Serena-Hi everyone! Here's the next chapter of Boundless!

Disclaimer- I own nothing except my Original Characters, but even then- they have a mind of their own.

Boundless

By: Serena

Chapter 5

Sleeping on the Job

October 30th

Life seemed to return to the monotonous routine it had always followed. Morning inspection and watering, breakfast, hybrid tinkering, lunch, afternoon inspection and watering, hybrid tinkering, dinner, hari-shashu tinkering and then sleep.

For the past year, my life followed that schedule, discluding the hybrid tinkering and hari-shashu tinkering; those were my newest hobbies but they were often changing.

Master Orochimaru was quite impressed with the Kowakuteki-ningen-kuchini plant, saying it would be a good defensive weapon, then he said to improve it. He didn't tell me how to improve it… but I had a few ideas.

After dinner, I was going through all the poisonous things I had collected to use for my hari-shashu. The hari-shashu was a weapon I had designed and built long ago. The thing was simply two wristbands that when a certain button was pressed, poison laced needles would shoot out of it.

Originally the hari-shashu was designed for me, but I quickly lost intrest in it. Then, when Kirinonai showed a great intrest in it, I continued to built it and then gave it to her as a present. Hers was abit different though: the needles weren't released by pressing a button, but instead by chakra.

In addition to the wristbands, I also gave her bands to put around her ankles. She had loved them… I had recentlydecided to try and rebuilt them for my own protection.

I sighed, realizing that I hadn't gotten the suimin petals. Time for a little trip into the forest. Though the suimin petals weren't lethally poisonous, they were sleep enducing and I preferred knocking someone out versus killing them.

I grabbed my straw basket that would serve as the petals carrier, and my satchel, then I exited the greenhouse, not removing my purple apron. The dark blue skirt I was wearing swished around my ankles and my long sleeved, baby blue, turtle-neck protected me from the slightly chilly October air.

The black boots I was wearing, crunched the fallen leaves. If there was one thing that I thought was strange about me, it was that as much as I love plants, fall was my favorite season. I don't know why, it was just that the yellow, orange, red, and occasional green leaves against the green grass reminded me of something from my grandfathers books.

Blood spattered upon the green grass,

A lose of a life worth living,

Souls spattered upon the green grass,

A sacrifice worth giving.

Though I loved the book, the name of it escaped me. I would pick at it, analyzing each and every word, attempting to figure out who died. Some hero? Perhaps, but I liked to think that it was a normal person who did something brave for someone else.

I was pulled out of my thoughts as I came to my destination. The large field was covered with little forget-me-not blue flowers. I sighed and got to work. Pulling the nearest one up from the ground, I carelessly popped the flower head off, and yanked the petals off, one by one, letting them fall into the basket.

Even thought the petals were the sleep inducers, you would only pass out if the petals got withinthree feet of an unprotected opening- be it mouth, nose, eyes, wound. To keep myself protected, I lifted the neck of my turtleneck so that it was covering my mouth and nose.

After my basket was filled to the top, I stood erect and was about to turn around when I heard, "Hey."

I screamed in surprise I swung around, basket flying from my heads, petals encircling the surpriser. I watched, mesmerized, as the blue petals fell like snow, around Uchi-Sasuke's head.

I was quickly pulled from my mesmerization as Sasuke promptly passed out. I stood there for a few moments, mouth opening and closing, before the seriousness of the situation hit me. And it hit hard.

I felt the fuzzy feeling in the back of my head and fell to my knees. The only thing keeping Shatto Umou from taking over was the fact that I knew passing out would mean both of us unprotected.

"Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit!" I whispered, astonishing myself at my wide vocabulary. Forming a plan, I stood up, grabbed both his wrists, and dragged him to the nearest tree. After propping him up against it, I tried to remember the antidote for suimin petals.

…… I would take advantage of the situation if I were you… I glared into the distance, hoping my other self would take the hint.

Then it's a good thing I'm not you. Now shut up and help me think! I said, mind wandering.

……Sougishiki-hana would work well…… It huffed, superiorly.

You're brillant! I said to my other self as I reached over to my sachel, pulling out a small tube.

You know it!

Lifting his head slightly away from the tree, I popped open the tube and placed it directly under his nose. Within moments he started coughing and pushing the tube away from him. I had similar reactions the first time I was awakened by Sougishiki-hana.

I put the tube back in my bag, gingerly and waited for Sasuke to notice me. It didn't take long. With his normal glare still in place he turned to me and asked mencingly, "What was that?"

"The thing I threw at you? Or the thing that woke you up?"

"Both."

My gaze flickered downward as I said, "I threw suimin petals at you because you surprised me, and then I woke you up with Sougishiki-hana… I'm so sorry Uchiha-sama…"

"What did I say about you calling me that?" I looked back up at him and opened my mouth to apologize again, but he continued, "Just don't, okay?"

I nodded instead of repling. A few moments past and finally Sasuke pushed himself up and I follwed suit. "Come on."

He grabbed my basket and bent down, picking up each individual flower petal, and placing it into the basket. I bent down as well, not wanting him to do all the work. With our combined efforts we finished and I said, "See ya." and he nodded, before we went our seprate ways.

November 5th

After what happened, Sasuke slowly started saying, "Hi," or "Hey," whenever we would see each other. I didn't know what he acted like before coming to Master Orochimaru's lair, but I think I like this Sasuke.

As the weather got colder, I didn't have to do too much with the plants, so I had a lot of free time. Mostly I worked on the hari-shashu, but sometimes I would just go for walks.

After boredom had gnawed at me for quite some time, I finally decided to take a walk to the lake near my hut. Most of the leaves had fallen, and my breath was a faint vapor in front of my mouth.

Reaching the lake, I saw someone else was there. I recognized the black hair immediately. Sasuke sat at the edge, Indian-style, looking off into space.

At first I didn't want to bug him, but then I felt my boredom gnawing my insides again, and I sat down next to him. Silence followed until he asked,

"Why are you working for him?" I was surprised and confused by his question.

"Who? Master Orochimaru?" Sasuke nodded. "Well… I… need to know. I need to know if she's alive and if so, where she is."

"And you think he's going to tell you?" I bowed my head.

"No. No, I lost hope that he was going to tell me long ago…" Silence once again followed before I felt myself grow bold.

"Why are you working for him?" Sasuke took so long in answering, I didn't think he actually would.

"I need to get more powerful so that I can kill a certain man." Once again he surprised me. Who did he want to kill? Master Orochimaru? If not, then who?

I voiced my silent question, asking, "Who?"

"My brother."