After many protests from Sakura and many complaints from Hashirama, the storage scrolls that the Senju had brought with them were unpacked by their servants into Sakura's ever dwindling living space and hospital. Hashirama and his brother had stayed for dinner and left with promises to send their pick for a Senju apprentice to learn under Sakura like the Uchiha would be sending. It was only fair…
Kanta was to remain with her until her apprentices arrived and was to join her for her visit with Kumo of the Desert, which, after explaining how they had met the man, the Senju did not approve of her visiting him alone anymore than the Uchiha had.
Kanta and Sakura sat on her porch after Hashirama and Tobirama had left drinking tea enjoying the night air together when Kanta cleared his throat and asked her, "What do you think of Lord Madara's declaration Sakura?"
Sakura didn't respond right away. She wasn't sure, at first she thought she had heard him wrong, but Madara's ears and gone red and he had refused to meet her eyes after his confession.
"He said he liked me, not that he loved me." She felt the need to point that out to Kanta.
"One and the same for a man like him." Kanta said, watching her.
"I disagree." Sakura smiled.
"I think Lord Madara is the kind of man who says exactly what he means, because there is no one to challenge him for his honest opinion." She said,
"Except you." Kanta understood just fine what the Uchiha saw in Sakura, it was the same thing he saw in her.
"It doesn't matter anyway." Sakura dismissed Madara's feelings for her.
"I have more important things to think about right now. I need to send word to Kumo that we will be visiting him tomorrow and I have to find a god tree. Depending how long visiting Kumo takes I want to try to visit the Uchiha as well. They need to be told everything I told Hashirama Sama." She swirled the remaining dregs of her tea absentmindedly.
"About who you really are and where you came from?" Kanta asked her.
"Yes, and why I want to use their library, it is only fair." She sighed.
"I suppose." Kanta said without feeling.
Sakura nudged him with her shoulder, "What's wrong kanta?"
"I'm just...going to miss you when I have to go back to the compound. I'll ask Lord Senju if I can stay, I promised to help you find the god tree."
Sakura nodded. "I understand if you can't, but it would be nice...I will miss you, when you go. It has been nice having you with me."
Kanta's heart skipped in his chest. 'Did she know what she was saying? Were confessions different in her time?' If he was wrong, he would make a fool of himself.
"You said you weren't married before. Are things so different in your time?" He asked her.
"Well, yes, I mean, there was a war going on, but even so, people get married older, or around my age I suppose. It isn't unusual for a woman my age to be unwed is what I mean." She laughed a little.
"Was there, I mean...did you have someone that you loved, that you wanted to marry, when you were sent back?" He asked her hoping he wasn't overstepping his boundaries.
Sakura bit her lip and hesitated. There was Sasuke, but...she wasn't sure if she wanted to talk about him with Kanta. He was an Uchiha, the last Uchiha but still an Uchiha, and she knew how Kanta felt about them.
"There was someone, but he's probably dead by now, because I wasn't there to save him." Sakura willed the tears back.
"He was the one you jumped in front of, pushed out of the way?" Kanta asked her gently.
"Yes. His name was...Sasuke." She didn't have to tell him he was an Uchiha.
"Now you can never go back. Sakura, I'm sorry." It was said with such sincerity, her tears did fall then.
"It's...fine, nothing I can do but try to change the present, the future by being here, in the past." Her hands slipped and her cup fell to the ground and cracked.
"Damn it."
"It's just a cup." Kanta boldly put his arm around her shoulder and drew her into his side.
Sakura sighed and rested her head against his chest, half on , half off of his shoulder.
"Sakura." Kanta choked a little saying her name, his heart was racing.
Sakura turned her head and looked up at him. Kanta bent his head and kissed her. It was gentle, and chaste, just a brief touching of their lips, a sigh and then it was over.
Kanta drew his head back to watch her, to see if she was upset. She didn't move, she just looked at him, a slightly glazed look in her eyes. He bet his head again to kiss her again, only to be stopped with a gentle push of her hand.
"Kanta, I'm sorry. You are a very handsome man, kind and gentle, I appreciate your friendship but...Sasuke, he...I still love him." She pulled away from him then and sat on her own, back where she had been before.
Kanta sighed and smiled at her. "I understand. I'm sorry. For, kissing you, I just...I think you are special and beautiful. I've never met anyone like you before."
Sakura smiled sadly at him. "Thank you Kanta. I'm going to go to bed. Take one of the beds in the hospital, I'll see you in the morning."
She left Kanta on the porch, threw her broken cup into a basket she kept in the kitchen for such things and went to the bedroom.
It was empty, it was cold and she felt truly alone, more alone than she had since her arrival in this time. She bit her thumb and summoned Lady Katsuyu.
"My Lady?" Lady Katsuyu greeted Sakura.
"Lady Katsuyu, could you please tell Sabaku no Kumo who is staying at the inn beyond the Senju compound I will be visiting him tomorrow morning as requested?" Sakura asked the slug.
"Of course my Lady." Lady Katsuyu said and disappeared with a pop.
Sakura pulled a sleeping kimono from a peg and walked to the bathroom where she filled her basin with water and began the slow process of washing before bed. She shivered in the cooler night air making a mental note to buy or build a fire heated tub when she could and install it, somewhere, where...she had no idea and she was too tired to think about it more than her desire to have one eventually.
Lady Katsuyu re appeared before her with a little pop on the side of her basin. "Sabaku says he will be looking for you shortly after dawn and not to be late."
Sakura laughed, yes, Sasori was definitely related to him. "Thank you Lady Katsuyu."
"Good night My Lady." Lady Katsuyu disappeared once again with a little pop.
Sakura wrapped herself in her sleeping kimono throwing her filthy clothes in the corner of her bathroom to be washed when she had more time and threw the now dirty water out of the window in her bedroom. Pinning the shutters back into place she sealed them with a protection jutsu along with the door to her bedroom and got into bed.
Reluctantly she made a mental note to thank the Uchiha for the bed, it was...divine. Her head had barely touched the pillow before she had fallen asleep.
Kanta sat on the porch listening to Sakura get ready for bed. Her lips had been so soft, so warm and he had wanted to kiss her once more, just once more but she had pushed him away...gently, but away. He didn't blame her, her heart was elsewhere. It wasn't a rejection because she didn't like him, or because she thought she was better than him, no it was because she was loyal, she was faithful, to a man, she knew she would never even see again...that was love he thought, and he wanted it. He wanted her.
He rose to his feet stretching and yawning. It had been a long day and tomorrow would be the same. He set his cup on the counter in the kitchen and sealed the doors and windows. He walked to Sakura's bedroom door and checked it for seals, good, she had sealed her room. Kanta quietly made his way to the sideroom, her hospital, and chose the bed closest to her room, removed his shirt and climbed into bed.
Sleep refused to find him and he lay there for what seemed like hours. Thoughts played over in his head , all revolving around Sakura. He just wanted her to be happy. The man she loved was gone, there was no way for her to go back, no way to bring him here. Maybe in time, she would be able to move on and if she did, he hoped it would be him that she turned to. He wasn't a clan head, he wasn't strong and powerful, but he cared about her, and he would do anything to make her smile.
Morning came too soon. Kanta's eyes opened to the sun pouring in through the window beside his head, he groaned.
Pulling his pants on he went to the kitchen to make them breakfast, knocking on Sakura's door on the way. He was surprised to see her already up and dressed ladling eggs and rice into bowls for them when he walked into the kitchen.
"You woke up before me." He complained.
Sakura laughed. "It's only right I wake up and make you breakfast, you have been doing it for me since we met almost everyday."
He poured himself some tea and sat down across from her at the table and smiled.
"Thank you, but you know I enjoy taking care of you." Their eyes met, she turned away.
"I would like to leave directly after breakfast if you don't mind. The Uchiha have already responded saying I may stop by whenever I wish." She told him.
"If you don't want to come, and I understand if you don't, you can drop by the Senju compound or come back here after our visit with Kumo, I don't mind if you don't go with me, you will be the only Senju there...that's assuming they would let you in." Sakura tried to laugh.
"I'll stop by the compound on the way back here, I have no desire to join you at the Uchiha compound, it will only cause trouble for both of us." He said wisely.
"Yes, I agree." She said picking up her chopsticks.
Kumo met them downstairs in the tavern and dining section of the small inn. His back was to the wall in the farthest corner of the room, next to the kitchens and a window. Sakura smiled at this, it is the spot she would have chosen for herself. Multiple escape routes and a clear view of everyone coming and going. So much like Sasori, the thought popped into her head and she frowned.
He was dangerous. She needed to concentrate. He wanted something from her, but she wanted something from him as well...information, they both wanted information.
"Sabaku no Kumo." Sakura inclined her head respectively to him and sat to his left uninvited much to his smirking amusement.
"Your lap dog can wait at a different table." Kumo said without looking at Kanta, dismissing him with a flick of his wrist as though he were a puppet.
Sakura grit her teeth but refrained from saying the snarky comment she had on the tip of her tongue.
"It's okay Kanta, thank you but if Kumo wishes for privacy it would be beyond rude for me not to adjust...to his preferences." Sakura chose her words carefully.
Kumo smirked at her phrasing, her meaning clear.
Kanta bowed to Sakura and chose a stool at the bar facing them.
"Your puppy seems a bit overprotective today, did something happen between the two of you?" Kumo teased her.
"Nothing that is any of your business." Sakura smiled at him and ordered juice and a sweet bun when the serving girl passed by.
"Ah so something happened but you don't wish to share, good girl, never kiss and tell." Kumo poked fun at her.
"I thought you wanted to talk to me about your dream?" Sakura narrowed her eyes at him.
If his eyes had been amber instead of blue she might not have been able to sit there with him. The resemblance to his great grandson Sasori was so profound it sent shivers up her spine. She hadn't the time or the opportunity to really look at him the other day, but now, in the well lit relaxed atmosphere of the tavern, the resemblance was more than striking. So much in fact she had missed what he was saying because she had been looking and comparing him so intensely she hadn't heard a word.
His blue eyes sparkled as they watched her, she was clearly lost in her own thoughts and not paying attention to a word he said. Her own green eyes were so unique, so beautifully transparent he couldn't help but wonder, if his great grandson had let her kill him knowing she was the only one who would truly give him closure…
Sakura shook her head and blushed a deep peony pink in her embarrassment."I'm sorry." She mumbled as he laughed out loud.
He had a deep laugh that resonated down her spine and made her want to move closer to him if only to hear it better.
"Something wrong dear?" He was amused.
"No, nothing, I was, you look so much like him, it is uncanny. The resemblance." She drew her hand back that she hadn't realized she had lifted. She frowned. Had she lifted her hand?
No she hadn't. She pushed chakra to her fingers and snapped his chakra strings.
"Don't try that again." She growled at him.
He threw his head back and laughed again, amused again and she glared at him more fiercely.
"You are a delight to play with my dear did you know that?" He leaned in closer to her, whispering it as though it were a secret.
"And you are much more playful than your great grandson, your looks might be Sasori but your personality is a combination of Kankuro and Sasori with a bit of Gaara mixed in." She surveyed him.
"Ah yes, Gaara the One Tails host am I correct?" Kumo smiled at her surprise.
"How did you know that?" She asked.
"I told you, I have had dreams about you." Kumo smiled at her.
"You said you had a dream about me, one dream, and that it was about me smashing one hundred red puppets, Sasori's infamous one hundred red puppet performance." She corrected him.
"I lied." He said simply and picked up his tea.
"Why attack me?" She asked him, her mind piercing information together like the puzzle he pretended to be.
"I had to make sure it was you, and flower, you didn't disappoint." His smile had changed it was much deeper, much more predatory., much more like Gaara now.
"Tell me." It was a command.
"What will you give me in return?" He ran his eyes over her body boldly.
"You were the one looking for me, you must have a reason. There is somethign you need from me and it isn't sex, you need information that only I can give you, stop playing games, I haven't the time, get on with it." She said leaning back in her chair with her arms crossed over her chest...it worked for Madara she thought.
His eyes sparkled again, this time with a deeper interest than before. "Clever girl".
Kumo continued to look at her, analyzing her body language, her pulse, her heart beat. She sensed them before they could make contact. Chakra ran up her arm and down her leg resisting his attempt to connect his chakra strings to her body once again.
"You are not Lady Chiyo." She bit out, " And if you didn't want to talk why go through the trouble to hunt me down?" She stood up to leave throwing money on the table to pay for her snack.
"Sit down girl." Kumo said a little grumpily.
She sat back down.
"I didn't know what the dreams meant. I have been having them since I was a child. At first they confused me, then terrified me." He was surprisingly forthcoming now that they had gotten down to it.
"It wasn't until I had heard about a pink haired woman traveling through the mountains that I thought they might be true. I had never seen anyone with pink hair before." He lifted his hand and boldly stroked a lock of her hair, pulling it slightly and moving it between his fingers.
"It's real isn't it, this is your real hair color, you don't dye it or wear a wig, it is really yours?" He asked her with a sense of wonder in his voice and suddenly he looked a little younger, a little wider in the eyes.
"It's mine, yes." Sakura watched him.
She wasn't sure what to make of him. He seemed to switch personalities between playful and cynical.
"You said you heard about me?" She asked him.
"Yes, from two Uchiha in a tavern they were talking about the beautiful pink haired kunoichi who was traveling with a Senju, who had a terrible temper and spoke like a man." He smirked at her when she blushed.
"In my dreams you were very outspoken and brash, courageous and clearly a kunoichi. I told you, I often wondered if you were real, or only in my dreams." He looked at her, almost greedily.
"You know about my fight with Sasori and his puppets, you know Gaara was the Ichibi, what else?"
"I know about your seal of course, you used it right in front of me. I know you are from the future and are friends with not only my great nephew but the nine tails jinchuriki." He said,
"I know you punched a god and fought in the great war, a war between good and evil." He added.
"I know that my line is few and could possibly die out before the next generation of your time. I have seen the war that you left behind." He paused.
"I have seen the pods." He said quietly.
"Gaara, he is alive but he is trapped, like the other Kages, in pods." Kumo said, watching her.
"I want to know, can you go back?" He was leaning toward her now.
"No, I can't." She said quietly.
Kumo frowned. "Did you not find it her then? This Kaguya, I had heard you were looking for shrines in the mountains of the old gods, I assumed you were looking for her." He said harshly.
"I was and I found her, she told me it was impossible for me to go back." Sakura hesitated. She didn't trust Kumo. She didn't know how much to tell him.
"Tell me girl, I can see you know something, what did that demon tell you." Kumo set his hand on top of hers. "Please."
"Why? I mean, why do you care about what happens in the future, you don't know Gaara or Kankuro or Sasori even, why do you care?" She asked.
"Things are changing in Suna. The elders are pushing for a more military based regime. They want to start training the children younger for assisination missions. My son." Kumo paused.
"My son, he is only five years old, that is not what I want for him. I have seen your village, your Konoha, it looks...it is what I want for my own people." Kumo seemed to deflate before her.
"I have had dreams and I have seen the future of Suna, it is not...what I want for my people, my son. I want to help you. I want to change the future of Suna by making an alliance with your Konoha" Kumo said seriously.
"I have to find the god tree and destroy it first. Kaguya told me that is the only way, to start at the beginning, to find the god tree and stop the Curse of the Hatred." Sakura kept her gaze steady and watched him watch her.
"There are more factors involved in the future of Suna than just Konoha." Sakura told him.
"I am the the current leader of Suna and will be named Kazekage in a month. My dreams tell me we are months away from the founding of Konoha. I want an alliance adn to get it I will help you, so we can both have the future we desire for the ones we love."
I need to find and destroy a god tree" She sighed.
"Then you'll need a puppet master and a poisons specialist." Kumo smiled and squeezed her hand.
