Chapter Six
Is it hard to talk with a mouth full of lies?

This was the second time Sakura had ever been arrested. The first had been when she was sixteen and still learning how to steal cars properly. If there was one thing she had learned about the incident, it was to act pretty and lie. Lie, lie, lie. By weaving as much truth into her story as possible.

Tel Aviv was a nice city, which meant that the police officers and police departments were nice. Though nothing compared to the lush interview room they had stuck her in when she had been in Beverly Hills, California.

This room was bright. So bright that Sakura had to squint when the door on the other side of the metal table opened. It was the first time she had seen anyone since they had brought her in half an hour ago. Or was it an hour already?

It was hard to tell. Besides the faded green walls and the cements floors, there was nothing else in the room. No clock or window to tell time.

Sakura tried not to stare at the police officers for too long. They were a pair of well-built men, likely two decades older than her. They both looked the same with their brown hair and dark green uniforms. The Israeli flag was stitched into their shoulder with the department name underneath in Hebrew. The only real difference between them was their size - one quite barrel-chested, the other more lanky.

She looked down when the two men sat in the chairs across from her. The links of her handcuffs clanked against the bar on the tabletop she was chained to.

"This will go quickly if you tell us what you were doing at that club tonight," the larger one said in Hebrew.

Sakura glanced up shyly, her eyes wide as if she didn't understand. The two police officers glanced at each other before the same officer repeated the question in Arabic.

"You don't understand?" he asked in the native language.

"I uh…" she said slowly in English. "I don't...I don't know what you're saying."

"American, huh?" he said, his words thick with accent. When Sakura nodded, he asked again, "Long ways from home. What were you doing alone at Trinity Night Club tonight?"

Sakura blinked, her eyes wide. "I wasn't alone. Or I wasn't supposed to be. I was meeting my boyfriend."

The smaller one didn't look so convinced but his larger partner seemed more concerned as he eyed her bare shoulders. "Those are some pretty nasty bruises you got."

Tears pooled in the corner of her eyes. When one escaped, Sakura wiped it away on her shoulder, causing the blood on her chin to flake off and smear with her mascara. "I was...I was late," she hiccupped. "And my boyfriend got angry with me. I know I shouldn't have kept him waiting. It was my fault. He didn't mean to hurt me. I just make him angry sometimes..."

"What's his name?"

Sakura's eyes widened. Her handcuffed rattled again as she grew agitated. "Oh, please no! He didn't mean it. Please don't talk to him. He'll get so mad at me."

The officers looked at each other, muttered something under their breath in Hebrew she didn't quite catch before the more broadly built, and nicer, officer stood and left the room. The other officer remained, his face unreadable as he observed her. Sakura shifted under his stare. She briefly glanced at him only to look away again.

She wasn't sure how much time passed before the door opened again. A woman in a grey uniform with a patch depicting a red plus sign approached her. The universe symbol for someone with medical training.

The young medic worked quietly as she cleaned up Sakura's lip, wiping the blood from her face before moving onto the welts on her arms. The silence only broke when she asked Sakura if this or that hurt or if anything else needed attention.

Sakura was still getting patched up when there was a knock on the door. The bulkier male slipped outside again only to return a moment later to fetch his partner. Sakura watched the door close behind them curiously, not entirely sure what was going on.

Her question was answered a few minutes later when the medic finished her work and left. As soon as she was gone, two more men stepped into the room. Different men. They were dressed similarly to the officers in green uniforms, but neither had patches over their breast pocket bearing their rank. Odd.

They settled in the chairs across from her, their dark eyes watching her with deep but quiet interest.

"Good morning, Miss," the one on the left said. "My name is Inspector Haswari and this is my partner, Inspector Tuvia. We just have a couple of questions for you."

Well that was interesting, Sakura thought. She had half-expected the officers to have the same surname. They looked like they could have been cousins, even possibly brothers with their angular jawlines and similarly shaped noses. Even their eyes were the same color of the blackest night.

"What do you know of Kankuro?" Inspector Haswari asked.

Sakura shook her head. "Who?"

He continued to watch her patiently with those eyes of volcanic glass. If she wasn't currently handcuffed inside a police department, Sakura would have thought him handsome, even downright gorgeous. But there were more important things to distract her right now.

When Sakura didn't drop her facade, Haswari sighed. "This will go a lot smoother if you cooperate, Miss uh…" He trailed off to glance at the file in his partner's hand. "Haruno...or should I call you Tsunade?"

Sakura felt her heartbeat pick up in her chest, but she didn't let her panic show anymore than a normal twenty-five year old caught in the wrong situation would. Her suspicions were right: these weren't Israeli officers. So who were they?

Mossad operatives, perhaps. Or possibly agents of Shin Bet.

"Tsunade?" Sakura repeated with obvious confusion.

"That is the name you use when arms dealing, is it not?" Haswari asked.

Her eyes widened. "You think I'm-you think I smuggle guns?"

They stared back blankly, waiting for an answer.

Shaking her head, Sakura sat forward in her chair, her handcuffs clanking against the bar again. "I'm a twenty-five year old college graduate. I owe twenty-six thousand dollars in debt. If I really was dealing arms, wouldn't I have paid my loans off by now?"

When neither of them answered, Sakura tried again, "This is ridiculous! I don't smuggle guns! I've only ever held a gun once when I was like twelve."

"Okay, let's just all calm down," Tuvia spoke for the first time. He smiled warmly, causing small dimples to appear in the corners of his mouth. "Why don't we start by getting you out of these handcuffs and then we'll go back to the beginning."

His laidback tone relaxed her and Sakura smiled her thanks when he unlocked the metal around her wrists. She rubbed at the sore skin as he returned to his chair beside his partner. It seemed they were going to do the 'good cop, bad cop' routine. She couldn't wait to see this.

Only once Sakura was comfortable did Tuvia try again.

He asked the same questions as his partner, only nicer. Sakura gave them the same story: she was there to party with her boyfriend who got upset with her when she was late. She didn't know a Kankuro or a Tsunade. She was just an American girl on vacation. And she repeated it over and over again, every which way they questioned her until the pair finally left the room.

Sakura counted the cracks on the floor as she sat alone. The minutes that ticked by were as long as hours. She was fairly certain it must have been close to dawnbreak with how tired she was, but she didn't dare put her head down and sleep. A girl in her situation would be too scared and stressed to do so. And so she entertained herself with her bland, bland surroundings.

Eventually the door opened again. It was one of the first officers this time. The nice one. "We're sorry to keep you so long, Miss Haruno," he said apologetically. "You're free to go."

Sakura suspected that they were releasing her unwillingly. They just didn't have enough to hold her. Which she was perfectly fine with.

Without a word, she followed the officer out of the holding room. On her way out, she passed Haswari and his partner. They were standing together, speaking quietly but they stopped when they spotted her.

Sakura bit back her smirk. Only turned her back as she made her escape.

Unsurprisingly Kakashi was waiting for her outside with a car. He held the passenger door open for her and she slipped inside silently, never looking back at the police station that had held her captive for the last several hours. Dawn was already brightening the horizon.

They drove in silence for a long while. It wasn't until Kakashi pulled onto the highway that he spoke, "I'm sorry I wasn't able to give you more warning. I never once saw a police car. My informants did a little digging and found the police were planning a raid for days now."

"It's fine," she waved him off.

He glanced at her, noting the bandages on her shoulders and the swelling of her lower lip. "What happened?"

"They wanted to know about Kankuro," she answered simply.

"And?"

Sakura smiled. "And I'm just a sweet, innocent girl with an abusive boyfriend. They didn't have anything to hold me on. I made my background months ago."

She didn't realize Kakashi had been watching her out of the corner of his eyes until he said, "You seem unsettled."

Her finger stilled its movements against the armrest of her door immediately, suddenly aware that it had been tapping out a thoughtful rhythm. For a moment, Sakura weighed telling Kakashi of her suspicions. If anyone in New York learned of it, it could potentially end her business with the Senju. Either by being cut off completely or with a bullet through the back of her head. No one wanted to work with someone who had been potentially compromised.

But she had been through much worse with Kakashi in the past. She trusted him - a rare occurrence in her world.

"I'm not entirely convinced the men who interviewed me were simple Israeli patrolmen," Sakura finally said.

Kakashi glanced at her sharply before returning his eyes to the road. "Mossad?"

"I don't know," she shook her head. "We'll have to be careful for a while."

Kakashi didn't say anything to that. Just kept driving, his eyes flickering to the rearview mirror more often than usual. They must have not had a tail for he drove straight towards to the hotel without any detours.

"Kankuro was arrested last night," Kakashi told her as they approached the city center.

That news was unsurprising but she pursed her lips thoughtfully. "That both creates and gets rid of a problem." Upon Kakashi's curious side glance, she explained, "Apparently he ran into Akatsuki in Egypt. He was going to look into what they were doing and why they found it necessary to blow up one of his warehouses."

"I thought Akatsuki was an American group?" he asked.

"I thought so too," Sakura murmured. Her eyes flickered to each streetlight as they sped by. "It seems either Hashirama is misinformed or…"

"Or he intentionally kept the information from you."

She didn't reply to that. She didn't want to believe that the man she had known since she was six would purposefully be keeping her in the dark, but Hashirama was still a criminal mastermind. Lies and deceit were as common in his world as car horns were in New York. It left an uncomfortable knot in the pit of her stomach.

It wasn't until Kakashi pulled up outside the hotel that Sakura withdrew from her thoughts. She waited until the car was in park before speaking, "Tell Anko we will have the money for her tonight. With Kankuro no longer able to bid for them, I'm sure she'd be more than willing to sell them to us. Even if they are being imported into the States."

She waited until Kakashi nodded before she slipped out of the car. She watched him drive away silently, not moving even after the taillights of their rental disappeared around the corner. Kakashi was smart and well-trained. She trusted that he had brought her back without a tail.

So why couldn't she shake the feeling she was still being watched?

xx

The feeling still hadn't faded upon Sakura's return to New York. She stood at the tall windows of her studio apartment, gazing down upon the evening rush hour traffic. Her eyes traveled over every parked car, every pedestrian weaving their way down the sidewalk. None seemed suspicious or out of place. And yet, she continued to search the sea of faces as if expecting to find one had followed her across the ocean.

"What happened in Tel Aviv?"

Sakura turned her head towards Tobirama. He was laying on his side in her bed with his head propped up on his hand. The sheets twisted around his middle kept him mostly decent. He was watching her with quiet curiosity.

Inwardly Sakura cursed herself. She knew better than to let her thoughts show so openly.

"What makes you think something happened?" she asked instead.

Tobirama just shrugged with one shoulder. "The fact that you're still so wound up after two rounds. I would have thought that last orgasm would have taken the edge off a little."

"Perhaps you're just not as good as you think you are."

"But I am that good." He spoke with the utmost certainty.

It made Sakura smile. Okay, maybe he was good. Not that she would ever admit it.

Instead she shrugged nonchalantly when his question continued to hang in the air. "Nothing happened. I'm always like this after moving a large shipment."

"The cargo is on its way, and Hashirama will be pleased that you were able to get him what he needed so quickly," Tobirama told her. "You should relax. There's plenty of time to be stressed later."

Sakura watched him a moment longer. It wasn't exactly worded as a compliment, but coming from Tobirama it might as well have been. He was impressed - both by her and her proficiency. Maybe that's why he kept coming back. And maybe the fact that he wasn't falling all over her like a fanboy is why she kept letting him come back.

Turning away from the window, Sakura approached the bed, her pink, silk robe slipping from her shoulders. Tobirama rolled onto his back as she straddled him, the sheets a thin barrier separating them. She liked the way his hands settled on her hips, big and strong and warm against her feminine curves, and how his eyes traced her skin like she was a piece of stunning artwork to be admired.

She smiled seductively. "Perhaps you can show me the best way to relax then."

A wide smirk was Tobirama's only warning before she suddenly found herself on her back. He pinned her with his weight, his hips settling between her legs as he snuck a hand between her thighs. Sakura dug her nails into his shoulders as he touched her, his fingers playing with her exactly as she liked until she was arching beneath him with his name on her lips.

Sakura came undone in a matter of minutes before she fell listlessly against the mattress. It amazed her that he had so quickly learned her body in the few short months they had fallen into bed together. But then again, Ino had always told her that older men knew what they were doing. Tobirama certainly did.

That thought was still drifting through Sakura's mind when he rolled a new condom on. He slipped inside her smoothly, a groan rumbling low in his throat, before he started a slow, deep pace.

With their more urgent needs already satisfied, it was a slow build to climax. Sakura came again, this time less powerfully, around Tobirama. He joined her a few minutes later with a shudder and a bruising hand to her hip before he collapsed beside her.

They said nothing, just relaxed on their backs side-by-side as the setting sun stretched long lines across the ceiling like reaching, golden fingers. The sound of Tobirama's breathing was pulling her down into dreamworld. She was somewhere between asleep and awake when he stood to toss the condom in the bathroom.

Sakura rolled onto her stomach to watch him when he came back. He eyed her kitchen. "Do you have anything to eat here that isn't candy or full of processed sugar?"

His question surprised her. She had been expecting him to dress and leave. "Uhh...not really," she said.

"You know all that sugar is going to make you sick eventually."

Sakura shrugged. "Pretty sure it isn't going to be sugar that kills me."

Tobirama peered down at her then. He studied her like she had just revealed one of her deepest secrets. And in a way, she supposed she had, but she didn't elaborate any further.

In the end, Tobirama said nothing. He just reached for his phone before he sat on the edge of her bed, his back to her. Her eyes narrowed with interest when she saw a tattoo across his back just above his shoulder blades. It was only a few inches wide, black and similar in shape to a Vajra, a religious object in Buddhism.

Sakura pushed herself up onto her elbows to get a better look. It surprised her she had never noticed it before. Then again, it was normally her that was under him on her hands and knees so maybe not. Her curiosity stirred. She was tempted to trace the image with her fingertip. It really was a beautiful symbol, whatever it meant.

"Are you allergic to any seafood?" Tobirama suddenly asked.

She shook her head even though she knew he couldn't see. "No," she said as she laid back down, her hands folded under her cheek. "But I don't like salmon. Or eel or clams or mussels. Or octopus."

Tobirama glanced at her over his shoulder. "You're picky."

"You asked," she countered.

He smirked before he returned to his phone. "Well I'm ordering sushi. So you might just have to pick through some of it."

With his back turned, Tobirama missed her look of surprise. She hadn't asked him to feed her. She hadn't even asked him to stay. But she couldn't say that she wasn't hungry and sushi did sound good. Maybe he could stay. Just this once.

"Fine, but make sure you order the little shrimp ones. Those are my favorite."

to be continued...

Due to lack of feedback, this story will be postponed until further notice.