Pompeii
Chapter 7
Vesper Chan

Sakura had been grateful for the steady stream of visitors to her clinic requesting physicals and help with their various ailments. It would mean her dangerously low bank account might see some credit instead of just debit. But all the same, after half a dozen different cases the last patient at the end of the day was one she thought she could have done without. She didn't have the energy required to be flawlessly pleasant with a smirking pagan god. Banter, she could manage, but if he wasn't in the mood for the back and forth wit of hers she didn't know if she could pretend to be pleasant for long.

"Pein, I seem to be running into you all over, don't I?" Sakura hummed, stretching a smile that had no business on her face. She was tired and in the wrong mood to humor someone who was set up to be difficult.

"Sweetheart," he rumbled. He was softer than before, less roaring than how she remembered in the restaurant and less aggressive than he had been during his encounter with Hidan.

Sakura remembered with a snap she was a doctor and he was her patient. She didn't have to be sunshine and roses, but she did have to give him the care he needed and deserved.

Bedside manner!

"What can I help you with today? Shizune said you refused to describe the nature of your ailment." Sakura looked down at the clipboard in her hands and flipped up a single page to check his information on the backside. It was mostly blank. "You came here with a reason, correct?"

Pein was sitting up on the bed with his long legs dangling, crossed at the ankles. His hands were folded over the edge of the bed and with the way he stared out at her from under the hood of his brow he was more a piece of art than a man. True, he was a god, she should have expected as much. When he spoke he turned his head to let his eyes rove a bit more freely around the room before settling in on her. "I've been meaning to attend to a physical, but I have yet to trust anyone in your occupation with this body that is mine. At least, that was the story until you came along."

"I shouldn't see why that will make a difference. I'm nothing like you." Sakura huffed setting his chart down and reaching for her stethoscope. "I think I already told you I'm not a god like you. I'm not something so lofty."

He made a dismissive sound with his cheek from inside his mouth that sounded like a tisk. Pein sat up and began to pull at his solid white tee, peeling it up over his back to off the rest of his body. A handful more piercings lined his spine and dotted his collarbones. "Oh sweetheart….we are what we are regardless of who believes or doesn't believe in us. If the whole world falls silent then there should always be you to speak your own existence into certainty. You must believe in your own self even when the rest of the world falls dead."

Sakura reached to touch him with the bare metal of her device before asking him to breath deep. He flinched, biting his lip at the cold contact of her stethoscope. "Sorry," Sakura whispered before adding, "Take a deep breath for me."

When Pein exhaled Sakura thought she felt the forest in a storm rushing past her. She felt the mist, cool and curling, and tasted the rain when she opened her mouth to breath. A god of storms and sky and rain he was, but rain was his favorite.

"Believe in yourself," he chuckled into her ear when she leaned in closer to hear his breathing from her stethoscope on his back. "I'll be your first acolyte."

"No more talk of me," Sakura huffed, closing her eyes as she pulled away to keep from seeing his face. She was afraid of his eyes and how they seemed to trap her. "You came here for yourself, not to speak of me and my affairs. Don't you know your own manners, eh? You're too bold to pry."

"What privacy can there be between two of our kind?" he chuckled.

Sakura knew she heard thunder in that laugh and set her mind against loosing her wits on him. He was in her care, and she would do her best to care for him. She checked his throat and ears, and only hesitated a fraction before checking his beautiful eyes that seemed to go on forever. She weighed him, and measured his height. He asked her if she needed to measure anything else, thumbs tugging at the hem of his pants, and she retorted that he came in for the wrong kind of exam if he was thinking about that. His reflexes were good and he seemed fine to send out on his own after a few more questions.

Each time she asked him something about his medical history he replied with a question about her, and wouldn't answer her own inquiries until she gave in and offered up her own answers to his questions about herself.

Sakura reached out and touched the side of his face where a faded bruise discolored the skin. It was light and hard to not miss. He didn't pull away when she tapped it again with her pen. She made a note of that.

"See something you like?" he teased.

"I noted a few old bruises. How fast does it take you to heal? You couldn't have been so injured from Hidan's scuffle. That was days ago."

He frowned, slating his eyes off to the side. "You know the average rate of our own regeneration is near instantaneous. I chose to leave those marks there."

"Why, you think they make you look tough or handsome?" Sakura queried, raising a single brow. Pein smirked at her expression.

"No, believe it or not I thought I might actually deserve his anger this time, or at least I wanted to believe his anger was justified for once. If you press me on it I'll come around to admitting that I was actually right all along, so don't press me on it and go asking for answer that will make me regret this humbling kindness I show the world."

Sakura narrowed her eyes at the mark on his face and thought back to what she saw at the Waffle Shack, the boy who looked too much like Naruto who rode off on a motorcycle with an angry storm of his own in his eyes. "I won't ask you about your own affairs. Those matters are for you to be concerned about. If you like I won't even pester you to treat it yourself. I'll let you keep it."

"Oh?" His eyes twinkled. "You'll let me keep it? I didn't know I was without a choice in this matter."

"You have yet to see me when I attempt to be persuasive, Mr. Pein," Sakura chuckled with a mock smile.

There was a sharp inhale, the kind just before a gust of wind knocks you over, but it was only his breath. "I think I might actually want to see that."

Sakura couldn't help but smile and feel the honesty in it. Pein was fun to banter with if she allowed herself to forget about how he shouldn't be someone she got too close to. "And maybe you will, but it will not be today. I'm nearly through with you and after I'm done I'm out for the day. I have no intention of disturbing the plans I have already put into place."

"Not even for myself? You do not know, how humble and devoted of a servant a god can be. Won't you let me pull this persuasion from you?"

Sakura reached for his shirt and pressed it back into his hands. "You're nearly finished here, don't forget your things. The most you'll get from me is a warning not to fight. It's not good for anyone."

When he sighs it's like a sky's distant echo of far off wind with a pinch of thunder mixed in. He's a body full of storms and she's only caught a peak of what he is truly made up of. "I shall be content with this for now. I scarcely believe we will be so parted for long."

There was a coat on the back of a visitor's chair next to the bed and he stared at it before picking it up and throwing it over his shoulders and slipping his arms through. He chuckled to himself before adjusting the material over his body once more. Sakura couldn't help but ask.

"What?"

He smirked in reply. "I like to think of what it would look like. It's been so many years since those gaudy days in fields and plains and valleys all for the sake of some storm ushered in on the behest of a favorite sacrifice. Back then I can recall the grader of my displays and the awe and fear I inspired. All the gods tried their best and I never tired of their own shows."

"You miss it?" Sakura guessed. It sounded like he missed those times and days.

"Of course, any god does."

Sakura felt suddenly aware of how ignorant she truly was of the old ways and the details of what was practical and good for people like old pagan gods. "You could still whip up a storm or a show, couldn't you?"

Pein looks at her and it's almost a look of disgusted offense, but not quite. It was more like the look of a child caught longing after something he had no business longing after. "Of course I could do such a thing. I am Pein." His tone was full of lofty arrogance. "There is no such limitation on me now, but I would not be so desperate for glory days to lower myself and put on display what no one has asked for. I never go where I am not invited. That is the way of gods who still remember their long lost heights."

His eyes are mournful to match the downturn of his lips when he looks at her and she can only imagine he is wondering why she doesn't already know that for herself. Sakura forgets her customer service training and presses on his emotional bruise, fascinated with the different, humbled emotions crossing his face. She wants to see more. "But you wish for it, all the same."

He blinks, looking almost unbalanced by her question. "What?"

"You miss it. You want to call down storms."

He reaches out and touches the space between her eyes, brushing the pads of his fingers over her skin like that is all it would take back to unearth the memories and knowledge he thinks she has somewhere deep. "What creature doesn't want what they were created for? I have never forgotten this nature of mine…thought I know many have by now."

"It would do you good to have someone ask you for rain? Tell me what they used to offer you as a sacrifice for the grandest storm."

He loves this question, Sakura can tell. The way the rest of his body follows the smile on his face and in his eyes is too clear to miss. He remembers those days and it lights him up like lightning from inside a storm's boundaries.

"They would go to the shrines and the high places, the places closest to the sky and offer me blood or maiden body…sometimes an object they had fashioned for themselves and put labor and work into was offered. My favorite were the poets though."

"Poets?"

He nods, voice sounding far off. "They offered me songs and I took them, took the words out of their mouth and the memory from their brains to keep forever. So many in so many different languages. The titles….earth shaker, tide makes, rolling god who gathers the sky up like a cloak and paints the heavens with his brilliance, make a dawn from your storm, appease your anger on your lowly people once more. Or Walker of the heavens, tread with the fullness of your stature and make the earth your reckoning. Our enemies are around us and we are besieged. Exalted deity of the clouds, make the thunder your right hand and the lightning your left, and take them to the enemies of our land. I remember them all, every last word."

Sakura's face feels hot and she looks up to where his fingers still touch her brow. The heat from his fingertips seeps into her and she reaches up to touch his hand. The contact startles him and brings his awareness back to the present. "You truly cherished their words."

"They were beautiful words."

Sakura nods. "They were."

She turns towards the door and waits for him to move up alongside her before opening it for the both of them and slipping out first. He follows, keeping close, as she leads them back up to the front where Shizune is waiting to manage the financial aspects of any visit.

Sasori is not expected. He stands by the far window and turns to see her coming out with Pein close to her back. She feels Pein react but can't see what sort of expression the god man beside her makes. Sasori narrowed his eyes and shoves his hands deeper into his pockets before lowering his gaze at last.

Sakura turns to see Shizune smiling easily, ready to smooth things over before they get too rough. "Sakura, I'm glad you're finished. He had questions about delivers for you."

"You need not worry about myself," Pein chuckled, looking to Shizune who flinched. "I can handle my own subordinates in the daylight and we have no quarrel with you." He picked up his invoice and looking it over before letting his eyes slide to Sasori. "Isn't that right, old friend?"

Sasori kept his hands buried deep in his pockets. "Of course." There was a begrudging respect or at the very least an emotional acknowledgment of the older man's superiority. But when Sasori speaks again, his words are a degree shy of what Sakura would consider respectful. "You've been absent lately, Pein."

"I have? I saw Hidan only last week, and Kakuzu on the same day. Where has Deidara been? Your bird friend has been quite the flighty bastard. The only one I can think to depend on is dear Konan these days. Who did I miss?"

Sasori shrugged. "Itachi checked in, nothing more."

Pein scoffed, pulling out his wallet and signing his invoice before handing if off along with his credit card. "Itachi is a dutiful, though stiff, family man not worth getting worked up over. He will come again. If that is all you may leave."

"Sorry leader, I didn't actually come here for you."

Pein blinked before looking down at Sakura who was signing something else over Shizune's shoulder before typing into the computer. Pein's expression was blank, but his tone was a tad lowered. "And what use could you have in a doctor's office, puppet?"

Sasori glanced downward, hands still deep in his pockets. This time he was wearing a shirt, but his jeans still seemed the same. Comfortable and functional, he had stuffed them into black combat boots that had seen better days. "Business of my own making, I'm not a customer or client or whatever you call them."

"I ordered some furniture," Sakura cut in. "I know you said you would have it ready this week, right?"

Sasori shrugged, one hand coming out of his pocket to rub the back of his head. "Ah, yeah. You said this week would be fine, so I dropped by today to see if you could take it tonight or I'll come back a less busy day."

Sakura remembered Sasori mentioning he wouldn't be able to bring over her pieces himself until later on when his 'other work' cleared up. She wondered if his other work had anything to do with Pein.

"I can take it now, I don't have any more people to see on my list for today. Do you have it in a truck or something?"

Sasori nodded, pointing out the window and then walking towards the door. Sakura followed, not caring if Pein followed after her, putting his credit card and wallet away. Sasori was in the bed of his truck pulling out the first piece and lifting it onto his back like it didn't weight anything at all. Sakura kept back and pointed out where he could carry it. With a huff Pein came up behind the pair of them and picked up the second piece before following them both back inside and up to Sakura's living space.

Sasori frowned over his shoulder but when Pein raised a single brow, the redhead turned and looked away, not willing to challenge the stronger man and yet still unpleased with his current lot. Sasori paused on her threshold the same way Pein did before stepping into her living space. They walked like they were inside her temple, like it was a holy place and not just her old boring home.

"It looks like this place is starting to adapt to your personality," Pein commented, setting his piece down as Sasori twisted the new table into the perfect spot on her floor.

Sakura nodded and thanked Pein but didn't say anything to prolong the conversation. That was fine, since Pein was looking over everything, same as Sasori. Pein seemed to be fascinated with the mason jars on her shelves filled with glitter trash from ravens while Sasori kept on staring at her succulent.

Sasori looked up, feeling Sakura's stare. "I recognize the breed," he finally admitted. "My cousin?"

"Eh, that's from Gaara. You know him?"

He almost smiled, but it was harder to see emotions on Sasori's face than Pein's. Sasori was more doll in body than he was man. Sakura wondered how it felt for his face to pull into any sort of emotional mask at all. "Cousins usually do know each other, so yes," he said.

"You look like cousins. You have the same red, desert hair."

Sasori reached up and ran a hand through the mess that was his hair. "Ah."

"Now you sound like the Uchiha," Pein huffed, coming back into their space, standing closer to Sakura with less than a smile on his face. "I believe we are finished here. Any additional fees to Sakura may be charged to me for the thanks of such excellent care."

Sakura raised a hand sharply, separating Pein from Sasori. "No! Hold it right there. No thank you, but I pay for my own stuff. I am not that sort of person and I would take great offense if you paid for any of this. I have my pride, thank you very much, and I am not a kept woman at any rate so you have no use buying things for me, so forget it."

"I wouldn't have taken his money anyway," Sasori almost chuckled, nearly smiling for the first time in the presence of Pein who looked quite put out.

Sakura rolled her eyes. "Don't look at me like that, I thought you were a god who was used to getting sacrifices. It's not your place to offer up sacrifices of you own or anything else for that matter."

"I am allowed to bestow gifts."

Sasori seems to enjoy the way Pein looks at Sakura, like she's just beyond his reach. How many other people move Pein to such an expression?

"Bestow something else to someone less fortunate than I. I don't need anything else right now." She turned to her left and inclined her head towards Sasori. "Thank you for the delivery. I'll be sure to shop with you again in the future."

"It's been a pleasure," Sasori remarked, smiling as he waved, walking out backwards. He looked up at Pein and nodded, turning around to face the door. "Coming, Leader?"

With a huff the taller male nodded and then looked down at Sakura. He seemed to search her a moment before he too, bowed and took his leave.

Sakura slept a little better that night, but in the morning it was right back to the grind with more filing and more patients.

After two in the afternoon her last patient left with a prescription and Sakura thought she would have the rest of the day to devote to filing when Shizune's phone rang loud enough for Sakura to hear. Shizune's demeanor shifted quickly and she stood, phone still pressed to her ear.

"Of course," she said out loud before hanging up. Turning to Sakura she said, "That was from the Nara compound. Their son hurt his head and they want a doctor to look him over."

Sakura stood suddenly, recognizing the name easily in spite of never having meet the family. The Nara supplied the pharmacy with a lot of medicine taken from their lands and their deer. She had seen the receipts and transactions herself. They were no small help to her practice.

"Can you send me there directly or give me directions?" Sakura asked, thinking of the seal they had given her for emergencies. How was such travel to be managed?

"Minto sama could do such a thing, but not I. I have the directions for you here, it's no too far to get lost. They're sending a guide to the edge of your lands to take you in, so you shouldn't have anything else to worry about. Ah, take my car to the edge of the forest where the trees make their boundary here," Shizune said, pointing to a picture on the map that hung behind her desk on the wall. Sakura knew it with a glance and her mind leapt ahead of itself, plotting a way to get from where she was to her destination with minimal wasted time.

Sakura took the bag meant for travel and Shizune's keys before hopping over the threshold of her practice to the outside lot. Shizune's car was easy to find and get into, and Sakura thanked her lucky stars that she had managed to get her license even with living in the city and never owning a car.

Sakura made it out of the parking lot with no collisions and only a few jerky stops before pulling out onto the road and nearly taking out a nearby hedge. It had been years since she last went on a good drive. Thankfully, the path was mostly straight and empty, getting her to the edge of town in under eight minutes. Sakura saw the trees and accelerated a hair before she had to slow down and turn the car off the road into a patch of gravel and park.

'They're sending a guide to the edge of your lands to take you in, so you shouldn't have anything else to worry about.'

Sakura blinked, looking across the road at the forest of trees to see one of the most majestic deer she had ever seen, finely decorated with twelve points to his velvet antlers.

"Are you the guide?" Sakura called out, only feeling vaguely silly. He was such a majestic animal, there was no way anyone would blame her for calling out to it.

The deer turned slowly and then began to trot back into the forest where the trees were thick and old. Sakura bit her lip and ran after him, desperate to keep up. He was already a bit ahead of her and he wasn't slow, even if he looked like he was floating.

As she passed between the trees she felt something in the air shift. She was being swallowed up by the forest, the forest was a thing, a living thing and it was taking her in. Breathing seemed impossible anywhere else apart from the trail the deer paved for her. She followed along behind it and she would be fine.

Then all of a sudden the forest around her seemed to shudder a breath and released some tension, opening up to her as she stepped into a clearing. A pair of does lay on folded legs beside a propped up body.

"Oh," Sakura breathed, noticing at once the velvet antlers growing from the front of the boy's skull. Each antler had four curved points, but one had been broken off on the left side. A cut was shallow across his face and there were bruises too. Sakura could guess what had happened, even if there were no other humans present nearby.

"Don't move." Sakura instructed, setting her bag down and pulling out a pointed light. She touched his face and guided it towards her. He grunted, but when she cooed he opened his eyes to look at her.

"You're not Shizune."

"Is that such a terrible thing?" Sakura asked, clicking on her light and checking his eyes. He flinched, but she was able to see that his pupils were the same size and dilated appropriately. Good. "I'm the new doctor, remember? Ino's friend?"

The way he stared at her told her he didn't remember, which was not uncommon with those suffering from a concussion."You?" his tone was dismissive, but Sakura had heard worse from far less pleasant. At least he wasn't threatening her with a knife.

"How long since the injury?"

He breathed deep, closing his eyes and letting his shoulder sag. "Troublesome. I's the one injured, how should I know?" He squinted at her. "You seem familiar."

Sakura looked back over her shoulder to the guide deer with the impressive rack. "How long has it been?" she asked, not quite knowing why she was directing her question at the animal. She knew she looked stupid, but at least the poor boy was likely too out of it to remember how foolish she had been when-

"Forty five minutes, no more."

Sakura blinked in surprise, but it was the boy Shikamaru who cried out in surprise. "What are you doing talking to the outsider?!"

"She is no outsider. She came on invitation as a healer. She is here to see to you."

The younger boy grumbled, pushing himself up to sit up straighter, even as Sakura's hands reached out to steady him. "I don't need to be seen by anyone, not even Shizune. I'll just sleep it off."

"You're suffering from a concussion. You sleep it off you might not wake up. Hush and let me see the extend of the damage. You struggle and it will take longer."

From behind her she heard the rough chuckle of the deer laughing. "You are no help to yourself, Shikamaru. The least you could do is let the woman aid you as she wishes."

Sakura touched the younger boy and he grunted at the contact. "Letting a woman do as she wishes is never a good thing."

"He's a real charmer, isn't he?" Sakura asked out loud, cleaning the cut on Shikamaru's forehead before closing it with a bandaid. She reached up to touch the broken point of his antlers and he shivered at the contact, pulling away. "Sorry," she supplied, not attempting to touch the site again. It wasn't bleeding, and didn't look to be causing him any more pain than a broken nail.

"What are you doing? I said I'd sleep it off."

"If you do that I'll stay here with you and wake you every three hours. Rest is good, but when suffering even a mild traumatic brain injury it is important to refrain from doing things that would make it easy to slip into a coma. I'm sorry but I don't have the technology for a MRI scan to see if there is bleeding on the brain, so I need to monitor your symptoms."

"I'm fine."

Sakura huffed, remembering the boy Ino had introduced her to only days ago. True Shikamaru was in a new form, a different form, and he was injured, but it was still quite rude of him not to remember her. "In addition to not remembering me, you're sensitive to light and sluggish. Not good signs if you ask me."

"To be fair," the deer behind her began. "He is always sluggish, that is not because of his injury. Shikamaru is quite the lazy boy."

Sakura nodded. "I remember."

Shikamaru glared at his deer and then closed his eyes. She heard him mutter once, 'troublesome' before sagging against the tree and falling asleep. Sakura let him, but true to her word woke him two hours later and checked to see if his situation had deteriorated any more.

He blinked away and saw her with a bit more clarity. "Sakura, what are you doing here?" His horns were gone and the freckles that had been so dark on his face were gone. "What was I doing out here?"

The Deer that had kept Sakura company with old stories and new stories stood, chuckling once more. "Being reckless, young heir. Don't be so heedless in your pursuit to show off. Sakura, I will leave you to him now. I believe he is past the danger."

Sakura nodded. "I think so too." She offered Shikamaru her hand and he climbed up with her. "I'll call back around to see how doing, but it's safe to move you now. Just…take it easy. No sudden moving."

The Nara boy paused before an easy smile spread across his face. "Me, sudden movements? Sakura, you must not know me well."

"A few hours ago you didn't know me at all, so let me harp a bit."

He laughed. "Troublesome woman."