(What a little can do)

A few days had passed since her and Hiten's little balcony scene, and the thunder demon hadn't been speaking to her since. The only people that she could talk to were Manten and herself in the privacy of her dingy room.

That morning, Sakura woke up quite late to find that both brothers had left the house, probably to hunt...or to do other things. With nothing to do, she decided that for now she could clean up the house, sleep some more, and then go to the hot springs. She had snuck out of the house a couple of days ago and had found the most beautiful hot spring ever. She was quite sure that no one knew about this, for it was located in a really small cave-like space.

But she couldn't help but wonder...what was it that made her change her mind about Hiten? She remembered hating him deep down to the bone. She remembered him claiming that he wasn't a virgin, and that he had made out with other females. So why was she so attracted to him?

Night didn't come so slowly that day, and that was the way Sakura wanted it to be. The sun seemed to read her mind that she wanted to jump into her little hot spring faster once night came. After all, her hair was seriously starting to smell after two weeks of not washing it or putting it anywhere near water.

She grabbed a huge random towel from Hiten's room, wishing that he wouldn't question where it went for the next few hours or so. She decided to leave a quick note for him.

'Dear Hiten,' she wrote.

Looking at it, she scratched away the 'Dear' and pondered. 'Hiten, I'm going to go to the hot springs...' reviewing about that sentence, she scratched away the fact that she was going to the hot springs. You never knew what men could do.

After a few moments of scratching out and writing in, she left her note.

'Hiten, I'm going to go somewhere for the next couple of hours. Don't get pissed asking Manten where I went, because I'm not going anywhere far. After all, I can't make it through these cliffs myself, you know.'

Pleased, she carried her things in her bag and set off to get clean.

Sakura quickly stripped herself from her clothes and sank deep into the hot spring. A faint aroma of foggy moisture rose to the ceiling of the small cave, creating water droplets that fell upon the surface of the water.

She was quite pleased with herself for finding such a place. Hopefully, no one else knew about this; and she could keep her little secret to herself only. Looking at the ripples that every other water drops created, Sakura thought about the events that had went past her. She first thought of Hiten.

The crimson eyed demon with a mask of ice and a heart of fire.

She had only known him for two weeks, but that was a good enough time to get to know him. She had found that he was a caring person; only others didn't care or had taken the time to notice it. He pretended not to give a damn, but yet he did. He gave more than a damn, to be precise.

She knew now that he didn't hate her...but did he love her back? Two weeks, yes; was a short time to fall in love. But something strange came upon her as if she had known Hiten since childhood.

Still...she wasn't so sure about how Hiten felt about her. He had attempted to kiss her a few days prior with no success. That made her think hard; did he really care about her?

...Or was he trying to use her for pleasure and pleasure only?

If he was, she knew she didn't stand a chance. She was made fun of because she was a virgin back home in her village. All the girls had married at the young age of thirteen, experienced...whatever, and none of them still carried purity. She was, however.

She didn't want to lose her purity to a male that wanted her for pleasure; she wanted to lose purity to a male that loved her as much as she loved him. Sakura sincerely wished that Hiten wasn't toying around with her. If he was...

Sakura felt a tear squeezing its way out of the corner of her eyes. Closing her eyes shut, she let it drop to the surface of the water and hoped that Hiten wasn't playing around with her. That would be really...

Interrupting her thoughts, footsteps rang across the rock covered floor and she saw a faint outline of a male figure standing by the ledge of the hot spring. Horrified and surprised at the same time, Sakura quickly looked around for Hiten's towel and covered her body from her chest down, then sank into the water leaving only her eyes and nose out so that she could see who it was.

'So I wasn't the only one...;' Sakura thought to herself as the figure stripped himself of his clothes. Pressurizing herself and her mind not to scream, she sank down deep into the water after taking in a deep breath.

Underwater, she could hear the figure stepping into the waters and Sakura silently; and desperately; wished that this man had a towel on. Suddenly with a gasp, she inhaled a considerable amount of water and came up to the surface choking.

"Sakura?" she heard the male calling to her. She tried to squint through all the damp fogginess, but an outline of a face was all she could get out of it.

And maybe a pair of blood red eyes, raven hair, and...

'Oh my god...' Sakura thought to herself. 'It's Hiten! Or a clone of Hiten! Or someone that looks strangely too close to Hiten! Or...'

"Hi, Hiten." She said with a nervous cough. "Um, you knew about this place?"

"Of course..." he muttered. "I am the one who found this place, after all. And what are you doing with my towel?"

"Let me borrow it for awhile, okay?" Sakura pleaded. "I have to cover myself until I'm finished, right?"

"Not necessarily." Was Hiten's simple answer followed by a slap from Sakura. Scowling, she crossed her arms tight and glared.

"Pervert." She muttered under her breath so that he could hear. Hiten rubbed the slap mark which Sakura gave her and looked into her eyes again. Sakura loosened her expression and looked back at him.

"What?" he said, gazing away from her view. To his surprise, Sakura leaned on his shoulder and sighed deeply.

"Hiten?" she asked. "Am I merely nothing to you? Do you take me as an equal with any geishas? Am I no different to any of your prostitutes?"

Hiten felt his heart drop to his stomach. So this was why she was so upset for the past couple of days? For him it sounded like an unreasonable excuse to get mad or upset. Then again, maybe she thought that he had treated her nicely so he could get what he wanted. You never knew girls.

"I was wondering why you didn't kill me off, not that I wanted you to...but over the weeks I thought about you and how you were nice to me, but then I'd remember you wanting to rape me, that you kidnapped me only for your pleasure and I'd hate you all over again. But I don't feel that way anymore, I only think about you treating me kindly."

"Sakura..." Hiten whispered, but was cut off by her again.

"If you're just playing around with me, you might as well kill me right now..."

Hiten had enough. He wanted to show her how much he loved her, but if this was the way that she was going to come out, then he might as well show her.

"Remember the time when we were sitting on the balcony?"

"Yeah." Sakura replied.

"Well, I'd wanted to show you something."

"What is it?"

Without another word, Hiten wrapped his arms around Sakura's neck and kissed her ever so deeply; his mind shooting into a state of ecstasy.

(Too busy typing at the keyboard eating ramen...) Oh, hi. I'm going to straighten things out...

1) No, there will be no lemon scene in the hot springs...

2) Yes, there will be a lemon scene...

3) Yes, that Namie girl will come back...

4) Yes, Manten will do something bad...

5) Yes, Sakura will...OMG, I'm saying too much! Bye bye! (Bounces away)