Lost Year
Concerning!
One of the best feelings in the world is having someone falling for you
when you never thought you had the chance before.
When Sasori was just a child, he was enrolled into the Sunagakure academy due to his special talent in Ninjutsu, Taijutsu and even Genjutsu. Before they started their lesson, his homeroom teacher asked a few kids about why were they interested in being a ninja instead of a normal civilian in Sunagakure. Many stated that it was because they wished to protect their families and friends in the village.
Sasori too, wanted to become a well-trained ninja so that he could protect his own parents and anyone that were closed to him. The young redhead didn't want them to die before him. He wanted to protect them so that they could live happily together until their age finally caught up with them.
But one day, just like that, everything turned upside down.
After waiting for so long, Sasori finally found out the truth behind his parent's absence even though he had always wished those assumptions he made everyday were not true. Soon, he started shielding himself from everyone and stayed at home regularly to stare at the only family portrait on the bedside table.
As guilt started haunting his grandmother for lying to him so long, Chiyo taught him a technique in hoping that he would not be lonely again. Then when he started learning about puppet jutsu from his grandmother, he realized what he had been searching all along.
His art required eternal beauty, something that would stay forever and never rot away.
Sasori wished that his parent's love could be eternal just like his art. Never to be gone and would always be there. And there he thought, his two first two puppets he created which resembled his parents could give him that eternal warmth he longed for, but how wrong he was.
Feelings and emotionless were the things Sasori loathed the most in the world. These were the things that pulled him into the depth of despair and loneliness he hated to the core of the earth.
Yet ironically, even after making so many ingenious puppets that earned him quite a reputation throughout the world, he had actually missed out such a simple logic ever since he started making puppets.
Puppets were occasionally made to look like human in a battle, and even if they were painted with glorious colors or wearing beautiful kimonos and such, they would still remain emotionless, impossible for them to give or feel towards anything around them at all.
After drafting out his finest creation he made on earth, he realized what he had been wanting all along.
Ditching his village when he managed to make the Third Kazekage into part of his collection, he set ahead on his own with a huge amount of information's about his home village and researches on human puppets. The reason being was that he could turn himself into a puppet, which would represent his opinion about eternal beauty and also able to abandon his feelings and emotions into this empty shell he would create for himself.
And that was what he had been searching and wanting all along.
So Sasori started making plans and many experiments to transform himself into a human puppet. But even after researching for about a year when he was still in Sunagakure, the ingenious puppeteer still couldn't figure out how to change himself fully into a puppet without having at least an organ that would keep him alive. His heart.
As he began to attempt more research to make himself into a complete puppet, this had to happen.
A pink-haired brat suddenly appeared out of nowhere, and beginning to delay him from getting his project completed ever since she volunteered to join him in his trip. And to make matter worse, he was getting too much attention to himself that also made him unable to focus on getting his work done. It was a nuisance, really, but Sasori just couldn't bear to just get rid of the girl for some weird reasons that he couldn't understand.
Neither could he comprehend why was he overly acting around his injured companion when he could be sitting back and minding his own business.
For example, doing things like making sure that Sakura had fallen into a deep slumber instead of waking up and sneaking out. And then going a few rounds around the inn she was staying at to see that there were no suspicious people loitering before deciding to return back to the very spot he found her to investigate to the dead bodies scattering all around the field.
It was seriously a waste of time for him, and he really hated to waste his precious time on things like this. But Sasori couldn't help it, he just had to make sure Sakura would be alright before he could went on safely to check on the things he wanted to know about.
The air was tensed and humid and not even a single sound from any bugs or animal was heard at all.
Sasori stepped before a bloodied man who was already dead. He was lying on his stomach and his arms and legs sprawled out.
With a kick, the body rolled over a few times and finally lying faced up. The deceased had his eyes opened, both of them displaying how frightened and helpless he was before he died.
The only way to know who had almost killed Sakura was as easy as anyone breathing. The weird but familiar-looking black marks that were spread across his face and arms were enough prove for Sasori to know who he was going to exact his revenge on.
The redhead had enough of this nonsense. With that snake bastard running after him was annoying enough, but hurting his only trusted companion had definitely crossed the line.
He glanced briefly across the clearing once again before trudging off. The puppeteer was sill not sure how he's going to settle his score when he didn't have help in hand ever since that stupid money lover had left — not that he wanted him back either — but he'll definitely sort this out, on his own.
0o0
"I don't know Tsunade-sama. Is she suffering some after effect from the operation?" Shizune worriedly spoke, putting the spoon back into the bowl.
The blonde then took the bowl from Shizune as the apprentice gave up her seat for her master to sit. As both of them exchanged places, Sakura's bright emerald eyes began moving and eyeing only on the Sanin wherever she go.
Tsunade then lifted the utensil to Sakura's lips but they refused to open even when forced of instructed. Her eyes were still staring at the blonde for almost five minutes that even the greatest medic in the world felt disturbed by it. Tsunade then placed the bowl of brownish colored liquid onto the bedside table and went forward to pinch Sakura's arm with that calm expression she had on her face.
"Ow!" Sakura yelped, rubbing her immediate bruise that was forming on her arm. She stared at it numbly before cracking a smile.
"So it's not a dream." She muttered happily and rubbing her new injury with glee.
Tsunade narrowed her eyes and lifted the bowl again. "Now that you are back to reality, open your mouth and drink this."
Sakura turned her eyes away from her blackening mark and stared at the spoon near her mouth. Obeying the Sanin, Sakura opened her mouth and gulped the entire liquid down. Sakura's face immediately scrunched up with disgust as her lips pulled away from the spoon.
Shizune could have laughed at that moment until when she remembered the time Tsunade brewed her medicines for her while she got injured during a battle with a few enemies. It was preferably the worst day of her life just to finish the whole bowl of bitter liquid.
"This is to replenish the amount of blood you loss. So you better drink finish it." Tsunade shoved the spoon nearer to Sakura's lips.
Mostly, patients that were poisoned during a battle had to also drink medicines which was just to get rid of the excess poison in the body that were not able to extract out successfully. Could that mean Sakura had more of these bitter medicines to drink? Her face crumpled up again before taking a sip of the liquid.
Sakura shook her head inwardly. She's a medic and she knew how medicines were the most important thing needed for speedy recovery too. If she wanted to recover as fast as possible — like how she always urged her patients too — then she should be obeying orders.
Her attention was turned to Tsunade who had handed the bowl to the young apprentice before the blonde stood up from her seat for Shizune to sit. The teenager took the spoon and lifted it to Sakura's mouth again.
Even after Sakura had experienced the painful pinch by Tsunade, she still couldn't believe that she had woke up earlier to find the young and lovable Shizune along with Tsunade talking to each other by her bed.
As the room was filled with nothing but the sipping sound and the clanking when the bowl and utensil knocked against each other, Sakura couldn't help but reminisced the times she had with her two closest female member in her life.
After a while when Sakura decided that she had enough courage to drink the bitterest medicine in the world just by one gulp, Tsunade uncrossed her arm and sat on the bed without sitting on Sakura's leg while Shizune placed the now empty bowl on the table.
"Alright." Tsunade straightened her posture, feeling that now was the best time to interrogate the injured pinkette.
"It is Orochimaru." That was not a question but a statement.
Sakura blinked and turned to Tsunade who was scrutinizing her with her honey-colored eyes. Of course, how could she even underestimate how intelligent and quick thinking her master was? She confirmed Tsunade's assumption with a slow solid nod.
"Orochimaru had made a move again." Shizune spoke in a very deadly tone despite having such a cute and innocent looking face.
Tsunade was not pleased to hear her former teammate appearing in the very same town as she was in. It almost disgusted her in deciding to leave the fire country and moving away. The fact that Jiraiya pursuing the snake summoner still didn't make any common sense to her when it was their sensei that banished him from the village.
The blonde sat silently on the bed and stared at her wounds, moving her eyes swiftly across Sakura's body.
It certainly pained her heart when so many people were suffering under Orochimaru's selfish clutches. She didn't know what exactly did he want by gaining immortality and learning so many jutsu when every precious people in his life were long dead.
That wasn't the only reason why she hated him, it was the experiments that actually sickened her the most. Toying with people's life and making it to his own beneficial purpose only, she really detested people who took human life as a joke and insignificant.
When Tsunade realized Orochimaru had used her grandfather's DNA and injecting them into all those poor innocent life, it made her swore that she would kill him when he managed to find him.
Even when Jiraiya promised to bring Orochimaru back to Konoha to start anew, the blonde would never accept the fact that he had killed so many lives for his purpose. So while Jiraiya was searching hard for his comrade to get him back to the correct path in life, Tsunade would not hesitate to kill him in sight.
Tsunade finally made an eye contact with Sakura once again, her beige colored eyes staring right through at the pair of warm emerald-green.
"We want to-"
The door suddenly swung open, revealing the grumpy redhead who was not in his best mood at that point.
"Sasori!" Sakura blurted out, turning her attention to the said man standing outside. All these while she had been wondering where the puppeteer had gone when she woke up. But her two family-like members were by her side and she didn't have any time to think about anything else other than realizing that they had managed to meet and cross path each other in the past.
"Sasori." Tsunade turned her head, registering his name into her mind before realization dawned over her.
"Sasori of the Red Sand." She smirked, looking at the near adult who was gazing at her cautiously.
"I'm sure by now, you know who's the culprit for hurting your friend here." Tsunade gestured at Sakura.
Sasori's fist clenched even harder. All the way when he was stomping back to the inn wasn't a pleasant journey, even mentioning about the snake bastard had his blood boiled once again.
Fixing pieces and assumptions in her head, she casually said, with a little bit of wariness towards the redhead. Although Tsunade didn't know the redhead well, he did made a famous name during the third world war and even before the war happened. And also, there might be a chance that he had inherited some of his grandmother's genes by jumping towards her opponents wildly, like the incident when someone mentioned about Konoha White Fang on the battlefield and made Chiyo went wild with anger.
"I have scores to settle with the same person you might be looking for." Tsunade crossed her arm slowly.
"Orochimaru." The blonde confirmed.
From the beginning when Sakura called Sasori's name, Tsunade had been the one talking to him, having no answers from him at all.
Sasori's eyes narrowed to a very dangerous slit. His eyeballs shifted and landed on the pinkette who was staring worriedly at him. Her head was bandaged and one side of her cheeks was band-aided, with a few bruise and cuts on her arm too. The other bandages were either covered by Sakura clothing or hidden under the bed sheets.
Sasori entered into the room and closed the door quietly behind him.
"What does Orochimaru want from you?" Sasori questioned Sakura, completely ignoring Tsunade's presence.
"And why are you asking me this?" There was a small pause before Sakura said casually. "You should know fully well yourself."
Sakura absolutely had no intention in wanting to make Sasori guilty or blaming him for ended her like this, but the words that slipped out completely contradicted what she was intending to mean. And it seemed that her skills at speech indeed failed terribly when Sasori looked away almost immediately, as if he was really assigning all those faults to himself.
"Work with me." Tsunade continued while Shizune stepped forward and nodded furiously.
"And why should I?" He breathed out, his eyes still fixated at the same spot when he had turned away from Sakura.
Tsunade stood up from the bed. "I have not come across with someone who hated Orochimaru like you." She admitted before continuing. "And just by sensing that amount of hatred you possessed, I have my utmost faith that we can get rid of Orochimaru easier than doing it individually on our own."
Sakura gasped inwardly at that very word she heard Tsunade said.
Hatred was the one that pulled Sasuke away from her. The hatred he felt for his brother caused him to follow Orochimaru, to gain power and kill his brother.
It's true. Hatred was something that made someone stronger, but it was all just a brief moment only. When hatred's gone, all you could find afterwards would just be despair.
Sakura bit her lips uncertainly. Why was Tsunade suggesting Sasori to use his hatred to get rid of Orochimaru? It didn't make any sense.
But then, what if this was the correct path they should have taken from the start?
Suddenly, something clicked in Sakura's inner mind.
Meeting Tsunade and Shizune was not so surprising when she had even managed to come in contact with Kakuzu, Orochimaru and even Chiyo. But this couldn't be pure coincidence.
With Kakuzu gone and Tsunade and Shizune appearing right before them, this could actually be the changed future that Sakura was trying to find. The path they had been taking was leading to the encounter between Tsunade, Shizune and them to change this together.
This must be it.
"We'll cooperate." Sakura raised her opinion.
"There isn't any room for discussion about this." Sasori sneered. "I don't need any help."
"Yes." Sakura scowled back at Sasori, which reminded Shizune of Tsunade having a hung over.
The pinkette continued to speak, refusing to break the firm eye contact with Sasori. "There's tons of discussion to be made about the plan to set off together."
Tsunade and Shizune just blinked in unison at Sakura before looking back at each other, seeming to feel a déjà vu around here.
0o0
Someday, Sasori would definitely check to the bottom of this matter on why was he stupidly giving in to his companion when he should be the on controlling the situation.
Must be those soldier pills she forced me to eat while travelling. The redhead grouched inwardly. She must have done something to it to make me actually listen to her.
The redhead kicked onto the ground and continued walking, trying to find more reasons what had changed him from a complete stubborn, impatient man to what he was now.
However, the answer definitely wasn't because of the harsh glare Sakura directed at him. Those were not even intimidating enough to scare him at all.
Sasori ruffled his hair as he strode nearer to the sound of water gushing. His thoughts often lingered to the pinkette and her injuries she sustained during the fight.
Maybe this is the best after all. He slightly smirked, staring ahead. I don't have to worry about her injuries when two medics are by her side.
Trying to push away the thoughts, Sasori decided that he's going to rest at the riverbank, clear his thought, get some fish and head back to the meeting place before the sun sets in an hour or so.
0o0
That was surprisingly easy.
When they first met, Sakura knew how stubborn and persistent the redhead was. And to convince him successfully to this deal was a miracle for Sakura since she thought she would fail at the start.
Is he planning something? Sakura couldn't help but wonder. It must be the case, if not… why did he give in to me so easily?
Sakura bit her thumb as she started walking in circles. "He wants Orochimaru's life, that's quite obvious." The pinkette then stopped on her track and stared up to the sky.
"Did he agreed with me just because of that?" Sakura frowned in disbelief. "He made a deal with Tsunade because he wanted Orochimaru's life?"
No. I have to think deep. Sakura crossed her arm and went back walking in circles again. I have to imagine myself as a mature adult who seeks for something during his journey.
The four of them had started travelling the very next day since the plan. Deciding it was the best to only travel a short distance and remained close to the village, they stopped when night falls and settled just a few miles away from the town in a clearing they found. Sakura slept in right away due to exhaustion and to wake up to find it was late afternoon already.
Everyone was gone, only leaving her in the forest with a thin blanket over her shoulders. A few battle scenes with Orochimaru and his subordinates did flashed across her mind when she realized she was all alone in the forest. Wanting to get up to find them, she noticed some writings on the soft ground beside her. The person must have used those thin branches to carve the words onto the soft sand so they could communicate without waking her up.
"Tsunade-sama and I are setting a few traps and finding some herbs to brew. I'll come back as soon as possible so we can head out to get some woods for the fire."
The only other person who used honorific terms to refer to Tsunade would be Shizune so Sakura presumed the one who would come back soon to get some woods would be none other than the bubbly teenager.
Her green eyes were soon drawn towards another writing a meter away from Shizune's.
"Getting food."
There, was Sasori, probably being forced to move around by Tsunade to get food before the two medics decided to leave Sakura alone. It didn't mean much to her until she realized the reason for him to be listening to Tsunade without picking up a fight might be just because of her.
She had gained back quite an amount of chakra as she decided to heal some parts of her serious injury on her own, but she made sure she didn't use up to much in case she needed her chakra for emergency. Leaving only some light scars and bruise visible on the outside to prevent the two skilled medics to suspect anything, Sakura stopped her healing and started to rest again.
And when someone, anyone was left all alone by himself or herself, they could start thinking of many sorts of stuffs. And that very one thing that was bothering Sakura for quite sometime resurfaced as she started debating the reason why Sasori gave in to her so easily without an argument.
Then again, why does Sasori want to kill Orochimaru — now? Sakura finally stopped walking in circles, staring at a shady tree a few meters away from her.
He had chance before — why now?
Sakura's hand then lifted to the bandage still covering the side of her cheek. The memories that suddenly flashed across her mind didn't consist of anything related to her fight, but it was images of Sasori carrying her to Tanzaku Town and ordering her not to die before him.
"I'm sorry I wasn't there when you needed me. I couldn't protect you."
Sakura blinked profusely. Now that her memories before she fainted started flooding in, she still couldn't fully register those words could actually come out from Sasori's mouth.
H-He apologized to me? Everything around her seemed to be a little dizzy as the pinkette took in a deep breath, slowly trudging to the tree and calmly sat down, making sure not to hurt her injury on her back. She closed her eyes, stretching her legs out and putting both of her hands on her lap while slowly leaning back on the tree. Sakura silently tried to remember every single thing that happened right after Sasori managed to find her.
As more images steadily returned back to her, realization slowly occurred to her.
Sasori cared about me… Sakura spoke inwardly, her eyes still remaining close. She didn't want those images of Sasori's concerned eyes to disappear from her. Those emotions firing in his eyes felt so lively, so…
Human…
Must she have to get almost killed again just to see him worrying about her? Why couldn't he treat her right instead of mocking her and reprimanding how useless she was when she was capable of breaking down a huge building in just one hit right before his eyes?
Then again, why was she being like this? As if she was yearning for his attention that much to even thought about getting all injured again to see him worried about her. Getting attention was something Ino and her were always trying when Sasuke was at the scene, but it had already been four years since she even tried to get anyone to notice her.
But Sasori… he-
"You've slept for more than 10 hours already, that's actually splendid for a ninja, even when he or she is hurt."
Sa-Sasori?" Sakura spoke, recognizing his voice as she fluttered open her eyes and gazed at the man who was standing before her.
"At least make yourself useful and get some wood or something." He said, walking to her side and sat right beside her as Sakura watched him with her two curious eyes.
"I'm just waiting for Shizune-san to come back." She defended herself. And there, this redhead jerk had to accuse her for being useless when she's being productive by warming the tree she was leaning on.
"Hn." Sasori stared up at the sky as a silence ensued between them.
For a while, both of them were just keeping quiet and enjoying the small breeze that often blew by. Sometimes, Sakura had to comb her hair back behind her ears to prevent them to irritate her eyes. She then made a mental note that she should cut her fringe soon when she returned back to her home. Ino is a good hairstylist after all.
"Sometimes, I doubted the fact that you managed to kill me."
Sakura spun her head and stared at the redhead who was looking ahead, his eyes were distant, as if he was deep in thought. When Sasori spoke, Sakura thought she was hallucinating since he had never ever talked to her first at anything since usually it was her who started the conversation. But as she regained her composure and taking in the words that left Sasori's lips, her brows slightly turned into a frown.
"You don't believe me?" Sakura asked calmly.
"No. I believe you." The puppeteer turned to Sakura, his usual cold and calm eyes staring back at her too. Sakura had learnt to get use to those eyes she distasted at the start. The way he always stared at her with those emotionless yet beautiful eyes sometimes made her wonder if he actually hated her, but then he had always regarded everything around him as something insignificant, even her.
Not until that very day she was dying in his arms then he finally showed an emotion Sakura never knew he would ever display to anyone at all.
"I just couldn't believe you could beat me with how naïve you are."
"Naïve?" Sakura frowned, those images and words Sakura seen and heard a few days ago when Sasori was carrying her to the village immediately shattered in her mind. She just couldn't understand what was wrong with him all of the sudden.
Sasori inwardly sighed. "Even with the times we spent together…" For a moment, Sakura thought his eyes had sparked with a sort of emotion but when she blinked, it was gone. Maybe it was just the effect of the sunlight.
His words then trailed off as he looked away and his eyes became distant again. The redhead blinked slowly once and he turned back to her again.
"You still don't understand how I feel all along…" He mumbled, his tone much softer and soother this time.
"How you feel?" Sakura gazed at Sasori with a puzzled frown before breaking into a smile as she sheepishly turned away. "It's not possible for me to know-"
Sasori's warm hand then touched her bandage on her cheek, forcing her to turn to him. Her eyes were only fixed on his hands that were caressing her cheeks, not believing that the redhead would even touch her at all.
When she was about to look up at him and demanded the reason for his action, he leaned forward silently and locked his lips with hers.
Sakura widened her eyes and blinked furiously, gazing shockingly at the redhead who already had his eyes closed. Her breath hitched as their kiss deepened and she slowly closed her eyes, devouring the small moment between Sasori and her.
"Sasori…"
As Sakura slowly opened her bright emerald eyes, all she saw was a couple of fallen leaves on her two legs that were extended out while she was leaning on the tree.
It took Sakura almost five seconds to understand what was really happening.
"It's just a dream." She muttered, closing her eyes before opening to make sure what happened previously was indeed a dream.
"And there I thought it was real." Her tone tainted in disappointment, although she never noticed that herself.
Sakura sat up straight and stretched her arms and wiggled her toes. Her hands then slowly reached out to her lips as she inclined her head to one side.
"But this feeling…" She then gave a small smile, shaking her head slowly.
"And there you are, Haruno Sakura, thinking about something that will never happen." The pinkette chided herself while brushing off the leaves from her knee and resumed back to lean against onto the tree, wondering when would her other comrades be coming back already.
However, Sakura didn't seem to notice the young teenage medic who had arrived a while ago, hiding behind a tall tree and staring in shock at what she witnessed before.