Authors Note: I have a special warning for this chapter. Suddenly, and rather randomly, you will notice something very random suddenly happen (in an authors note, don't worry, it shouldn't confuse you TOO much) Anyway, my friend asked me to put her in the story, and I said I would. Prepare for some supreme randomness.
Sophia-Chan, this one is for you!
Pardon the MAJOR OOC-ness on Sasuke's part in this story... Sweat Drop
'Scuse the fast-passed-ness of this story, as well… I'm not one for details…
Eripmav
Part Two, Chapter Three
"So…" Naruto scratched his head. "You have to hike to the top of a huge mountain just to see some guy for five minutes that might not even exist? Sakura nodded.
"You're welcome to come along, of course," she smiled.
"Well… I guess it couldn't hurt… I need to get out, what with lack of missions and all… Sure, yeah! I'll come!" He grinned.
"Dead-last coming too?" Sasuke asked sliding into the ramen-shop booth with Sakura and Naruto. Sakura nodded.
"Yup!" Naruto's grin broadened. "Somebody has to keep you two in line!" Sakura giggled and Sasuke glared.
"When do you plan on leaving?" Sasuke turned to Sakura, changing the subject and ignoring the blonde across from him. Sakura shrugged.
"Um… tomorrow?" She poked his nose. "When do you want to leave?" she asked cutely.
"Tomorrow sounds good." He grabbed her hand and pulled it away from his face and didn't let go. Naruto scrunched up his nose.
"I would just like to say, this is very odd seeing Sasuke friendly." Sasuke let go of Sakura and turned away from her with a 'huff', proving that he did not have to be friendly
"Oh, Naruto, don't be mean." Sakura slid closer the raven-haired boy and threw her arms around his neck. "You're just jealous!" Sasuke detached himself and stood.
"I'm going to… go get ready for tomorrow." He glanced at Naruto, then Sakura, unsure about what to do next. Should he lean over and give her a kiss? Or… He came to the conclusion just as he was starting to lean over that kissing a girl in front of somebody (Naruto more importantly) was a little too out of character for him. He already tolerated more physical touch than he usually did… That was his love-sharing for the day… or maybe the week…
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Birds sang cheerfully under the constant shadow of Citnagig. Its top wasn't visible for clouds constantly blanketed it. They were, way up high, creating snowstorms that were rarely nonexistent no matter what the overall weather was.
Sakura had awoken bright and early this day and found Naruto sleeping on her doorstep when she went out for the newspaper. His eyes slowly opened and he sat up, ginning. After seeing hat, she forgot the newspaper and shut the door. Five minutes later he was to be found in her kitchen.
Sasuke had awoken as usual. After his coffee, he wandered around his house, sat and thought on his couch, then left when he thought it was a good time to leave – without cleaning anything up. (He had a sneaking suspicion that Penelope would find her way to his house and do that for him).
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All three walked in silence for the majority of the morning. Sakura tried to pass long, secret messages to Sasuke with her eyes, but he usually just cocked an eyebrow at her and shrugged, turning away. Whether he got those messages, Sakura couldn't tell. But she pretended she did.
(Random AN: Suddenly, a random person with a random name of Sophia randomly appeared! As soon as she saw Sasuke, her eyes went randomly starry – Sasuke glared – But, who's that random person out yonder? She turned, and rather randomly, screamed "KIRA!" and ran away with her hands waving madly (and randomly) in the air above her head. Sasuke muttered: "She amounts to nothing." AN2: Inside joke, ya'll ignore, has nothing to do with the story. LOL
When the sun was high in the sky – and Sakura and Sasuke felt rather over-heated – they stopped. The gigantic mountain loomed overhead and looked so close – but the three had far to go to get there.
"So," Sasuke sat next to Sakura a tree. "You couldn't get enough of me before and had to stare at me all morning…?" Sakura felt the color rise in her cheeks.
"Um… I was trying to… talk to you." She felt rather stupid telling him that, but Inner Sakura disagreed with her feelings and bluntly told her that she was stupid for telling him that.
"Talk to me." Sasuke raised his eyebrows. "You may be telepathic, but I'm pretty sure I'm not." He smirked.
"Are you sure?" Sakura questioned, not wanting to be the only one feeling like an idiot. "Here, what am I thinking?" she looked directly into his eyes, hoping a kiss would follow. He watched her for a second then shrugged.
"Do I want to know?" Sakura frowned then nodded. "Okay, whatever." He stared at her then smiled. "You have a whole stash of chocolate in your backpack." Sakura's eyes widened.
"Yes! I mean, that wasn't what I was thinking, but how did you know!" Sasuke shrugged again. And said: "I've known you since you were twelve. That seemed like something you would do." He cocked his head to the side and added: "You brought chocolate on other missions."
"I guess I have to share now, huh?" Sakura reached for her bag.
"Definitely."
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The group made it to the darkest part of the shadow by late afternoon and stopped to camp. They were so close they had to look up as far as they could just to see the clouds covering the tip. Early the next morning they would start hiking the base. So far, this mission seemed rather simple.
Sakura stared into the jumping flames of their fire. She felt weak with hunger, but there was nothing she could do about it – unless, of course, somebody walked down the road right beside where they had set up camp. Sasuke paced, thinking the same thing. Naruto munched happily on some crackers, oblivious to the fact he was looking very tasty at that moment.
"Hello there!" somebody called. Sakura snapped to attention – somebody was on the road! What excellent luck! She leapt to her feet.
An old woodsman – large and beefy – stood on the road looking out from under his bushy eyebrows at them. "You lost?" he asked, a massive hand shielding his eyes so he could see the three better.
Sasuke took a step forward, Sakura close behind.
"Nope!" Naruto said cheerfully, afraid he knew what his companions were up to. "We're going up Citnagig!"
"For fun?" the man asked, eyebrows rising. (They oddly reminded Naruto of Gai and Rock-Lee)
"Naw! Gotta see somebody named Christoph. You heard of him?" Sasuke froze in his advance. Naruto was smarter than he looked… they might be able to get some useful information… The man thought for a moment, rubbing his chin.
"…Yeah! Lives right in the storm – I heard. Never actually seen him though."
"Is that a scarf?" Sakura asked; the man eyed her strangely.
"Uh, yeah…" he unwound it from his neck and held it out to her. "Wanna see?"
"Oh, yes please." Sakura took it from him but didn't look at it. The man was suddenly uneasy.
"I'm Sasuke." The Uchiha held out his hand to the woodsman in a friendly way. He -stupidly- took it. Sasuke moved forward, clapping his hand on his shoulder. "You're a good man." He said, eyes twinkling. Sakura jumped forward dropping the scarf and biting into the woodsman's neck the same time Sasuke did.
He cried out and struggled for a minute before falling limp. Sasuke and Sakura drank mouthfuls of his warm bitter-sweet fluids…
--
Sasuke pulled away and detached Sakura. The man fell heavily to the ground.
"He has lots of blood," Sasuke told her licking his lips, "and he could spare more, but with the two of us so hungry, we better not risk killing him." Sakura nodded, feeling shaky with excitement. Naruto screwed up his face in disgust.
Sakura slowly ran her tongue over her lips.
"Mmm…" she looked up at Sasuke. "Human blood tastes so much better than raw steak. I could get used to this…" she giggled, looking longingly at the pale woodsman on the ground.
"Don't." he replied turning away and sitting down by the fire.
"Shouldn't we move him before he wakes up?" Naruto questioned glancing uneasily at the limp body on the ground.
"No." Sasuke sighed. "We will be long gone by the time he wakes up."
Sakura silently yawned and curled up on the ground. She was asleep before she could even say goodnight.
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The sun had barely popped over the horizon when Sasuke lightly shook Sakura awake. /What a face to wake up to/ Inner Sakura said glaring. Sakura agreed, but not in the way her inner self had thought.
"We should get going." He said softly as Sakura sat up.
"Is Naruto awake?" she asked stifling a yawn.
"Yeah, he said he'd scout ahead and wait for us if there are no problems." Yes! She was alone with him! Inner Sakura groaned – fearing the near future.
'I thought you liked him too!' Sakura thought at herself. /I didn't say I didn't. It's my job to disagree with you/ Inner Sakura said looking at her nails. /Besides, there are other cute guys out there/ Sakura rolled her eyes.
Sasuke was stomping out the remains of the fire, Sakura watched his every move. /Go for it/ Inner Sakura said suddenly. 'I thought you were against me…' /I changed my mind/ Inner Sakura started to walk forward, but Sakura didn't move – which meant she didn't get very far.
Sasuke straightened. He turned and watched her watch him. /Wow. You're really good at this, aren't you/ Inner Sakura slumped away.
"Trying to talk to me again?" Sasuke smirked his trademark smirk. A thought of Sasuke wildly kissing her snuck its way into her thoughts, which she dismissed almost as soon as it showed up. She shook her head. "Oh, well… are you just listening to me then?" Sakura cocked her head in confusion. "Too bad." Sasuke took a step forward.
"Are you trying to talk to me?" Sakura took a step back. He shrugged.
"Naw. I gave up on that when you didn't reply. Are you ready to leave now?" He turned away.
Sakura heard herself say no, which was very shocking and embarrassing at the same time – and she thought that maybe her inner self had somehow taken over her body. A small voice in the back of her head told her otherwise, sadly. Sasuke turned to her again, eyebrows raised.
"Really?" He looked around. "You're all packed… What else do you need to do?" An honest question – which made Sakura freeze. She hadn't really been the one who had said 'no' in the first place, so how was she supposed to answer? But if she tried to explain this out loud, Sasuke would think her out of her mind. She shrugged.
Sasuke turned his head ever so slightly, eyeing her suspiciously. He may have admitted that he loved her, but he wasn't the type of guy to turn all romantic – which was a shame.
"So... then why can't we leave yet?" He licked his lips. 'Why is he asking such difficult questions?' Sakura screamed mentally, throwing her hands into the air in exasperation. 'Just shut up and kiss me already!' She shifted her weight and looked down at her feet. Her cheeks were growing steadily warmer.
Sasuke closed the space between them and put his finger on her chin, tilting her face upward so she was forced to look at him.
"What are you thinking?" He asked narrowing his eyes.
"I…" she trailed off. What was she thinking? "Don't know." She finished lamely. Sasuke laughed.
"I think you do, you just don't want me to know." His eyes sparkled. "Am I right?" That part of Sakura took her over again, and she felt herself nodding. "Then what are you thinking?"
"Do you really want to know?" She was horrified! How could she have asked something like that? 'No you don't! PLEASE say you don't want to know…!' she cried in her head.
Well, he didn't say it, but he did nod his head. Sakura froze. Why, oh why was this happening to her?
Her knees went numb when she reached up and grabbed his head, crashing her lips into his. 'AHH!' she screamed. Half of her wanting more, and the other half wanting to pull away for some reason or another; she had kissed him that day on the park bench… but… not like this… Inner Sakura had returned out of no where and was cheering wildly.
With her thoughts (and mouth) otherwise distracted, she hadn't noticed Sasuke's arms wrapping around her waist and pulling her closer until it was too late. 'No turning back now…' she thought – regaining control of her body once again.
And that's how they were when the woodsman woke up.
Sakura had tangled her fingers in Sasuke's hair and was exploring his mouth when something hard and heavy hit her in the back of her head. She screeched and felt her knees buckle for a moment before she could turn and see what had hit her. She turned, leaning into Sasuke for balance.
The woodsman was propped up against a tree – a fair sized rock in one of his large hands.
"Monsters!" he yelled throwing the rock but missing widely.
"You ready to go now?" Sasuke whispered into her ear. She nodded as another rock was hurled at them. He let her go and walked purposely forward. The woodsman froze mid-throw. He calmly reached down and picked up his bag then Sakura's and nodded towards the woodsman. "Thanks for the grub." He said, even though Sakura could not see his face, she had a sneaking suspicion that he was grinning evilly.
He took hold of Sakura's elbow and steered her towards the mountain. Her whole body was without sensation. She wasn't sure if it was because she had just been his in the back of the head, or if she was in shock about how Sasuke was kissing her… or maybe both... Inner Sakura didn't say anything.
Sakura didn't realize they had caught up with Naruto until a hand was waved in front of her face.
"Is she okay?" she heard the blonde ask.
"I think so… she doesn't have a concussion… though, that rock still hit her pretty hard." Sakura swallowed. /he…/ Inner Sakura gasped. /is an awesome kisser/ Sakura agreed, not pushing away the image that suddenly popped into her mind again.
"Sakura?" She finally focused her eyes. Naruto was bending over her with a worried expression. She blinked. "Are you okay?"
"Um…" she sat up. When had she lain down? Last she remembered she was walking… "I think so…" she blinked a number of times more. Sasuke stood not far away, a tiny smirk playing on his lips. Sakura guessed that he knew why she was feeling a little light-headed, but he said nothing.
"Do you think we could get going?" Naruto stood up and offered his hand to Sakura, who took it. She nodded and reached for her bag.
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The trudge up the mountain base wasn't as difficult as expected – but the climb ahead all but shouted to the world: 'Ha, ha, ha! You'll never get up me!' But, if Christoph had done so, they could too… Unless, of course, Christoph was a mountain goat… Sakura snorted. If Christoph was a mountain goat, she'd go crazy. She hated goats…
They stopped at the bottom of some very mean looking cliffs to rest and decide on the next plan of action. Naruto suggested creating a whole bunch of doppelgangers stacking up then climbing up them – but that idea was quickly pushed aside into the stupid, useless, don't-even-go-there pile (Where most of his suggestions ended up).
"Why not just walk up the cliff face concentrating our chakra to our feet?" Sasuke said finally. Sakura felt stupid for not thinking about that in the first place, and Naruto shut his mouth entirely. Thus – our favourite trio made it up the cliffs without too much trouble (only having to rescue Naruto four times).
"When Penelope said 'complicated'," Sakura gasped, energy draining fast. They may not have had much to do so far, but they were high up and the air was thinning; not to mention, they had just used a lot of chakra. "She was wrong, wasn't she?" Sasuke shrugged.
"We don't know how to get changed back yet, so I wouldn't count your chickens just yet." Naruto snapped to attention.
"Chicken?" Nobody answered him.
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They didn't travel anymore that day. Tomorrow afternoon they would be getting snowed on, and they needed to save their energy.
Naruto amused himself by throwing rocks over the cliff edge to see if he could hear them hit the bottom. Sakura daydreamed about earlier that day, and Sasuke stared off into space – not doing much (but possibly also daydreaming about the same thing Sakura was – but he'd never admit that!)
Sakura grinned up at the cloudy sky. /It would be so easy to push Naruto off the mountain…/ Inner Sakura pointed out. Sakura agreed. /Then we could be alone again…/ She grinned evilly at Sasuke who had closed his eyes. She plotted out different scenarios of how to get alone… (All of which took place after she was done reliving earlier events a number of times over, of course.)
Naruto tossed a larger rock over – leaning so he could watch it crack into halves. The noise of it breaking was delayed, and this thrilled him greatly. He started looking for other things to throw over the edge. His eyes fell upon Sasuke, but he didn't move, knowing he would be next as soon as Sakura noticed the dark-haired snob missing. He threw over a kunai instead.
Sasuke's thoughts drifted. The thrill of killing his brother (which he hadn't gotten around to do just yet) to Sakura – he smiled – to the taste of blood in his mouth and its texture over his tongue. He was starting to enjoy his change… No wonder Penelope was still a vampire. Unless this was some wild goose chase to get him to enjoy the change – which he half hoped it was. But the thought of Sakura enjoying bloodshed made him change his thoughts to: 'If this is for nothing I will personally strangle Penelope then hang her by her toes over a steaming pile of camel dung and leave her there until flies infest her armpits.'
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The night was cold. Sakura felt the half of her that said and did crazy things (sometimes stupid and wonderful things) take over as she crawled towards Sasuke's sleeping form. What, exactly, she was planning on doing, she wasn't sure – even Inner Sakura watched sleepily in order to find out.
His eyes snapped open (even though it was dark and Sakura couldn't really see them, she felt him stiffen and had guessed they had) when she picked up his arm and put it around her. He took a sharp intake of breath when she then put her head onto his chest. She let the wild side of her (which she had decided on calling it) keep control and didn't fight when she snuggled closer. Sasuke didn't object, but he didn't move either. She thought, for a second, that maybe she had mistaken Naruto for Sasuke… but she fell asleep again before she could double check.
'What… is… she… doing…?' Sasuke thought when Sakura had crawled over to him. Her breath had evened out and he guessed she had already fallen asleep. He allowed himself to relax – enjoying her warmth, and closed his eyes once again.