DANCE OF THE LIFETIME
by: thespis
CHAPTER2: The Longest Journey
They have already quite covered a distance when Naruto began to ask questions. "Ne, Sakura-chan, why are we walking? Shouldn't we be hurrying?"
Sakura smiled sweetly. "The Lightning Country is a long way from here. There is no point in wasting our chakra, Naruto. Besides, I hear this sage doesn't give answers easily. We must reserve chakra in case of emergency."
Hatake Kakashi looked at his sole female ex-student. "Are you sick, Sakura?" He aske. "You act... different.
Sakura only beamed. "Do you think so? Well, I underwent a therapy just last week. Now I treat each day as if it were my last." Naruto stopped in his tracks.
"Creepy."
Sakura smiled "You haven't seen the worst, Naruto. Last night I drafted my last will and testament. And the day before that I arranged for my funeral. I even got Ino to give me a discount on the flowers." Naruto shivered.
"Sakura-chan, stop making such creepy jokes. Makes me shiver with fright," he berated her softly. "You talk as if you're gonna die sooner or later."
"Hey, you'll never know. I'm just starting a conversation, everybody's getting silent here. The weather's fine. The scenery's beautiful..." Sakura's list went on and on. Soon enough, Naruto was already joining here philosophical--if not nonsensical--ideologies and sights. Only two men were not participating the general discussion, Kakashi who was understandably studying the map, and Sasuke.
He wasn't even busy listening to the constant unnecessary chatter his two other teammates were making. He was busy taking in his surroundings. A leaf falling here. Fall... in summer? A puddle by the road. Outrageous boulders by the road. Something was definitely not right. It was like a miising piece of the jigsaw puzzle. And yet, he still couldn't figure out how to put the other pieces. A lot of scenes in the picture weren't right. Lacking. Or misplaced. He tried making eye contact with his teammates. But to no avail. The two were busy chatting, only a huge bomb could've stopped their animated conversation
So he did the only way he could think of. "Damn all cowards. They totally piss me off," he said aloud. Sakura stopped in her tracks.
"Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you earlier, I carry the scroll of charity," she said sheepishly. She scratched the back of her head and shrugged. "A lot of scammers would probably hot on our heels now."
"YOU WHAT!" Naruto nearly screamed. "Can you repeat that just one little bit?"
"Uh, a lot of scammers are probably hot on our heels now?" She asked warily. "That's not a big deal, is that?"
"No," Sasuke said impatiently, "the earlier part."
"I. Have. The. Scroll. Of. Charity." Sakura repeated slowly as if explaining to a ten-year-old.
"Damn," Sasuke and Narutocursed, eyeing the surroundings, feeling entrapped by some invisible force. They saw some nins in a far-off distance, assuming their presence hasn't been felt yet. Their biggest ordeal has yet to start--waiting for the enemies to attack.
"Let's walk," Kakashi suggested. "It won't do better for us if they know they've been busted."
Sakura, gettng the drift, started walking. "Hey Naruto, do you know that only one person truly knows the remedy for the rare disease?" She started conversation with the blonde. The jounin easily caught up with her. "That's why it has a rare name. 'Heaven's Grief.' Wierd, isn't it?"
"Ne, Sakura, why do you know a lot about this mission?" he asked, quizically.
"Well," Sakura answered off-handedly, "Tsunade thought it was only righteous that I know my--my patient's disease. She made me read all scroll she could get her hands on."Suddenly a projectile whizzed silently through,aiming for Sakura.
"Sakura, look out!" Her teammates shouted. She could only shake her head.
"Too slow," she muttered. Deftly she deflected the projectile with her own kunai, launching it straght to the ground. A senbon, with a poison from the looks ofthe liquid staining the soil. "That was suicidal," she cheerfully commented. "Anybody courageous enough to face me fully and fight with me face to face?" she asked, the deadly venom hidden perfectly within the cheerful smile she wore. Naruto looked bewildered as a group of ninjas began closing in on them like a pack of hungry wolves.
"You're lucky," Sakura said gleefully. "I'm feeling a bit cheerful today. More optimistic, actually." She took off from her pocket a pair of fingerless gloves, one red and the other black, and snapped them fit into her hands. "Perhaps I could take on a fight."
There was nothing the boys could do but fight with the gleeful lady-killer. They watched her in between their own fight for life as she hacked and slashed with the retractable claws on her gloves, disappearing and reappearing in a flash, killing mercilessly. Within a matter of minutes, all enemies have been exterminated. And Sasuke has just gotten to his fifth foe. Talk about bloodlust.
"Well, that was satiating," Sakura said as they continued to stare at her. Time passed. "Hey," she protested at their disbelieving stares, "you could never know, that might have been my last fight. Might as well be fulfilling..."
There was no time to comment on her supposedly "last fight" as another wave of ninjas, stronger this time, began to attack them. "Might as well enjoy,"Naruto shrugged, taking on one of the ninjas aiming for his friend. There was a mancal grin on his face, as if killing couldn't have been the best thing... After ramen, that s.
Sasuke sighed. "For all I know, this could be the longest journey I'll ever embark on," he muttered darkly. Quickly he performed a series of handseals and blasted on the nnjas for all he cared.