Pompeii
Chapter 40

"Don't waste my fucking time," Sakura growled, looking down at the appointments booked for her morning.

No one was coming in, but she had noticed the trend of people booking appointments anonymously and then never showing up, getting her ready for an appointment and making her waste her time making the clinic clean and ready for patients.

She was sick of it.

In a moment of thankfulness she remembered to be glad that she was alone so no one could see her fall into a fit of frustration. She was becoming more and more irritated every time something like this happened. She was afraid what it would look like in another week or two. The whole town felt like it had turned on her. It had been weeks and nothing seemed to be getting better.

Sakura swore once more, falling into a seat and clicking on her computer screen to the lock screen. Her password loaded the homepages and she went to her email, reading the notices of her pending loan payments. She had enough in her savings for a few more, but soon she would have to start defaulting because the income wasn't coming in.

Before December, she needed to turn things around before December.

Pushing away from the computer Sakura felt her body crave waffles and sugar. She bit back the craving and reminded herself that going out wasn't a good idea anymore. She didn't even go visit Sai anymore, even though she was proud of his work and his job. He was doing so well but she couldn't go to where he was and make herself into a spectacle that could end up harming his reputation. He was doing so well. She couldn't ruin it now.

Across the way under the paper there was the shadow of the red spray paint on her waiting room wall. Sakura swallowed, hating how she could still read it through the paper. She was ready for the attacks and the vandalism to stop.

Didn't people have better things to do?

Sakura turned the radio on and listened with her heels propped up on the edge of her desk. Her flats were discarded off to the side and she didn't care what she looked like in her office.

There was a small breeze and then she smelled moisture. She opened her eyes and then promptly narrowed them.

Pein was in the doorway, scowling at the things he saw in her lobby. He looked to her and there was a crumpled expression that Sakura couldn't summon the emotion to compliment. She was in no mood to humor anyone.

"You here for an appointment?" Sakura asked.

"I had heard that things were rough for you. Konan mentioned some of the town being assholes as per usual. I didn't know it was so bad that they would dare tread on your sacred places."

Sakura snorted, keeping her heels propped up high. "You've come, you've seen. Anything else, sir?"

"They're being disrespectful because they don't know any better. They're foolish and rash, thinking they'll live forever on their own, when really they're just as destined to die as any mortal. These things happen. You know this isn't the first plague Pompeii has weathered."

"It's not a plague," Sakura crumbled. "I don't know what it is yet."

"It's a passing thing," Pein answered. "Don't concern yourself with it."

"Kind of hard not to when it's so close to home." She looked back over at the wall covered in paper to hide the spray paint. "Literally."

Pein took a step inside and brushed his fingers over the lapel of his coat before sliding it down his arm and then off his wrists. He folded it neatly and hung it at the crook of his elbow like a painting would. Today he seemed fit and tailored for admiring. She had seen him more rugged and casual, but today he was a bit more done up with gold at the edges clips of his lapel to match his cufflinks. His suit was charcoal and black pinstripes too fine to count. His shoes were brown leather wingtips too.

His hair was still a little wild, but with his elegant cheekbones and classical features of the face, he could pull it off. It was a little frustrating how beautiful he was.

"You look more dressed up than usual. What's that for?" Sakura asked.

"The time of year. The Mabon tide has finally passed and I'm in a new era. This is just the flavor of my next decade or so. Does it not suit your tastes?"

Sakura didn't understand what he was talking about, but shook her head and waved a hand in front of her eyes. "You look fine."

"Thank you."

She looked away. "Is there anything else I can help you with, or was there truly no purpose to showing up after all this time of wondering where you had run off to?"

She didn't mean for her words to sound so sharp, but they passed through her lips just like that. She watched as his expression turned down and his lids lowered.

"Ah. The monsoon season called me away but...I had stayed away on my own without meaning to. I forgot to be mindful of the days. It is a poor habit of mine."

Sakura remembered that Pein was a god of storms and rain, with an age as old as worship and a memory just as thin. A few months probably felt like days to him. She didn't doubt he forgot about the time like a teenager without a watch would, only on a much grander scale.

"You're angry with me."

Sakura looked up at saw his face darken with concern.
"I've offended you somehow?" he said.

There had been others who had offended her, Itachi and Tobirama came to mind, but Pein had merely annoyed her. She didn't care what he did or that he didn't tell her. He was his own person and he was free to do as he pleased.

"No, why would you say that?" she asked.

"You returned my gift. Was it not satisfactory? Did it not meet your expectations or was it too much. I had wondered if you desired something more practical to suit your modesty, but I had thought you would enjoy what I settled with."

"The car was fine, that wasn't the point," Sakura sighed. "It was too lovely to keep."

"I do not understand."

"Damn it Pein, it was a car," Sakura huffed, dropping her heels and leaning forward across the desk to be closer to him as they talked. "A car."

"Yes, and it was something you had need of. You did not own one of your own, correct? I thought I was being thoughtful."

"Pein, you can't just give someone a car like that. It's too much."

He frowned. "I do not understand what the problem is."

"I couldn't accept a gift like that. It was too much for me."

"It was a gift." He said it so simply, like a child not understanding the concept of object permanence.

"It was too much," Sakura tried to explain. "I couldn't accept a gift so generous from you. It wouldn't have been a good idea even if you meant it with the best intentions. When and if I ever need a car, I'll acquire one on my own with my own efforts and own strength."

"Then I've insulted you."

Sakura felt the air escape her as she dropped her head into her hands and then sat up straighter to finger comb her hair back. She had a feeling there would be no easy way to get a god to understand what she meant. He didn't understand and her efforts weren't going to change that.

"It made me happy and I really liked it. I wasn't insulted, but I have to do some things on my own with my own efforts. Plus, a gift that expensive would have implied something more than I'm willing to admit to in regards to our...relationship."

Sakura saw something shutter across his expression and couldn't catch the meaning behind it. He swallowed and composed himself too quickly.

"Ah, I didn't know our relationship was so shallow. It seems only I took any delight in it."

Sakura groaned, dropping her hands into her lap. "Pein, no, it's not like that! I...I didn't mean it like that. I didn't want you to have an expectations from me when I wasn't willing to...be like that with anyone. It's all beside the point. I'm sorry. You're a good friend and those are in short supply these days so please don't be too upset with me."

Pein nodded slowly, watching her before his eyes suddenly shifted to the windows where cardboard protected the places shattered by rocks. "I had noticed something amiss more so than usual. Who is it that takes issue with you?"

"It's not so simple as that. There is this sickness that I can't cure or even begin to understand. I can't cure people when that's what I'm supposed to be doing. What's worse, some of my friends are blaming me for all this, though I don't understand why."

"I'm familiar with the conditions of this ailment. Are you behind it?"

Sakura felt a rush of anger. "What? No, of course not!"

Pein watched her without reacting. "Would you tell me if you were, or is our relationship not suited to such honesties."

"Don't make it sound like that. I swear, this isn't me. I've never wanted to hurt anyone here or do anything to cause the people of Pompeii pain. I'm a doctor, I've taken oaths."

"I don't blame you if that's the case, please don't misunderstand. You could be an agent of reckoning for all I care. The fact that you are or are not behind these events matters little to me."

Her throat felt fuzzy and she had to try and swallow more than once to manage it. "Do you think I'm behind this?"

"I can't say," Pein replied casually.

"You would think that of me?"

He took a step towards her and his height became apparent with how close he was now to her. She had to look back to stare up at his face. It was beautiful and smooth with all the right angels that would make even the angels weep with envy. Sometimes she thought he was too much, but then she remembered what he was.

"I am not something so trivial that the deaths of a few insects would bother me. I don't care to consider your morality. In my own day and in my own times I have been the reckoning of a hundred people. I have been the starvation of a generation, the pestilence and the drought. I have been the torrent and the tide. Like the rain falls from the heaven so does my justice upon the lands that I behold. I am the storm. I am death."

He reached for her face to hold it and Sakura felt fear at the touch. He was vibrating with energy she knew would tear her asunder if he so wished it. His eyes were spinning with danger.

"I am the wound and I am the balm to a multitudes of nations. My wrath is justice and my favor a fearful thing. What I do and where I go is beyond the bonds of good or evil. I am what I am and no morality may judge me. Understand this, Sakura. I would drown Pompeii if the whim took me. I don't care for good and evil. Remember this when you think of me, if you ever do."

He let her go like he was letting a dirty napkin go and Sakura felt something after the fear from being so close to him subsided. She felt angry again.

"I'm telling you the truth. It wasn't me."

"Fine. I'll take you at your word, friend."

His tone was cold and Sakura didn't think he was really fine at all. He spoke as if he believed she was really behind everything and still trying to trick and lie to him. She didn't know for sure, but she suspected that the thing that upset Pein so much wasn't that she might be behind something so nasty, but that she wasn't being honest with him about it. He was upset though, she could tell that much.

Sakura took a step back and fell into the chair again. "I wish I could make you believe me instead of just taking me at my word for it. I don't want to see my friends get hurt. I don't want to see this town suffer. Please...at least believe that.

When she looked up the room was empty. Pein was gone and there wasn't even the smell of him left.

Sleep was nice, but Sakura found herself waking more naturally early and earlier. The sun was up and so was she, but she didn't feel the need to move and rise out of her bed. Sakura turned over and pulled the blankets up under her chin.

There was no reason to get out of bed so she reached for one of the books at the foot of her bed and flipped it open. There was a healthy stack of books she had been flipping through and reading whenever she could make her mind focus well enough to understand words in a sequence.

It was funny how the history of Pompeii wasn't a single history, but rather a collection of histories through different perspectives. One thing she read made her think of the current situation concerning of the Kiri boys.

Since the shit hit the fan they had been scarcely heard or see inside the town proper. They were a group that liked to pull away as soon as things looked bad, which was a pattern of behavior that was prominent all throughout their history in Pompeii. It made sense why she hadn't seen or heard any of them in weeks. Last she heard, they were all healthy and fit and content to stay far away on the other side of the lake where the trees couldn't reach them.

Trees were another issue.

Sakura put down one book and picked up another. She was looking through and searching for anything to do with trees, mutations in the foliage and fauna. It was hard and she wished she had a google search bar, but the items and mysteries were firmly buried. There was a reason the mysteries were mysteries and long and well as they were.

It was frustrating to find so little. She wanted answers that would tell her why she had been attacked almost a year ago for the first time, why she had her wrist broken, why the trees bled gold ichor, why they were flowing white and pink buds in the fall season, why so many people were getting ill from allergies. She wanted answers and she was afraid of what it meant. She was afraid that the answers she wanted were not in her room or safe between pages in a book. If she wanted answers she feared she would have to go out and get those answers herself with her own two hands.

Sakura shut the book on her lap, letting the papers flip one by one down until the cover came down. She eyed one more book and flipped it open on a hunch. It felt like a book she should flip open. It was about the earth before Pompeii was Pompeii and the civilizations that existed before. There were other towns like Pompeii around the world in different times and eras. Before Pompeii was a hub there were other safe havens that rose and fell and were outgrown. Sakura hated more and more the sentences that gave her less and less information on why and how they fell out of fame. Some just weren't popular anymore, some were discovered by humans. Others fell to... disease.

"Whatever the hell that means."

The doctor in her hated how heavily reliant the authors were on means other than medicine to treat their ailments. They used magic and when magic failed they admitted they were fuked. No one thought it was a good idea to document and record the symptoms. How hard could it have been to just draw some diagrams and record a few notes on the things that happen to the people and creatures in the town?

Idiots.

Sakura dressed and made herself breakfast. She didn't think it mattered if she did herself up any, so she ate at the counter, standing up and watching the sunrise through the window.

There was a knock on the door and she waited a breath before hesitantly approaching the door. She breathed a sigh of relief when she recognize the sound of his nervous shifting.

"Sai," she greeted. Sakura invited him in and they ate together.

"Did you hear about what happened to Naruto?" he asked after they had gone through a handful of english muffins.

Sakura licked the jam off her thumb. "Nah, I'm not in the loop, remember?"

Sai shrugged. "You hear things at the shop. Apparently a tree attacked him. That's more rare."

She looked down at her wrist. "Not that rare."

"There was something else. Downstairs someone left a message scheduling an appointment today. I heard it before I came back upstairs."

Sakura drank back a glass of milk and then set it aside, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. "I get them all the time but no one shows up. Just ignore them. I'm here if someone decides to come through the door. Who was it?"

"That Zetsu character, the one Naruto was always bullying. He didn't say what he needed, but He sounded like he was coming in later today. I'm sorry if it turns out to be just another trick."

Sakura pushed away her empty plate. "Me too."