Eripmav

Part Three, Chapter Three

"Ow."

"I told you."

"Pain."

"You should not have gone."

"Mmm-mmm!" Sakura tearlessly sobbed.

"Now you know," Sasuke stated calmly, "Not to play tennis, go swimming, and sit around in the sun all day without sunscreen, and more importantly, without any shade!" he rolled his eyes, starting to smile.

Sakura was laying on her kitchen floor – sun-burned a bright red that clashed horribly with her hair. She sighed heavily. "Why didn't you try to stop me?" she sat up.

"I did." He passed her a wet cloth and aloe Vera gel.

"Not hard enough." She took the cloth and put it on her face after falling back onto the floor.

"You'll be fine tomorrow." Sasuke walked over to a window and lift the drapes up slightly, looking out at the late afternoon sun.

"It's now that I'm worried about!" she sat up again then stood. "This is very painful, I'll have you know."

"I'd give you a hug, but you might crumble into a pile of ashes." Sasuke turned, a half smirk pulling at his lips. "So I will do my best to restrain myself and spare you that."

"Oh, you…" Sakura racked her mind for an insult to throw back at him, but she came up with nothing and just said: "Shut up."

Suddenly, Penelope was standing in the doorway. She had popped up every now and then to tell them things that she had forgotten on earlier visits. Naruto still hadn't fully gotten used to her sudden appearances and Sakura jumped every once in a while, Sasuke, on the other hand, was completely used to it. Probably because it was usually, if not always, around him that she did appear. It was like one of the most normal things – to turn around and have a tall vampire suddenly behind you, grinning. How she managed to always sneak up on them, shall remain a mystery.

This time, however, when Sasuke turned around, she was frowning.

"Ouch! In the sun too long?" Sakura grunted her reply. "Anyway," she turned back to Sasuke. "Have you figured out the wind thing?" Sasuke shook his head. It had been two weeks since coming home. So far, no dragons had been spotted, and with no dragons, no wind coming off their wings.

Kakashi had tried going into every pub and wine store (maybe more than once and more than needed) asking about 'Wind off a Dragons Wing'. Most people mistook him for a foreign guest – and the people that knew him just smiled politely and shook their heads.

"It'll turn up. I was just at Christoph's, asked him how to change back, (he had already long forgotten you) and he said the same thing. I've never known him to be wrong about something like this." She glanced at Sakura. "Do you want something for that? It looks painful…" Sakura just groaned.

"She'll live." Sasuke sighed. "How is Christoph?" Penelope shrugged, chocking her head.

"Forgetful." She smiled, "Anyhow, I better run along, tootles!" She winked and left.

"I should get going too." Sasuke sighed again. "I'll see you tomorrow." He was just leaning over to kiss her cheek, but changed his mind. 'Too painful.' He smiled and left.

"Ow." Sakura stiffly wandered to her bedroom.

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"OH MY GOD!" Sakura's head snapped up as her front door burst open. "WIND OFF A DRAGON'S WING!" Naruto sprinted into her bedroom where she was just crawling out of bed. "I FOUND IT!" Her eyes widened.

Sasuke came rushing in.

"What's the emergency?" He gasped, looking from Naruto to Sakura – obviously he ran all the way from his own house.

"Wind off a dragon's wing…" Sakura said quietly. "Naruto…"

"I FOUND IT!" He said proudly, his face glowing and sticking his thumb into his puffed-out chest.

"What?"

"I found it! It's not a drink, or cosmetic, or any of the things we thought! It's a term for an unexplained storm. A wind storm, usually. And these little wild flowers pop up wherever it happened." Sasuke's eyebrows went up. "A flower! It's a flower after a wind storm! AND ONE HIT JUST OUTSIDE OF TOWN (how convenient)!" Sakura jumped the rest of the way out of her bed and started hopping up and down, squealing. Sasuke's expression was blank, but his eyes were relieved.

"I overheard some people talking about it at the Ramen Shop. I bolted outta there. I think I even forgot to pay!" He started laughing and scratched the back of his head. "I found it!" he said quietly, amazed.

Sakura felt she could have kissed Naruto – but she held back and turned to Sasuke instead. She surprised him, how she suddenly pounced on him, grinning against his lips.

"Down girl," Sasuke sighed pulling Sakura away and holder her at arms length. "We don't have those flowers just yet."

"Yeah, and you may not get them if you don't hurry! They die after twenty-seven hours!" Sakura looked at Naruto, Naruto looked at Sasuke, Sasuke looked at Sakura. "Well? What are you waiting for?"

"Right!" Sakura ran to her closet. "Let's get going!" … "Um," Sakura turned around. "If you don't mind… I was going to get dressed…" Sasuke nodded and pulled Naruto by the elbow out of the room.

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Sasuke and Sakura packed lightly. A bedroll… and chocolate – if you were Sakura. (Thankfully, even though they were vampires, solid food wasn't impossible for them… and more importantly, coffee still had its wake-up effect! … ) Naruto, however, packed a bedroll, a flashlight, a glass tube with a cork stopper, instant ramen, a thermos of hot water and a book.

"We're only going to be gone a few hours, Naruto." Sakura sighed. "Why do you need all of that?"

"Bedroll to rest on, flashlight to see with and to read my book with when it gets dark (I have to have something to pass the time with!) Thermos of boiled water to cook ramen, ramen for when I get hungry, glass tube – you have to put the flower SOMEWHERE!" Sasuke raised an eyebrow.

"Bedroll, understandable. Me and Sakura have on too. Glass tube, smart. I'm impressed! Everything else… no words come to mind other than stupid. And that doesn't sound good enough to me. When I come up with something else, I'll let you know." Sasuke smirked then tuned, leading the way though the streets. Sakura was right behind him, and Naruto took up the rear busy trying to open his thermos.

"Where to now, dead-last?" Sasuke asked when they had come out of their village. Naruto nodded east.

The sun was high in the sky when they saw the hills, grass charred. Smoke rose here and there in small curls. A few villagers were scattered around pouring buckets of water where the sparks were still live on the ground. Sakura made a small noise, looking around at the black earth.

"Fire?" She asked softly, turning to Naruto. His eyebrows joined as he scanned the area.

"Wind probably blew down a camp fire, causing the grass to burn. Look! Some of the village way down there is on fire!" He pointed out across the blackened ground. In the distance parts of a small village was obscured by smoke. Every once in a while a red flicker could be seen, indicating there were still live flames.

"Now what?" Sakura asked taking a single step towards the ashes.

"We wait." Naruto rolled out his mat and lay down on his stomach – opening his book to a marked place.

"Stupidly… smart comes to mind." Sasuke sighed sitting on the ground where he stood. Naruto looked up. "You bringing all that stuff I mean," he closed his eyes and sighed again. Naruto smiled, eyes narrow.

"Yeah, whatever." He drawled then added "dead-last." Sasuke's eyes snapped open and he glared at the blonde. "So, I'm no the only one who responds to that…" Sasuke turned away, his hair falling in front of his face.

'You would be good for nothing if you weren't part of such a high and mighty blood line!' Passed through more head than one.

"Naruto!" Sakura hissed finally sitting between the two. Sasuke shook his head.

"Don't bother, Sakura," he said quietly. "He's right…" Naruto's eyes widened, then softened again in to a friendly smile.

"Man, I'm sorry I snapped at you up on the mountain. I was outta place. I didn't mean it, okay? Like, I'd be dead if you weren't here." Sasuke looked up, shock clear on his face, mouth slightly parted and his eyes empty, searching for the joke in Naruto's words. He found none. He smiled. Naruto rose to his feet and held out his hand. "We okay now?" he asked.

Sasuke stood on his own, eyes clouding over. "Were we to begin with?" Naruto frowned. "But…" he took a deep breath before continuing. "I guess we are now." He then did something that shocked Sakura, who was watching pale and quiet where she sat, and shocked Naruto even more – who was on the other end of Sasuke's friendly hug. "Dead-Last." He taunted just barely above a whisper, so only the blonde could hear. Naruto smiled.

--

When the sun was setting, and the villagers were leaving the burnt grass, the three advanced on the ashes. Sakura watched the sun go down, arm linked with Sasuke's. Her skin was burnt again, though, she didn't care. This had turned out to be a pretty good trip. She sighed dreamily, putting her head on Sasuke's shoulder as the last of the orange-red sunlight gushed over the horizon and distant treetops. The sky slowly fell dark.

She closed her eyes. /Wow/ was all her inner self need to say. That one word said it all. When she reopened her eyes, the sun was gone and the first star twinkled high above them.

"Oh my! Look!" she clutched Sasuke's arm and pointed wildly at all the little silver points that were started to sparkle all over the blackened earth. "It's like the sky has fallen and…." She gasped as all the silver points grew larger. She looked down between her feet where a single silver leaf was sprouting with amazing speed. It was like watching a flower bloom on fast forward.

"Amazing," she breathed as a bloom appeared with four petals like two sets of jaws, snapping at the sky, and two leaves that curled over the blossom like leathery wings. "Wind off a Dragon's Wing" she bent down and touched the flower with her finger. It was like her touch brought the fast forward to a halt. Thousands of flowers – like a sea, covered the ash, making a dazzling pathway all the way to the village.

"You going to pick one?" Naruto whispered, not wanting to disturb the eerie silence. /Find the prettiest one/ Inner Sakura started roaming the flower field. Sakura nodded, unlinking her arm and falling to her knees and. Sasuke knelt beside her, watching.

"Are you going to find the prettiest one?" he asked, mimicking her thoughts. She smiled and nodded again.

She found one and pulled. It easily fell away from the earth, dirt falling like snow off its tiny, delicate roots. The leaves felt leathery and the bloom itself smelled of burnt roses. Sakura cocked her head. "They're rather beautiful, aren't they?" she said sliding the bloom into the glass tube that Naruto handed her – pressing the stopper in firmly. Sasuke didn't answer.

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"Interesting," Sakura repositioned the large book I her arms and ran her finger down the many paragraphs (AN: that makes me think of Hermione from Harry potter…!)

"What?" Naruto sat forward in his overstuffed chair. Sasuke watched quietly, leaning against a bookshelf. The whole library seemed to be holding its breath.

"The phoenix…. Almost always red or gold… blah, blah, blah…. They die every year to every other year, then are reborn from their ashes… umm… mating… One female is born for every twenty eggs. OH! Did you know the female breeding Phoenix lays one to five eggs in a clutch –"

"Sakura, What about what we came here to find out…?" Naruto sat back in his chair and Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"Oh, right," she flipped a page, and then another. "Ah! Here we are! The Phoenix is found in most areas, usually unknown to the human… They are found in most areas where there is – oh! I think we're in luck! …hmm…"

"What?" Naruto sat forward again.

"The phoenix is very territory protective. They –"

"Sakura," Sasuke stepped forward. "You're doing it again." She blushed.

"Sorry." She cleared her throat. "The average Phoenix lives on cliffs – like, higher than the one we have here – They like high places… Signs of a phoenix in the area would be scorched treetops, rock slides, um…" she scanned the page. "Thick, hot air (maybe), and not many, if not any, small creatures in the area… or deer… Among other oddities."

"Great." Naruto smiled. "Where do we get started?" Sakura frowned.

"No idea." She closed the book with a snap and replaced it on the shelf.

"We could start at Mountain Ridge… The valley. There are hundreds of cliffs that way… That would probably be our best bet." Sasuke turned towards the library exit.

Authors Note:

The Phoenix: From Dictionary dot com

Mythology. A bird in Egyptian mythology that lived in the desert for 500 years and then consumed itself by fire, later to rise renewed from its ashes. A person or thing of unsurpassed excellence or beauty; a paragon. Phoenix A constellation in the Southern Hemisphere near Tucana and Sculptor.
Middle English fenix, from Old English, from Old French both from Medieval Latin f nix, from Latin phoenix, from Greek phoinix.

From The Magical Worlds of Harry Potter: By David Colbert

'This sacred creature, almost always described as red and gold, was known as benu in ancient Egypt, where it originated. It was an important symbol of the city of Heliopolis ('Sun City'). In the Egyptian Book of the Dead, a religious text written about 2000 BC, the phoenix claims, "I am the keeper of the volume of the book of things which shall be."

In Egyptian hieroglyphics, the phoenix image coveys the passage of time, and it remains a symbol of immortality today. Writers often use the phoenix as a symbol of undying love…'

Yes, I thought that I would do some background info for you! Another shorter chapter. But hey, longer than the last, so suck it up. My first chapters were the longest. 9 pages, where as this one is only 6. That's not that bad so, I don't feel sorry for you. Lol

About the phoenix in this story, as you can see, they are a little different. Mine only live for about one to two years. Whereas most phoenix live much longer than that. I find mythology very interesting, and love studying it. I hope you enjoyed above statements. I know I would, I and its something different to have BG info here on FF dot Net. I'm going to do something like that for some chapters.