Chapter TWELVE

On second thought, Sasori could understand the surprised look Deidara sent his way when Sakura completely dismissed the room assigned to her as she followed him into his.

Honestly, he was more surprised at his own willingness to share his room; he had never been one to like people near him as he slept, and he had kicked out Deidara on more than one occasion, though that had been more to annoy the blond than anything else.

However, having Sakura in his room felt right. Bitterness welled up within him when he thought that perhaps it was all due to the Soulmate bond and whatever came with it, but he had a feeling that even if he and Sakura were not Soulmates, even if the mess of a world had not thrown them together in the situation they were currently in, and they had not been weighed down by the burdens they both carried, he could have come to like the girl.

Perhaps she was quiet because the words had been beaten out of her, and he had no way of knowing what she might have been like had Orochimaru not broken the girl that could have been. Still, as he watched the girl climb onto the bed and settle herself in a position he had become familiar with, with her back against the corner between the wall and headboard, he decided that, for not, it did not bother him at all.

Sakura looked up at him and when he pulled out the book he had brought for her, her eyes lit up. He stifled a laugh because he had no idea what he found funny as he passed it to her. "I'm going to go discuss the mission with Deidara," he said. "I will be next door."

The 'you know where to find me' was left unsaid, but Sakura nodded. "Okay," she said.

Sasori grabbed his files from his bag and tossed it onto the bed, then left the pinkette to her reading.

Deidara was lazing around on his own bed when he threw the door open.

"You always complain when I don't knock before entering, Danna." The blond sat up and watched him make himself comfortable on one of the chairs.

Sasori eyed him blankly. "I did knock."

Deidara rolled his eyes. "I didn't say you could enter."

"Would you have sent me away?"

"I guess not." Deidara threw his hands up. "You know, this is why you have so little friends. If you don't do something about your personality, Sakura-chan might come to not like you, un."

Sasori impatiently tapped his foot against the floor. "Are you done?" He asked.

"Right!" Deidara's grin widened. "You're keeping your girl waiting."

"She is reading." Sasori ran a hand through his hair. "She knows where I am."

Deidara tapped his chin in thought, eyes narrowing. "Huh."

Sasori scowled. "What?" He asked.

"Nothing!" Deidara rolled over on his bed and grabbed his pouch. "So, the mission?"

Sasori nodded. "Yes, the mission."

Zetsu had continued to keep an eye on the hideout even after they had closed it down, and Sasori trusted the man when he said there had been no moves from Orochimaru's side since. Zetsu might be a little strange, but his abilities were unparalleled when it came to his area of expertise.

"Unless we're really unlucky, we should not be coming across any enemies," he said thoughtfully. Still, he checked his weapons a few times before he placed them on himself.

Sakura watched him, then stared at the knife he held out towards her.

"I...do not use knives often," she finally said.

"Can you use them?" Sasori jerked his head in her direction. "Those straps on your thighs are weapon holders."

Sakura nodded. "I often carried around more medicine and poisons than I did blades. Knives are not my first choice of weaponry, but yes, I can use them."

Sasori shrugged. "Then I see no harm in carrying one."

Sakura hesitated for a second longer, then took it. Sasori passed her an entire cloth scroll holding a little over half a dozen knives, then turned back to his own equipment as Sakura slipped the rest of them into place.

"That was not one," she noted.

Sasori scoffed. "Hush."

He caught the small smile on Sakura's face as she fixed her pouch into place. The girl had been lent their standard uniform, but even the smallest size dug out from the deepest ends of their storage room appeared a little too big on her. Konan rarely stepped out of the base during operations and they had never had a need for a female version of their outdoor clothing.

Sasori's own shirt was a small, but compared to that Sakura's would probably have to be at least an extra small.

There was a knock at the door, and Sasori checked to make sure Sakura was ready before they both stood up. Deidara stepped aside to let them out of their room. "Good morning, un."

"Good morning," Sakura replied politely.

Sasori eyed the two for a moment before he sighed. "Good morning."

Deidara grinned. "Ready to go?"

"Just lead the way."

Even cleaned out and empty, the Northern hideout simply felt wrong. Even Deidara's chattering died away as they neared the structure now no longer hidden, and despite it having been days, the metallic stench of blood, as well as the sharp smell of medicine, appeared to have been deeply embedded into the concrete walls and floor, for he could still smell it.

The only one who appeared to relax as they approached was Sakura.

All the locks and security measures had been deactivated, but Sakura placed her hand against a chakra scanner against the door. There was an unreadable expression on her face as she eyed the machine for a while before she stepped through the entrance.

He glanced towards his partner when Sakura began walking confidently through the corridor. She ignored the room closer to the entrance, where their men had cleared out all the important files.

Deidara glanced over towards the small temporary HQ set up in one of the bigger rooms. "Should we stop her, un?"

Most of the men had cleared out after inspection had finished, but a few had stayed behind. Sasori could see a few of them looking uneasily at Sakura, no doubt recognizing her, but no one made a move to stop her.

Sasori frowned as Sakura's steps quickened. "Sakura."

The pinkette stopped and turned around. "Yes?"

Sasori sighed. "Wait a moment."

Sakura bit her lip but nodded. Sasori turned towards the section leader, who handed him the latest notes of the base. On the top of the stack was a map much more detailed than the one they had first made.

They were then given a rough run-through of new findings and whatnot, and Sasori listened halfheartedly, an eye on the papers and the other on Sakura, who looked half ready to bolt deeper into the hideout by herself.

"Okay."

The moment the word had left his lips, Sakura was turned back towards the corridor.

The two of them followed her, who was almost in a trance-like state. She flew down the stairs, towards the isolated room they had found her in. The bodies had been cleared, the experiments had been taken to specialized facilities, and everything had been sterilized three times over. Still, Sakura appeared to be able to see things only he could see, and he was confused the first few times she stepped unnaturally wide or made a sharp stride to the side.

"Experiment five six four eight died two weeks before his body was cleared out," Sakura said softly, suddenly. "He was alive when he was returned to his cage, but he collapsed the moment he was let go." She took another strange step. "His arm hung out between the bars. There were no rules, but no one stepped on the dead ones."

The realization hit him seconds before it hit Deidara, and he hurriedly jammed his elbow into his partner's ribs when the blond opened his mouth, eyes wide.

Deidara was not a bad guy, per se, but he tended to blurt out the conclusions he came to.

He ignored his partner's loud complaint as he continued to watch Sakura's back. "Where are we going?" He asked softly.

Sakura pointed towards the end of the corridor, where he had first laid his eyes on her bloody, broken form. "I read the files," she said. "It said all important things were taken back to your headquarters, so I'm assuming things like clothes were left behind." She tugged at the sleeves of her shirt as though to emphasize how big it was.

Sasori turned to Deidara, who fished out one of the files from his pouch, then flipped through the pages. "Clothes were untouched," he confirmed. "They should be exactly where they used to be in her room."

Sasori felt a complaint rising to his lips at 'her room' because a room where one was restrained and tortured to death was definitely not 'their room', but he held his tongue.

Sakura herself did not appear all that bothered. She hesitated right before the door, as though unsure if it would open, before she shoved it. The room had also been cleaned, though the restraints still remained, and the pinkette barely spared them a second glance. Sasori glanced over at the files Deidara was holding and watched his Soulmate make a beeline towards one of the cabinets, where he noticed stacks of haphazardly folded clothes. He tried to remember if he had seen them the first time.

To be fair, the first time around, he felt like he was dying and his Soulmate was actually dying and blood covered everything in the room.

Sakura grabbed both stacks of what looked like the exactly same outfit. Sasori wordlessly took them from her when she looked down at herself wondering how to hold them. He stuffed them into his own bag. "Anything else?"

Sakura shook her head. "I never had much, to begin with." She held out her hand. "Can I see the map?"

Deidara handed it over and the pinkette scanned her eyes over it. She frowned. "This is this floor?"

Deidara nodded. "Is something wrong?"

"There's supposed to be a room here." Sakura pointed on the map and showed it to them.

"So it's a room." Deidara hummed to himself.

Sasori tried to remember what he had been told during the briefing. "This end of the corridor was blocked off by bones." He watched Sakura's face carefully for a reaction of any sort. "Does that ring any bells?"

"Bones?" Sakura's frown deepened. "Can I see?"

Deidara glanced over towards him as well, and Sasori nodded. "Why not?"

Sakura spun on her heels and rushed out of the room. The room she had referred to lay on the other end of the floor. The corridor was just too dimly lit to be able to see the other end, but when they were close enough to see it, Sasori confirmed the sight himself.

Tests had confirmed that the blockade was indeed created by bones, and he would bet his left arm that whoever had created it was a chakra user as well.

Sakura ran a finger over the white structure. "There is a room, just like mine, behind this," she said. "Can I break this down?"

"It was too hard to break," Deidara told her. "Explosives couldn't be used because we worried it might bring the whole place down."

"It matters little," Sakura said dismissively. "It's as furnished as mine was." She pressed her forehead against the bone. "He must have come to break him out. These are here just to buy time."

"And this 'he' did not come for you?" Sasori asked.

Sakura shrugged. "You came my way first," she reminded him. "Perhaps the commotion bought him enough time to get out."

"And we don't get to know who this 'he' is?" Deidara asked.

Sakura turned around to face them. "Maybe," she said.

Deidara rolled his eyes in exasperation. "So, Danna, what do you think?" He knocked on the barricade.

"Don't bring the place down," he muttered.

Sakura nodded, then held out her hands. "The person who made this was a companion of mine back when I was with Orochimaru," she said. "Our chakras were entuned to one another, so it should not be too hard." She placed them, palm-fist, against the bone structure. There was a surge of chakra and Sasori could feel it traveling through the barricade, as well as through the floor and walls. A second one followed moments after, then a third, and cracks snaked from where Sakura's hand were toughing the structure, and spread like spiderwebs. Then, the bones simultaneously shattered.

Sakura stepped forward, and the smaller bone shards easily broke under her feet. Just as she had said, the corridor beyond was identical to the one leading towards Sakura's room. The pinkette made her way through, breaking the bone barricade whenever it blocked too much of the path to advance. She opened the door at the end and looked around. Sasori glanced at the large hole on the ground. "Where's that lead?"

Sakura leaned over it, then crouched down. She reached out and brought whatever had caught on her finger closer to her eyes. "Probably a hole somewhere far out," she said. "It won't be on any maps because this was made during the escape." Sakura rubbed her fingers together, and Sasori saw small specks of something fall towards the ground. It caught a wind that did not exist and swirled around on the ground.

Perhaps there was a draught coming from the hole.

"Well, I guess we can write this down, un," Deidara noted. He moved towards the door and Sasori followed.

"Are you done here?" He asked Sakura.

The girl nodded. She stood up, eyes still fixated on the dust. She kicked it softly with her foot, sending the specks flying into the air again. "Yes."

Darque: Hi...hi.

Raven: THE NEXT CHAPTER IS ALMOST 95% WRITTEN PLEASE DON'T BE MAD.

Darque: WHAT HE SAID.

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