Chapter XI
There were rich people and there was their money.
Then there was their eerie fetish for dressing up anyone that did not have the 'appropriate' attire.
Sakura sat next to Kakashi wondering what to do. All the color and flawless craftsmanship in the pillows and screens had long lost the kunoichi's interest. Brought up as a proper young woman, she had waited for the hostess to offer a conversation, a slice of fruit, a sharpened slab of metal to end the monotonous exchange of words.... Anything, just anything that would deflect her attention from that itch developing at the base of her neck.
"Dear, I'd like to show Sakura-san around the estate." Mrs. Thompson finally seized the moment of silence between the two men to entertain her own guest, much to the kunoichi's relief. Her legs had been growing stiff, and she doubted that any grace was left in her limbs after kneeling for and extended period of time.
"Well then, I suppose I'll show Kakashi around some of my favorite haunts." I suppose when you have a house twice the size of the Hokage monument you're on first-name basis with anyone you wish, Sakura reflected as she struggled to her feet.
"Would you like a cigarette?" Thompson-sama extended a pale hand to offer a white stick of elegant lung-decomposers as the two men made their exit. Kakashi, of course, declined with illegible courtesy. Sakura watched the two men disappear out of the rice-paper covered sliding door. Wondering exactly where Thompson-sama planned to take Kakashi, Sakura found herself troubled by the potential similarities of the two men's interest. She had to burn those Icha Icha books before some unfortunate maid managed to find one.
A gentle hand brought Sakura's attention to her hostess. The lady before her smiled gently as she motioned to the door. Thompson-sama's wife was a rather young, well-bred sort of woman. She was either in her late teens or early twenties, and sources pointed ardently to the possibility that this was not the man's first wife.
"Come, I'll show you around the garden."
"H-hai," Sakura answered nervously. Hopefully Naruto and Sasuke-kun should be finished disposing the corpses by now.
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While Thompson-sama made himself comfortable at his desk, Kakashi surveyed the various books lining the man's study. The blond man puffed leisurely on his smoke and watched the ninja stare at foreign characters set in leather covers.
"So how long are you planning to stay here?" The question was directed at Kakashi's scarred eye as it had been the whole conversation when Thompson-sama realized that the shinobi never opened it.
"Have we worn out our welcome?"
"Oh no no no! It's nothing like that! I was actually wondering if you could stay a little longer. After all, there seems to be some turmoil going on between the Lightning Country and its southern neighbors." Kakashi contemplated on this snippet of information to what he had learned from Sakura. Though in one perspective the facts lined up quite nicely, there were too many holes in both pieces of information to come to such a conclusion.
"Well then, I suppose we have little choice—"
"Ah! Yes! Stay here as long as you wish!"
"—than to leave immediately." The man fell silent to size up his opponent. He had never argued with a ninja and gut instinct told him that he would lose if he did. Unless he could corner him into a situation where common courtesy would be his downfall...
"How unfortunate. So when are you planning on leaving?"
"As soon as possible."
"Will you stay at least be staying for dinner?" Kakashi's suspicions were roused, but even he had no choice but to accept the offer. Pervert or not, he was still their host and even if the team did leave at this moment, they would not even reach the border by nightfall.
"Yes," was his nonchalant reply. His uneasiness went undetected.
"Good! Then that's settled." The man snuffed his cigarette in the ashtray and rose from his seat. "After dinner we'll have the women join us for some sake."
Sake? Kakashi couldn't remember the last time he had anything alcoholic to drink. His first was on his twentieth birthday and after that.... He needed to get out more often.
"Sounds good."
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"Aw geez! He never takes off his mask!" Naruto and Sasuke were watching inconspicuously from between the balustrades of the second-floor hallway. Naruto despaired at Kakashi's disobedience and Sasuke said nothing but was clearly disappointed.
"Who never takes off their mask?" The two shinobi stared at the gunman. To some extent, his existence was forgotten until Naruto had brought up a dilemma: What do we do with him?
Actually, keeping the man alive was a good option. Shiro seemed to know much about the technology used by their pursuers. On the other hand the kid was the curious type, and annoyingly so. Sasuke attested to that feature, claiming that the specified attribute could lead to a kunai lodged in the man's throat one fateful morning. All blood and gore compliments of a very annoyed Uchiha survivor.
Sasuke kneeled by the prisoner, kunai drawn.
"I'm cutting you loose for now. And if you try to escape..." What was a suitable punishment? The Uchiha looked to the former prankster of Konoha for help. Naruto blinked for awhile and suggested the most sadistic form of torture he could invoke in the smallest time frame.
"We'll neuter you."
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The sun was beginning to set, making the faux pond glitter as the sunlight reflected off the surface of the water. However, it was the picturesque view of the lilies and lazy catfish the kunoichi found so attractive.
"Yuko-san, I don't recall seeing you at the party." Though Yuko smiled that soft smile again, Sakura could see a trace of bitterness.
"Thompson-sama went with his third wife." The lack of expression in her voice contrasted greatly with the amount of disgrace she had just brought upon herself. I was right, Sakura thought. She isn't his first wife.
"Sakura-san, may I ask how old you are?" The pink-haired kunoichi's actions struck the hostess to be a bit juvenile, thus leading to suspicion. Without shifting her attention from the tri-tone fish to her young hostess, Sakura answered without a thought.
"Eighteen." The woman's mouth opened slightly in astonishment. Judging by the couple's sociable relationship, Yuko-san had thought the couple was quite young, but not that young.
"Forgive me for my intrusion, but how old is your husband?"
"Um..." Sakura quickly added eight years to her age, assuming that she had met Kakashi when he was twenty years old. He didn't look that old, after all.
"Twenty-six. It's August, so he's twenty-six," Sakura added to conceal her moment of uncertainty.
"How did you two meet?"
"He was my teacher." Sakura stopped. The prospective reaction of high society and this bit of information would be explosive as well the range of scandalous gossip around their pre-marital relationship. How would aristocracy react to someone married to their teacher? With any luck, they would gossip and romanticize about the fact after she reverted back to Miss Haruno and was turning in her report that had conveniently omitted several unimportant events during the course of the mission.
Back in the plane of reality, Sakura wondered why she was engaging in small talk. As far as she knew, no one was in the garden and the possibilities of a potential ninja attacks were unlikely. After all, the only people who had attacked the team were all alien to this country.
Choosing her words carefully, Sakura decided to test the dependability of her senses.
"Do you know about 'them'?" she asked innocently.
The other woman looked as innocent as Sakura as she replied, "I'm afraid I don't know what you are talking about." Both women fell silent. Either Yuko-san was paranoid, or she knew something Sakura did not. In any case, questioning the matter was not wise.
The sun had disappeared over the horizon but the clouds still held their fiery color, and Sakura could no longer see anything below the surface of the water.
With a sweep of her sleeve, Yuko gestured elegantly toward the mansion. "Come, dinner should be ready."
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"So this thing is called a gun," Naruto said as he pivoted the cylinder.
"No, that's the cylinder and those are the bullets."
"So this is a cylinder?" Naruto took out a bullet.
"I thought that was the gun," Sasuke pointed to the cylinder.
"No, that's a bullet."
"That was the bullet? I thought the gun holds the bullets."
"It's the cylinder that holds the bullets for the gun."
A pause.
"The world is full of mysterious things," Naruto philosophized. Sasuke scratched his head. Shiro sighed.
Ninjas are... weird.
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She was back in that position again. Kneeling beside Kakashi and imagining the joys of a tea-free life. Once she got back to Konoha, she wanted to walk and drink soda. At the same time, too. Such activities were hard to come by in the mansion and the kunoichi was desperately pining for them at this moment.
Everyone, even Yuko-san, seemed to be enjoying themselves as sake bottles began to form a ring around the table. Though the surrounding evidence of drunkenness looked irrational and foolish, Sakura decided that there was a certain amount of twisted charm in slowly destroying one's liver.
"So Kakashi," Thompson-sama drawled, "Are you sure you don't want Sakura to... Sakura-san to join us?" As Kakashi glanced at his 'wife', Sakura realized that he was not as intoxicated as she had expected. His shot glass was emptied in between the time Thompson-sama gave Sakura a capitalistic glimpse.
"She's still underage."
"Hm, so you're not willing to share your blossom? How selfish." Sakura's eyebrow twitched. The only thing she would like to share with this man was half her senbon collection. Preferably at a high speed.
Kakashi poured himself another cup of sake.
"I don't need money." Thompson-sama looked a bit shocked at the reply before laughing hysterically. His spine-chilling falsetto sent Sakura shifting her knees to slowly back away from the table.
"Since when was this about money? It's all about pleasure! Stay here, eat well, tour the estate and experience the spectrum of exotic women!" The blond man rattled the silverware on the small table as he thudded an elbow on the table, scanning the kunoichi with sleepy eyes. It wasn't as bad as Ono-sama, but Sakura was nevertheless annoyed at how Kakashi continued to put up with this behavior. Yuko-san had seemed to have left reality and was staring intently into space.
"Is that why you offered an extended stay here? So that you could add my wife into your personal prostitute collection?" The room fell silent. The cicadas began to buzz like Naruto on caffeine in the impending silence.
"Well, yes. In a very crass way of saying so." Kakashi rose to his feet and ambled toward the door. He stopped before the sliding door.
"Sakura."
"Huh?"
"Are you taking a shower tonight?"
"Well... yeah."
"Then me too." Sakura blushed furiously and ran after Kakashi who had opened the door and walked out. This was definitely not the reaction she was asking for from him, and definitely not the kind of exit she had in mind.
Before running out to have a talk with her dignity-deficient husband, Sakura chanced a look behind her one more time. Thompson-sama had started on another bottle of sake and Yuko-san still had a faraway look in her eyes. But with a tear trailing down her pale face.
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"Kakashi-sensei!" she barked. Although everyone seemed to be too drunk to remember, Sakura was determined to give the man a good lecture. No one talked about their marraige life like that, whether it existed or not.
But Kakashi did not answer and went straight to their designated room. Sakura decided to try again.
"Kakashi-senpai?" His silence was unnerving. After she received no reply, the kunoichi followed the man mutely and watched the jounin closely as he entered the room.
There was no need for any more scrutinization since Kakashi began to sway and crumpled to his knees at the side of the bed.
He really did have too much to drink. After all, he downed at least three bottles of sake, Sakura reminisced distastefully.
"Ah... Since I'm not... as tense... alcohol's kicking in..." Squeezing his eyes shut, Kakashi attempted to calm the stormy room with his will. Sakura threw an arm around her ex-teacher's waist to steady him and gently pushed the copy ninja onto the mattress.
She had definitely never seen Kakashi like this before. In fact, it never occurred to her that her teacher would touch alcohol at all. After all, the three sins of a shinobi were sake, women and money. Or so said Sasuke. Wherever he learned that from.
Finishing her task in moving Kakashi onto the bed, Sakura turned to retreat when a hand seized her wrist and pulled her back. A shoulder rammed into her stomach, leaving her literally breathless.
"Sakura..." The kunoichi bit her lip in apprehension. This was an uncomfortable position. Here she stood with her thoroughly smashed leader with his face buried into her stomach. As she had once told herself: dire circumstances popped up like worms after the rain.
"You smell nice."
"You smell like alcohol," Sakura retorted as she attempted to push the man away by his shoulders. Her rejection only caused the man to hold her tighter and in result, made breathing a demanding task.
"Don't go." She stopped.
"Even if it's just for tonight... don't go." Originally, Sakura would have dismissed Kakashi as a drunken pervert. Yet tonight she remembered something Sasuke once told her when the team discussed about their—at that time—teacher.
He said that all the people who were close to him were all dead.
All of them?
Ah. I wouldn't be surprised if we were the first people who know him as much as we do since those people died
When did he tell you all that?
Um... when I said I'd kill everyone close to him....
Sakura ceased panicking and relaxed slightly. Kakashi had been living in the perpetual state of desertion, and in his state of intoxication the paranoia of losing another precious person had risen to Kakashi's typically tranquil exterior. She once heard that forcefully breaking a person's grip in this state would be a source of night terrors for the inebriated or unconscious.
Or was it just the unconscious? Her mother was never the one to be clear with words.
Softly touching the man's arms to loosen his grip, the kunoichi slipped out of his grip to sit behind the man. Leaning against Kakashi's back, Sakura heaved a loud sigh. She vaguely felt her drunken counterpart's weight also shift against her backside.
Just for tonight, she decided as her world began to fade into drowsiness. Just for tonight, we'll share the bed.
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Author's Notes:
I have to get those guys out of that stupid mansion in order to
write some legitimate action! But Kakashi just got wasted, so that's postponed.
At some point in time, I'll be merging chapters together. Probably when I'm finished with the fic.
The funny thing with this chapter was that I kept writing 'sake' as 'sakura'.
For every review submitted with the sole purpose of making an author update ("looking forward to the next chapter" is a bit different from "PLZ UPDATE!!"), a brain cell dies. I update once a week. I need all my brain cells. End of analogy.
"Fanartist"