Well look at that, another chapter already? Turns out 5 + hours of travelling is really boring so here I am, writing again :'D
Shoutout to my first reviewer in like 4 years kyoandyuya, this chapter's for you!
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After another day of travel Hinata and Naruto arrived at the gates of Konoha. It was early evening and the sun had just finished setting behind the Hokage cliff faces. This time their presence was noticed by the gate guards, and they welcomed them back with disapproving and skeptical looks.
"The Hokage is waiting for you two in the tower," Ikuto warned, grimacing with the memory of the vile mood Tsunade had been in just earlier that day.
Naruto nodded, returning the grimace and started heading there, Hinata following closely behind. They didn't use chakra to aid their speed, instead enjoying the walk there before Tsunade murders them both in cold blood.
After about ten minutes they arrived and began ascending the large staircase to the Hokage's office. Shizune met them at the door and her face was all they needed to know that it was bad, they were in some deep shit.
Naruto opened the door slightly and peered in, she hadn't looked up yet from the desk but he could tell she had already been incredibly angry because the corner of her desk had been smashed off and lay in splinters on the floor.
'The old Carpenter in the village must get so much business from her, they must replace her desk at least twice a month,' Naruto thought in amazement.
The amazement quickly faded however, when Tsunade looked up at him and her eyes went from bored to enraged in an instant.
'Oh god,' he thought miserably, Hinata had positioned herself behind him to shield herself from the verbal assault they both knew was coming.
"Come in, and close the door behind you," she said in a sickeningly sweet tone that sent a shiver down both their spines. The anger had not left her eyes and they sheepishly walked in and closed the door quickly behind them.
"Uh, hello obaa-chan," Naruto started with a sheepish grin, hoping to soften the blow slightly.
BASH. SMASH. BANG.
Abrupt chaos ensued as she smashed her desk into absolute pieces, the two narrowly avoiding the splintering wood that flew in their direction. Her chair had flown behind her as she violently stood up and had banged into the wall, losing a leg in the process.
"I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU DISOBEYED A DIRECT ORDER AND SNUCK OUT THE VILLAGE," she screeched, he was sure he could see steam billowing out her ears. Hinata had now almost completely disappeared behind him and clung to the back of his shirt like a small child.
"YOU COULD HAVE BEEN KILLED, OR TAKEN!" the busty woman continued, rubbing her temples and glaring daggers at them.
Tsunade was breathing heavily, trying to calm down somewhat, she was so angry she could barely speak.
"And you Hinata, I don't know what you were thinking, following him!" Hinata flinched, but knew she was right. She didn't regret it because she wanted to help Naruto, but it was stupid and her father was probably going to give her a similar scolding when she got back to the compound.
There was a moment of silence as Tsunade collected herself, reaching behind her for the chair and slotting the leg back into place before sitting down.
She spoke finally, much calmer, "Well, what did you find out?"
Naruto divulged the information to Tsunade and her eyes widened the moment she found out her young apprentice had been taken by a certain volatile Uchiha.
"We must assemble a team immediately!" Tsunade exclaimed, slamming her hands where her desk would have been. She looked around a bit sheepishly at her totally trashed office before calling Shizune in to make another order for a large wooden desk.
"Naruto, Hinata pack your bags immediately, you will leave at dawn. Shino and Kakashi will accompany you. This is an S-ranked recovery mission, bringing back Sakura and Sasuke if possible. If not, dead will do just fine." She finished, a raging intensity and harshness in her voice.
Naruto however couldn't believe his luck, he expected to be stuck in town doing C-ranked missions for at least 3 months.
oOo
Sakura awoke abruptly, in mild pain and sprawled on the hard stone floor.
"Itai, what the fuck," she growled, rubbing the back of her head where it had impacted with the ground.
Sasuke was looking groggily down at her from a sitting position on the bed, looking mildly guilty. She glared at him and picked her now shivering body off the floor. She was still dead tired and felt like she hadn't had nearly enough sleep.
"Did you have a nightmare or something?" she asked, her tone softening slightly as she locked eyes with him.
"Hnn," was his noncommittal response. It was definitely before sunset but they were both wide awake. She climbed back into the bed and leaned back against the pillow, still shivering slightly from the cold floor.
After a few minutes of sitting there staring at nothing, Sasuke finally went back to laying on his side, this time openly staring right at her. She squirmed a bit under the intensity of his gaze. Their eyes locked and Sakura almost lost herself entirely in his eyes.
A trademark Sasuke smirk crossing his face broke her out of her trance, and she scoffed at his arrogant expression. His perfect lips parted like he wanted to say something, 'probably tease me again,' she thought with exasperation.
He was in nothing but his boxers again and she could see the outline of his muscles in the dim light that seeped through the partly open bathroom door. There was very little left to the imagination and she blushed, moving her eyes to look at the dark bed covers instead.
He had of course noticed her eyes briefly raking over his body, and noticing her blushing and glancing away made a predatory smirk play across his face.
"See something you like?" he teased, chuckling as her demeanor shifted to flustered almost immediately.
"No! I-," she cut off as she noticed the evil glint in his eyes. She gulped and found herself quickly backing away until her back bumped the cold wall.
He inched closer slowly in a way that made Sakura's heart jump out her chest. He stopped mere inches from her face, eyes locked with her the entire time in a decidedly seductive way.
"Sasuke?" she questioned, no idea what to make of the situation. As he leaned in closer she found her hands coming up protectively in front of her. He grabbed them both in one larger hand and held them to the side as his lips crashed down on hers.
She eased into the kiss almost immediately, it felt so right and she couldn't help but feel incredibly guilty thinking that. 'He's a criminal,' she scolded internally, while melting helplessly into the kiss.
He bit her lip and she gasped. His tongue took the opportunity to enter the softness of her mouth. He kissed in such a dominating way and intense way that she felt she could do nothing but follow along with him.
He pulled away, and one glance at his massive smirk let her know he'd gotten exactly the response he wanted.
She pouted angrily at him, eventually looking away and pulling her hands out of his. She didn't really know what to say, so she instead settled for getting comfortable in bed again.
He followed suit and within a few seconds he had pulled her closer once again, encircling his arms around her waist, his grip was loose this time however, and she didn't struggle.
Her heart went back to beating wildly in her chest, she thought she was long since over Sasuke, but she now was starting to realize that wasn't entirely true. She suppressed her feelings once more, he was just messing with her to get a reaction.
Eventually she managed to fall asleep again. But what felt like moments later she was woken up by a rapping on the door.
"Sasuke, Pinky, you awake? It's getting late." They heard Suigetsu shout from the other side of the door.
They overslept? Sasuke grumbled a very grumpy "Hnn," before slowly releasing her and standing up.
She blushed as he stood there half naked for a moment before walking to the bathroom and closing the door. She could hear him running a bath and vaguely remembered that he hadn't taken one the night before.
She sat up off the side of the bed and began ruffling through her bag for the new outfit they'd given her.
Finding it she stood up and got changed. The clothes fit her almost perfectly and made her feel more like herself again. She finished the look off with the red jacket and shoved her sleepwear back into her backpack.
Before standing up, she headed to the doorway to find an empty hallway and decided to wait for Sasuke so he didn't think she was trying to escape and so that she didn't get lost in the maze-like halls.
She really wondered how they seemed to effortlessly navigate the hallways of every base they've come to.
After a few minutes Sasuke emerged, his hair was slightly damp and he was already dressed in his typical white and purple outfit.
He stopped for a moment and took her in, the Outfit bringing back memories of a simpler time, and of course, a much happier time.
"Suits you," he said simply and brushed past her out the doorway, she couldn't help the small smile and light pink that dusted her cheeks.
'Was that almost a compliment?' She mused with disbelief before quickly following along behind him.
Eventually they made it to the entrance of a round room, carved from the stone, and a similar looking makeshift kitchen built into it.
As usual there were non-perishable supplies in the cupboard, and he handed her a packet of jerky and a tin of peaches. She didn't even realize how hungry she was until she started eating. She hadn't eaten anything since the previous morning, courtesy of her nausea.
There was some idle chatter at the table and some discussion of the direction they were heading. They soon confirmed her suspicions that they were heading to Earth Country.
She was immensely curious what the reason could possibly be, and she came to realize she had no idea what any of his plans were, nor what his plans were for her.
She was about to voice her concerns but was interrupted abruptly by the entire energy of the room shifting.
"Sakura, get down!" Sasuke yelled, Sakura obeyed immediately and narrowly missed sharp claws swinging at her face. She crawled hurriedly under the table towards Sasuke, just as the table was flipped in the air above her.
The wooden table splintered to pieces behind her and she scurried behind Sasuke as he leaped forward to calm the giant down.
Why did he always seem to go for her when he lost control? Maybe his predatory instinct sensed her weakness without her chakra. She didn't know but she didn't like it one bit, utterly terrifying.
As Sasuke's hand made contact with his shoulder he started to revert back to his usual self almost immediately, and a look of immense shame crossed his face.
"I'm sorry Sakura-san," he said soberly with a small bow. Sakura nodded, still shaken up but deciding to move on.
They started leaving the base a few minutes later and after what felt like a very long and musty walk, they made it to the surface.
As expected it was still raining, 'they don't call it Rain Country for nothing,' she mused.
Their surroundings were absolutely barren, nothing but high gray cliff faces.
They came to an edge of a cliff, looking down at a river far below, there was still no green growing anywhere near the river, nothing but jagged rock.
She shuddered, who would even want to live here. She stared over at Sasuke who seemed to be contemplating how to cross the gap to the other side.
Eventually he turned around to face them and gave instructions to the boys before throwing Sakura over his shoulder and dashing for the gap, mid air he formed the hand signs and elevated them off the ground with a wind jutsu.
Sakura gasped at the height as she stared down at the jagged rocks and was incredibly relieved when Sasuke's feet landed on the gray rocks of the other side.
He placed her down on the floor and waited as the last two members of his team jumped the gap, using jutsu at the apex of the jump to propel them across.
On the horizon they could see large brown mountains reaching to the sky, the peaks shrouded in lower hanging clouds.
The destination didn't look any more pleasant than the surrounding grey and cold rain pelting on their cheeks, but they eventually continued forward.
After a few hours traveling on foot Sasuke eventually got irritated with Sakura lagging behind and had Juugo lift her in his arms.
As much as she liked the giant, who was gentle and kind 99% of the time, she felt incredibly vulnerable in his arms.
"Please don't switch while you're carrying me," she pleaded, gulping at the thought of how easy he could crush her before Sasuke could even react.
Juugo looked visibly hurt but nodded. Sakura instantly regretted saying anything, but it was still a nagging concern in the back of her mind the next three hours of traveling.
Sakura's mind also couldn't stop going back to thinking of the leaf village, and feeling guilty once more for her complacency. She promised herself if she ever saw a plausible opening she'd escape.
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I hope you enjoyed the chapter! I'm probably going to up the rating to M for some smut stuff but I will likely never write anything hard-core lmao.