread before you like an ink wash painting. But the dawn does not last. The fog returns, and then the mountain ages, fainter, duller, until you have to strain to make out what is drawn, the trees blurring together with the stone and the sky. And then at last the painting is swallowed by the fog. But you remember still; and the dawn is the most beautiful thing you've ever seen in your life. Then I'd come out with my apron on and say, 'You there, m'am, you look like you're tired. Come sit a while, won't you, and I'll make you some noodles.'"

"I'd love to go there one day," Sakura said softly.

"You will. It is called Mount Echigo, and there is no other mountain like it on earth. We must pass through it for the Second Trial." Sosano stepped toward her; his voice was as gentle as wet grass. "But not tonight. Tonight, Sakura, there is no chuunin exam. No enishi. Only us."

A boy sees a girl, a girl sees a boy. I saw you on that night, Sakura, and I looked into your eyes. Eyes like the bright green forest, sweet and young and sure. But something else, too. A secret glimmer, a darker truth. Something strong.

"Why?" Sakura asked. "What do you see in me, Sosa?"

"Death," he whispered.

And then his eyes were golden flames.

Sakura flinched.

She could not help it. Every time she had ever seen the Enshogan activate, someone had been trying to kill her. But he only said, "No." He held her shoulders with a fierce strength. "No, don't be afraid. Not this night." His voice was a desperate command. "Look at me, Sakura."

She looked.

The light of his Enshogan was so bright it almost hurt to stare. A blaze of inflamed blood vessels coiled around the golden pupils, feeding them with pulsing chakra. Yet there was no heat. She was close enough to feel it; and his eyes were cold as ice. Cold like a vacuum. Cold like all the heat in the world had been sucked away.

"Heat is motion," said Sosano, "and heat is life. But to perceive life one must stand apart from it, just as to capture motion a camera must remain still. So the Enshogan eye itself reflects all light, all warmth. Yet to the user the effect is the exact opposite. At night you see only darkness, but I see… everything. Can you imagine it? Can you see as I see? All around me, the beauty of life. The trees that retreat to tangles of roots deep in the earth. The movement of nocturnal animals, the dance of the wind. The heat of the distant stars. And you, Sakura. The blood that rushes through your heart, the heat that flushes your face and opens your lips. Why should you be afraid? Are these eyes death? Yes, but they are life as well… they the same thing, the beginning and the end. I see you, Haruno Sakura. You are the most beautiful thing of them all."

And then his arms were closing around Sakura's waist. His dark lean body which smelled of the forest, of wild flowers and black soil and secrets. His eyes sparked, first like embers, then like candles blowing in the wind, and then as a furnace. Ripples of light and heat shadowed his regal face. Sakura could not see anything else.

"You're not like him," she whispered.

"My father?"

"No." She shivered. "Sasuke."

"The last of the Uchiha. The boy of cursed blood." Sosano's eyes burned bright as the sun. "Did you love him?"

Did I? "I… we grew up together. Our fathers were best friends. Funny thing is, as kids we didn't like each other that much. Not one bit. Always fighting, things like that. I broke his nose once. But then… you know, my father died, and his family… we didn't really see each other much for a couple of years." The words came easily, though she had never spoken them before, not even to herself. "Then, at the ninja academy, we were in the same class. It was like he was a completely different person, I didn't know him at all. He had so much hate, inside. Pain. And somehow I… all the girls, really… we wanted to touch that part of him. Girls, they always want to fix stuff, you know. Boys break but girls want to fix. And Sasuke was so broken. I thought I could… could save him. I loved him, I did. And he loved me. I thought it would last forever."

"Summer fades, and shriveled leaves blow in an autumn wind. The young grow wrinkles and hardened hearts, and sprout bright young things that grow old in their turn. Nothing lasts forever."

All men must die.

"I know," she whispered.

"Then look at me, Sakura, and see. Look at me, with both eyes open."

She looked, and her soul trembled at what she saw. "You're not like him," she said again. "Sasuke was so angry, all the time. He tried to hide it, but I could see it. You're not angry. You're… sad. So, so sad. But a beautiful sadness. Like a sad poem. A poem of a summer that never was. A summer so beautiful that it has to be a dream, more real than real, for a moment at least… that long magic moment before we wake."

"Do you want to fix me?"

"No." She knew the words were true as she spoke them. "But maybe…" Maybe you can fix me. "Maybe I want to forget it all. This damn chuunin exam, this damn world. I want to dream, Sosa. And I don't want to wake up."

He kissed her.

It was slow, at first. His lips brushed her own, firm and sweet, then drew back, teasing, playing. "Sosa," Sakura breathed, "Sosa, please, I—" but he shushed her with another kiss, his hands sliding down to the small of her back. Sakura gasped, clutching at the back of Sosano's head, his braid of thick fine hair. By instinct she fumbled for the knot, one twist, two, and then the braid came undone, his hair spilling out behind him like a river of darkness. Sakura had never seen hair so long, so black, so thick. When he leaned forward, it enveloped her like a thousand strands of silk.

Not like Sasuke. Sasuke had always been so ardent, so eager to have her; a fire that burned bright and then in an instant was only ashes. Sosano was a slow fuse. His mouth moved to her cheek, to the hollow of her throat. He unclasped the straps of her leather chest armor, letting it slip down to the forest floor. Sakura tried to press her body against his own, but he only smiled, as if to withhold a secret. "Sakura. You're so beautiful." He ran his hands across her shoulders to peel back the fabric of her uniform. Slowly, so slowly. "You're so strong."

Her clothes slid to the ground one by one. First her United Countries vest, then her spandex bodysuit, then her belt and knuckle gloves and sandals and fishnet underwear. Sosano's calloused fingers were deft and strangely tender. Each movement was a caress, each touch a whispered promise. Then there was only her forehead protector. Sakura pulled it off herself, the night air chilly on her bare skin.

At last she stood naked beneath the pine tree. Sakura shivered, gooseflesh covering her arms and legs, but she could feel the heat inside her young body as well. For a moment the stone-nin boy only stared. His Enshogan eyes glittered, twin stars of golden light.

Then he began to touch her. Circling her, stalking her as a wolf stalked its prey, methodical, hungry. He held her hand in his own and licked her fingers, one by one. He ran a hand gently down her leg. He stroked her face, tracing the curve of her ears, planting kisses down her cheek. He put both hands in her hair and combed it with his fingers. His tongue lapped at her shoulders, at her arms and the curve of her spine.

It seemed as if hours passed before his mouth finally went to her breasts. Sakura gasped, her nipples stiff and aching. Sosano's long black hair hung down over his face like a shroud. "Strength," he whispered. "Strength, and something else. The slightest hint of uncertainty, as if, deep inside, you know how fragile things really are, and that if you ever let go, even for a moment, all your plans might quickly unravel." He kissed the hollow between her breasts. Her chuunin exam key still dangled there, a glowing metal shard on a silver chain. The ghost of a smile flitted over Sosano's lips. "I want to know that part of you."

His palm slid between Sakura's thighs. Sakura was wet, her clitoris swollen from arousal. He knew what she wanted; and he gave it to her. But so slowly. Dragging it out with his fingers and darting tongue, teasing her until she could not bear it anymore, until waves of pleasure surged through her body and she cried out, fingers digging into Sosano's hair. Starlight shone down on the ruins of the Cathedral of Faces. She pulled the boy from his knees, tearing at his robes. "Sosa," Sakura told him, flushed and breathless. "Sosa, please…"

Sosano's naked skin shone bright as bronze, the faint lines of old scars visible on his taut chest. Ink-black hair, loose and unbound, cascaded over his shoulders and down his back, well past his waist. His erect manhood glistened wetly. Not like Sasuke, she thought again. Sasuke was beautiful, needy, delicate. But Sougon Sosano was stone. Immovable, enduring. She buried her face in his chest and inhaled the dark fragrance of his sweat. He smelled like grass and warm earth, like smoke and sin and aching regret.

"I love you," he whispered.

And then he was pushing her down, pressing her into the summer grass beneath the starlit pine. Their bodies twined together. The boy's skin was slick with sweat, his stiff erection throbbing with heat. "Sosa." Her fingers clawed at his back. "Sosa, please, take me, enter me. Now, damn you, please." He gave back only dirty nothings. Their erotic dance seemed to last forever, on and on, scene after scene. Sosano knew tricks that Sasuke had never guessed at, yet in the very end he took her the way she had always wanted to be taken. His weight on top of her, filling her with his manhood, grunting as he thrusted. Sakura orgasmed repeatedly, and when the moment of his pleasure came, Sosano called out her name.

Afterward.

He lay on top of her, inside her. Exhausted but not spent. Sakura closed her eyes, savoring the magic of the moment, and did not move for a very long time. I wish this moment could go on forever. But nothing lasted forever, and she had to ask the question. Ask now, or forever hold her peace.

"Sosa… Sosa, tell me. Why you are so sad?"

What are you hiding?

Sougon Sosano stirred. "Why? Because, Sakura, there will never, ever, be a night like this again. Because all men must die, but first we'll live. Is that reason enough?" And the lonely stone-nin boy on top of her smiled, eyes burning brighter than the stars, as he went to give her another kiss.


Next: THE SECOND TRIAL: "The Gorge of Winds"