Pompeii
Chapter 19
VesperChan

Sakura inhaled in her sleep and the air in her lungs was cold and sharp enough to rouse her. Groaning, she shifted and uncrossed her legs, sending the blanket onto the floor in a heap that left her mostly exposed. She reached out for her phone but couldn't feel the end table. One eye open was enough to show her why. She had fallen asleep on the couch again and hadn't made it to bed. The novel slid off her chest next and she winced when she heard it's heavy spine hit the floor.

The air in her apartment was still crisp enough to take notice of after a minute of disorganization. Sakura picked up the blanket off the floor and stood, heading towards the door to the outside. It was left partly open, something she wasn't responsible for. The early morning was gray and heavy. Sleep kept her vision blurry, but after rubbing her palm into her eyes she saw that it wasn't her. The world was white and muted in detail thanks to the blanket of snow over everything.

Sakura gasped audible, pulling her door open and stepping out onto the porch in her socks, not caring how quickly they became wet. The world was awash in glittering snow, flirting with the first early beams of sunlight from a winter's hold. Christmas came and it was white.

"Do you like it?"

Sakura turned, surprised to see Pein sitting on her railing, dressed as ruggedly as she was used to seeing him. The cold didn't seem to bother him even though it was starting to make her shiver. Another glance over told her that the snow wasn't even touching his form. It drifted lazily down on either side of him, but never dared make contact with the old god of skies and storms.

"You did this?" Sakura asked, stepping closer. "I thought you needed a sacrifice."

"Snow was already in the works, and this is the natural order of things. I may have advanced it's fall to ensure your 'Christ Mass' was as white as all those songs I keep hearing from your office…" he let the words trail off as Sakura's face reddened. He seemed to enjoy her reaction since he chuckled and shrugged on with his words. "But no, I did not need a sacrifice to suit my half hearted whims. Do you like it?"

"It's magical," Sakura sighed, nearly tasting her own tears as she looked up into the sky and saw beautiful snow that seemed plucked right out of her sugarplum dreams. It was perfect and it made her nostalgic in the oddest way. She felt young and giddy in the snow. She felt like a girl that danced to nutcracker themes with reckless abandonment. Surly this was the work of a storm god.

Her eyes drifted back to Pein who was watching her intently and she smiled. "I love it. How do I thank you?"

"I do nothing for your thanks, only your happiness," he answered after a moment in a voice softer than what she was used to from him. He lightly touched the part of his punk leather jacket that covered where his heart would beat. "That's enough for me."

"A god starving for prayers asks for nothing in return for his own kindness?" Sakura asks, smiling out of the corner of her lips, still giddy in the early morning.

"Will you pray for me then?" he asks, raising a single brow.

Sakura lifts her shoulders to shrug as much as to bring the ends of her blanket closer. "How should I pray?"

He swallows, watching her lips with storm colored eyes that seem to spin with a new sheen of color to them. Sakura watches as he licks the curves of his lips and then lifts his eyes back up to hers. She doesn't waver but he seems to.

There is no weakness to Pein, but in that moment of hush between her asking and his answering, Sakura feels like there is a thinness to his control over himself. He's a figure of great power, an agent of unimagined potential for destruction, and he's thin enough to see through in this moment. It's humbling and disorienting in the same instance.

"I am a jealous god," he admits in a voice like the echoing roll of thunder from not so far away. It's low and pooling in her belly. "I would not deny a kiss in prayer."

"What about in thanks?" She draws the blanket closer to herself.

"I've been known to make more with less." There is a glimmer in his eyes before he chuckles. "I think I might even be god enough to pull down heaven for such a thing. Kings burned pyres of gold and blood for simple rain, but I was always quick to the beggar risking his last meal, the farmer slaughtering his last living livestock, the window burning her husband's memory…what use have I for the wealth of man when the immortal feelings of longing are so much more grand?"

"I don't want anything in return from you, Pein." Sakura says this while taking another step closer to where he is perched on the edge of her railing. He doesn't shift for her approach, but she sees him watch her cautiously. "I'm not going to worship you, but it is Christmas."

He doesn't say anything as she reaches up with one hand and turns his face to the side with her thumb guiding his jaw down. She kisses the corner of his face, cold lips on tingling skin. Her kiss is a butterfly that perches on flesh, and then is gone just as quickly as it came. Sakura steps back, off her tippy toes and smiles.

"Merry Christmas, Pein."

He watches her with eyes wide and unguarded before a heartbeat passes and the world bleeds in a rainbow of colors as an aurora borealis spills across the sky in shifting ribbons of multi colored lights.

Sakura turns to watch it spill free overhead, making the snowfall glimmer with colored light. When she turns back to thank Pein he is gone. Her lips tingle, no longer cold.

Sakura plays with a handful of snow, watching it sparkle between her fingers when she turns her wrist. It was still s wonderful to look at days later. It was hard not to feel like a giddy child when she saw snow. The last few years the snow in the city had been pitiful and dirty. When she was younger the snow seemed so much more dazzling.

Being the weekend there was no way she wasn't spending her free time outdoors, but the reservations about going into the woods still remained after her last few adventures. Kisame and Zabuza had shown up to save her from such a dilemma.

Icarus had frozen over and it was perfect for skating on, but by invite only. The champions of the last Founders Day had very strict regulations on who they allowed on or in their lake ever since 'funny stuff' started getting into their water. Of course Sakura was allowed out there with them, but Sakura was surprised to see Itachi and one other individual bending over to lace up his skates. Sasuke straightened and saw her approach behind the towering Mizu men.

"Haku is fond of few individuals," Zabuza began to explain. "But he seems to tolerate the youngest Uchiha brat well enough whenever Suigetsu drags him out." The way he sighed reminded Sakura of a dad with a spoiled child that didn't know what to do with it. Sakura didn't doubt that Zabuza's actual situation was only a little different.

"Are they both from the same generation?" Sakura asked, thinking back to the tent and the conversations shared there.

They had told her something along the lines of Ino, Naruto, Sasuke and that group all being the babies of Pompeii or the youngest generation. When she thought about it, she didn't see many children if any at all when she was running errands in her new town. How did they measure age when some species lived centuries and others died over before a few dozen decades were over like the Green Men?

"Haku is a little older and almost not a part of that category, but yeah," Zabuza sighed, nodding to where Haku sat on a bench strapping on skates. "Don't mention it to him though, he's as sensitive as they come about it."

Sakura nodded, looking down at the skates she was borrowing and then back up at Zabuza. Kisame had walked on ahead to shout at Suigetsu that was trying to go across the ice barefoot and it was just her and the gray skinned man. If she asked him something here, the others likely wouldn't be able to hear as well.

"Those readings…"Sakura started, voice hushed. Zabuza looked to her, expression sobering. "Yahura said he recognized some of the components as belonging to an Orochimaru. What can you tell me about him?"

Zabuza flinched at the sound of the name, but didn't react any more than that. "I'm surprised he told you that much. He likes to keep his business in the family. The fact that he told you that much must mean he trusts you at least."

"Is it that big a deal that you would have to keep this from the authorities?"

Zabuza shrugged. "We're all a little trigger happy when it comes to an opportunity to sink our teeth in that abomination's hide."

"I get that you don't like him much. You gonna share with me the reason for that or do I get to guess like I did with the forest abductions?"

Her voice is smooth with the question, but there's a skip in her chest as her heart falls out of pace in a thrill of shock that takes her a moment to get over.

She never told anyone, not even Ino, about the dreams that came after the first abduction. They were dreams that only grew more intense with the second brush against the forest magic she couldn't name or comprehend. She saw herself being swallowed, being pulled, dragged, sinking deep into something she couldn't fight against. It was terrifying how little control she felt over herself. Something pulled her towards its maw and there was laughter and the world was building up on top of her, she was being buried alive and then something began to eat her.

Then she woke up.

She thought she hid her true feelings well, but not well enough for the way Zabuza looks down at her, brows furrowed , posture turned in towards her, like he's about to make a cage our of his arms around her. "You're safe from him. You're safe here. We're not letting anything happen to you that you wouldn't want."

Sakura forces a laugh. "I'm not worried about that. I thought you saw for yourself, I'm not as helpless as it first seemed, right?" She waved her hand, but even that gesture felt forced and fake so she dropped her hand back to the skates in her arms.

"I know, but…but this guys is not something we consider lightly. He's been dead, he was something a lot of people in Pompeii had to put down together after a lot of sacrifice. He had been killing in secret for years and we were too disjointed and blind to notice until it was almost too late. We like our privacy and we don't socialize as well as you might think."

"You have so many celebrations together though." She thought back to the bonfires and the fireworks and the Founders Day festival.

"True, but those were never so big a deal or so widely shared until this last generation." He nodded at where Haku was skating around Suigetsu and Sasuke on the ice. Itachi was at the edge of the lake talking to Kisame. "Our nature is to stay with our own kind. A long time ago he took advantage of that and fed on the people who didn't have large tribes or famalies. We lost a lot of citizens that way, and it was a bigger deal because Pompeii was supposed to be the place, the one place where we could go to be safe from persecution. He defiled our sanctuary."

Something biting took hold of Sakura's gut and she grimaced. "Do you think that…that was what…do you think he had anything to do with what I saw in the forest, because I'm one of those on their own people?" she asked in a voice barely above a whisper.

She felt fear in her spine when she looked up at Zabuza's face and saw wide eyes, but he reached forward and held onto her shoulders with both hands, dropping his skates in the snow between them. "Hey, look at me." He waited until she lifted her eyes before he said anything more. "Don't worry about that at all. No, that's not his MO and he's dead as can be. Don't worry about this. You're not alone, you have us."

Buried under the earth, branches and roots closing in overhead, dirt falling down her lungs, mud clogging her throat…

Sakura shook the shiver off and managed another smile. "Yeah, I know. I didn't mean it like that. Thank you for watching out for me. I'll continue to be careful."

"We're watching out for you," he said before squeezing her shoulders and then stepping back to pick up his skates. "Now come on and put your blades on. Icarus doesn't freeze over very often and never for long. You need to take advantage of it when you can."

Sakura followed him over to the bench where Kisame was sitting all on his own, watching Itachi skate after Sasuke and the others. Kisame had one boot on and was working out a knot on the other with his clumsy fingers. Sakura chuckled at the sight before pulling the skate out of his hands and onto her lap. She worked on the knot for a minute before it was undone.

Zabuza laced himself up in record time and was on the ice before Sakura could even slip on one of her shoes. Kisame stayed on the bench, waiting for her to finish and once she was done he stood and held out a hand for her to take.

"I do know how to skate. I've been doing it since I was young," she said.

"I kinda just want an excuse to hold your hand. Let me?" Kisame laughed, face coloring a bit at his own boldness.

Sakura laughed and it was a crisp sound, like bird songs or bells. It was honest and not one of those forced laughs. It felt good to laugh. It felt good to be happy.

She held his hand part way but once she was at the center of the lake she broke away and pumped her legs to gain speed. Kisame followed after her, keeping close. After a little while Itachi drifted in behind her, on the opposite side from where Kisame trailed. The Uchiha smirked at Kisame and then leaned in, increasing his speed. Sakura bent into the wind and pumped her legs faster, starting to pull away from the both of them.

Sakura had never been a very good figure skater, though she had dreamed of it once in her girlhood. By the time she was old enough to actually skate on her own, she realized that the ice was a joy to be on not because of dances or twirls. She had quickly fallen out of love with the idea of being a figure skater in favor of something else: speed.

The wind was amazing to endure but Sakura leaned into it and then tilted dangerously to one side, making a turn around the edge of the lake where the ice was thickest. Itachi and Kisame both trailed, but neither were able to catch up with her. The minute one of them started to gain she would push herself, pumping her legs and leaning in closer to the ice to increase her speed. She was cutting across the ice faster than any of the others. She passed Suigetsu like he was standing still and didn't even see Sasuke.

Oh this was fun.

Her hair had been pulled back and tucked under a hat, but that flew off like a flash of red in the wind and her hair was wild and flapping around her face as she pulled even further away from the trailing males.

On a tight turn she could see Kisame out of the corner of her eye, but Itachi's dark form was missing. She pulled out of the turn, straightening out and nearly crashed when she saw Itachi's form right in front of her. He had cut across the ice to head her off.

Sakura was fast, but she wasn't a fast thinker all the time. She had been so caught up in gaining speed and hadn't heard Itachi move. She was gaining way too fast on Itachi's form and she didn't know what else to do other than pull away, across the ice on a sharp turn that ended up being too sharp. She cut left across the open lake and leaned in too far, tumbling head and shoulders over toe, careful to keep the blades away from the rest of her. The ice was hard on impact, but held as she banged her arms and knees something awful.

She heard someone cursing as she slid to a stop over the center of the lake above a particularly clear patch of ice. Something below he waters, something gray or white in a dead looking way, slithered through the water and then was gone behind a shadow. Sakura blinked and saw the shadows were actual structures. Pushing up she got on her hands and turned over to sit on her butt while looking down at the scene below her.

"Sakura, are you okay?" Itachi was quick to reach her and crouch down alongside her. Behind him Kisame was cursing and trailing after.

"There's a city down there!" Sakura exclaimed, voice high and eyes wide. Her nose was nipped and red from the cold, but she felt great. When she saw Itachi looking down at her she smiled so easily and pointed to the ice below her. "Look."

"I-I know, that's Icarus, the town that was here before Pompeii."

Itachi reached for her and looked at her knees and elbows that were wet from where they scraped the ice. There were no tears in the fabric, but she winced when he touched her knee and he whined, knowing that would mean a bruise at the very least.

"I'm fine. Wait, what do you mean before Pompeii? Kisame, what's inside Icarus?"

She looked up at the big blue man who was now looming over them. Kisame shot Itachi a dark look that Itachi shrugged off before kneeling down alongside her to see what she was pointing to.

"Are you talking about the church steeple?" he asked.

"No, not just that, all of it." Sakura brushed some of the loose snow off the ice to see better. "There's like a whole other town down there."

"Before Pompeii, way back in the first years of this country, there was a settlement in the lake made by humans. It was abandoned because of the volcano and then the first founders came. After the maiden's sacrifice the town was filled with water and the merkin and water folks came to inhabit it as the rest of the town grew. There's a lot of buildings down there in the lake. We swim in and out of them all the time."

"I had no idea," Sakura breathed, amazed by the sight below her. "That's so cool."

"It is pretty neat, I guess," Kisame chuckled, coloring in the face once more as he grinned sloppily and rubbed the back of his neck.

Itachi made a small exhaling sound and let his lids drop halfway as he looked away from his friend snd preened over Sakura some more.

"I apologize for surprising you like that," Itachi interrupted, picking at her loose hair and pushing it back. "Please forgive me. I did not anticipate your panic. I forget myself sometimes."

"Ah, that's fine. I didn't get hurt," Sakura said, still watching the ice for another sign of whatever it was she saw earlier. When she looked up Itachi was frowning down at her. "What?"

"Don't forget your own needs, doctor." He touched her elbow again and she winced at the contact and then shot him a dirty look when it seemed as if he had won.

"I'm fine. It's too cold to feel any pain and I'll be fine. I expected to take a few tumbles on the ice today. I wasn't a great skater when I was a kid, either."

Kisame stood and offered her his hands. She took them and lifted herself up and then pushed away, gliding backwards. Itachi was faster and caught her shoulders and stopped her. She looked up and frowned.

"Now what?"

"I'm never going to hear the end of it if I don't do this." He sighed over her shoulders and then looked up at Kisame who's eyes had gone wide as he started to skate towards them, struggling to make that initial traction.

"Itachi, don't you dare!"

Sakura saw behind Itachi that Sasuke was gone in a swirl of feathers leaving Suigetsu to sputter and Haku to brush off in indifference. Zabuza was picking something red out of the snow off to the side and pocketing it.

The world around her shimmered. Sakura felt her stomach roll. Oh.

"Sorry, friend. But I made a promise to my family for today and she needs minor medical attention."

Sakura almost responded about how she was the doctor and the only one qualified to make that decision, but her gut lurched and she felt the world rip around her as feather flew in a cyclone around them and the space was torn asunder. She shuddered, close as she could get to Itachi, and then stumbled when the ice below her skates turned to dirt.

Sakura yelped at the different terrain and nearly dipped backwards, but Itachi caught her easily and lifted her up into his arms, bridal style, keeping her blades off the ground.

"Ugh," Sakura groaned, reaching to wrap her arms around his head to keep from tilting back any further or possibly falling out of his arms. "Don't you think you could warm me about your plans next time?"

"I was actually trying to be good and play fair, but if I didn't kidnap you today I risked the wrath of Izuna, which is not a wrath you would ever want to risk. He's looking forward to your planned medical visit this Sunday, but he said he couldn't wait."

Sakura sighed, letting her head roll to his chest and her eyes fall shut. She could still feel the lurch of the transportation and wanted to just stay still until her head and stomach both calmed. "Don't move so much."

"I'll try not to.

His skates are off in the dirt beside his bare feet and he's walking towards the traditional styled estate. He stopes at the porch to bend down and set her on the end, leaving her feet to dangle. She sways a bit and he steadies her before reaching down for her ankles. He takes one and begins to tug on the laces, loosening the skate's hold around her ankle. He does one, slowly slides it off her foot, and then does the other. On the second one her sock get's caught and is dragged away with the shoe and he chuckles before reaching for it.

"Hold still," he whispers before lifting her ankle up and curling her sock back over her foot, slowly, bit by bit, tracing her skin with the pads of his fingertips before smoothing the opening of the sock around her leg. He rubs his thumb into the space under her ankle and she shivers, making him smile through his own flush.

Sakura attempts to stand but still stumbles, dizzy from something she is not used to.

"I'm sorry."

She looks up when she hears his voice. Her face is filled with expression that asks the question even though her words do not. 'What for?'

"I did that without asking for your consent, even when I have chastised others for acting in equally reckless manners. I should have warned you or asked for your permission before spiriting you away. Forgive me this long fought habit. It is in our natures, but we know better."

Sakura waved it off. "It's fine. I'll be good in a minute or two. I'm just hoping Kisame isn't too mad at you. He looked pissed."

Itachi chuckled. "I had a hard time holding myself back after I heard what you said to Zabuza."

Sakura stilled, thinking back to her conversation with Zabuza. Itachi had been so far away, she had been sure he wouldn't be able to hear them. But what had she said that made Itachi act in such a way?

"What do you mean?" Sakura asks, reaching up when Itachi leans in to pick her up and hold her in his arms, bridal style once more. Her knees are still sore and she doesn't mind being spoiled a little bit right now. She knows Itachi well enough to trust him this much.

Itachi slides the door ahead of him open with his toe and Sakura hears the gasps of delight from Shisui and turns to see Izuna and Madara brighten up at the sight of her. Sasuke is in the room grinning as well and feathers are out as Uchiha rush forward to greet her. She almost doesn't hear what Itachi whispers in her ear.

"You have a family here with us. You're one of ours."