Chapter Four: Unfolding the Story

"Hello, Sasuke-san."

The honorific felt foreign to her tongue, which was so used to forming –kun after Sasuke's name. She wondered if he even noticed the difference-how metallic it sounded.

As usual, there was no emotion written on his face as he looked at her, as if measuring her up. Remembering how he had questioned her about her hair last time, she made an effort to regulate her chakra flow without changing her hair color back to pink. If there was one thing she refused to do, it would be to dye her hair brown.

Inner Sakura shuddered while holding and petting her hair. Her lovely pink hair would NEVER be touched by that horrible dye. Ech.

He glared at her. She looked back at him. She was used to his cold stares-perhaps too used to them. But sometimes, when they were younger, there was always something tender at the same time as he glared at her, almost as if he were doing so half-heartedly simply to keep up the image he had created for himself.

He turned around and walked away, occupying himself with something else. Sakura's heart constricted slightly-the last time he walked away from her, he didn't come back.

He still technically wasn't back. He was on this god-forsaken ship, not home in Konoha, where there was SOLID land and grass and green things.

Yes, green things, not blue things. Green things.

Just then, twenty-three-year-old Haruno Sakura realized how much she missed Rock Lee.

"Hey! Nami-chan!"

Sakura looked up and saw Ino waving at her. Smiling slightly, the medic-nin headed over the main mast, her original destination before taking a brief detour due to a cardiac sphincter malfunction, and climbed the ratlines to the trestletree, where her friend was perched.

"Hey Ino-chan," said Sakura, trying to get comfortable in the small space that was available.

"Did you find the gallery?" the blonde asked, blue eyes focusing on the other girl's face.

"Yeah. Everything's there, which is a relief. Everyone's had lunch already, right?"

"Think so," came Ino's reply, "if not, they'll have to live. We were supposed to eat before setting sail."

"Okay."

They drifted into silence, with Ino looking out at the sea and Sakura leaning back against the mast, thinking.

"Ino," she said, after a few minutes of pronounced silence, "why doesn't Kabuto recognize you and everyone else?"

Ino's face turned toward Sakura. "Kabuto never really took a close look at the rest of us at the exams. He was mostly with your team. Plus, when we came aboard, Sasuke secretly used his sharingan on him, which was powerful to make him forget us even if he did glimpse us. We probably looked familiar to him, but he should have doubted himself. After all, he's known us for a year now."

Another moment of silence passed before Sakura asked another question-one that was sitting on her mind for the past day.

"Why does Itachi keep Sasuke-kun here and not kill him? And why didn't Sasuke-kun leave even after he lost? And how did Sasuke and the rest of you get on the ship in the first place?"

A sigh escaped the blonde's lips. She was dreading to answer Sakura's question. She looked back out at the sea, not wanting to see her best friend's face as she related the story.

"He came back last year looking for you, Sakura-chan."

Green eyes flew to Ino's face. "What?" she whispered, not believing the words that were uttered.

"You were out on an A-ranked mission. He was living somewhere near the Hidden Stone Village, and as he stepped into town, he heard rumors that the Akitsuki had hijacked a ship and converted it into a pirate ship. Naturally, Sasuke wanted a way to board that ship as quickly as possible before Itachi-teme could escape his clutches again, so he left the market. But as he left, he heard the store manager say that they had captured a pretty pink-haired jounin and planed to sell her into the slave market. He ran back to Konoha looking for you. Scared the Godaime half to death when he burst into her office too."

"Ino, stop lying. I don't believe you."

Ino ignored her comment and kept going. "Tsunade-sama was about to kill him before he burst out that you were in danger. She stopped her attacks immediately, not only surprised at the fact that Sasuke-kun shouted, but also at the fact that you could have been hurt. I guess that was when she realized that Sasuke-kun was still human and that maybe you were the one who kept him that way. True, he betrayed Konoha, but he came back looking for you. Always only for you.

"She gathered a handful of us together, those who weren't overly recognizable and noted for specific traits and gave us this mission-to see if you were indeed kidnapped by Itachi. By the time we found the rumor to be false, Itachi had beaten Sasuke. It was lucky that Itachi-teme didn't suspect that we were with Sasuke. We would have been killed. The Godaime sent us separately and from different places. She had gotten together with the leaders of the other villages and explained the situation. All the villages would be affected if the Akitsuki were allowed to stay as pirates, so they allowed us to bear their forehead protectors. They made out our criminal records and how we were all missing-nin and attributed many horrible crimes to us. When we showed up at the port in the Water Village, our names had been circulated long enough for him to recognize us. We were tested-Itachi and Kisame fought us-and he found us acceptable. Sasuke-kun was in disguise, naturally, with his curse mark bandaged so that no one could see it."

Ino took a long breath, pausing her story slightly, letting the information she released set in. She began again after a little while, crossing her arms over her chest and closing her eyes.

"We spent about a week searching through everything for you. It was hard, especially since we had to do it surreptitiously without anyone noticing. That's why it took so long. Shino's bugs really helped to speed up the process. When we couldn't find a single hair of yours anywhere on the ship, we were relieved that it was a rumor. It was then that Sasuke had confronted Itachi-teme. They fought-I already told you that much-and Sasuke lost."

Sakura was near speechlessness when Ino paused again. The newcomer took that moment to ask one part of her question again.

"Why are you guys still here then?"

Again, a sigh escaped from Ino's dry lips, which were tired of talking, as blue eyes opened and set themselves on the patched whites of the sails. "When Itachi-teme touched the cursed seal, Sasuke was bound to this ship. Sasuke-kun can't walk more than ten kilometers away from the ship without feeling an excruciating amount of pain that's powerful enough to kill him. Believe me, he tried. He didn't wake up for a week after that. What I still don't understand is why his brother didn't kill him, knowing that he was still the stronger brother."

"Is there a way to break the curse, Ino?" Sakura asked with a pleading voice, "There has to be, right?"

Ino's eyes closed in desperation.

"I don't know, Sakura, I really don't know."

A/N: Sorry it's short, but again, I wrote this chapter and chapter three together and had to find a nice spot to cut, so yeah. Does the plot line make a little more sense now? No real action yet (look for that in the next few chapters). If you would like to see something in this fic, please leave a review with what you would like to see. I am, unfortunately, not a mind reader, and I only have a very very very (times one billion) vague idea of how I want this story to go, which means that I can add things in very easily. In other simpler words: writer's block. Haha. I know how I want to end this, and I would like to say that there will definitely be some sword fighting (:grins:) but other than that, some guidance would be appreciated. I'm trying to keep everyone in character, so as much as I wish Sasuke would go all lovey-dovey on Sakura, I can't make him that way. His character is very rigid, and it's difficult to mold in such a way that romance can happen, so I'm really sorry about the lack of romance right now. :( It should pick up soon though. Thanks for reading!

-Ivy