: : Eternity : :
- Chapter Five -
Sorry for the delay! On with the show. Thank you for all the reviews. Muah!
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Sometime within the ruthless night, tossing in turning in a dreamless sleep as the wind washed her skin clean of the hot, sticky sweat that clung there from the night terrors that haunted her, Sakura had found herself curled up, hugging her knees. Awakening, she was startled to find she had ever drifted off at all, what with the paranoia and fear looming over her shoulder greater in size than the Kyuubi.
Pushing herself to sit up and feeling her abs groan warm at the first morning movement, she twisted, listening to the satisfying pops in her spine. Repeating this procedure with her neck, despite the fact she knew - being a medic nin - that it was unhealthy, she sighed and leaned back onto her elbows and forearms, still blinking sleep from her jade eyes.
The sky glowed brightly by the sun's warming light, blue encompassed by a gigantic ball of yellow and white light burning stronger than any life force here on earth. Birds sung to one another from the tips of trees and small creatures bustled about within the shrubbery. Despite her cursèd life of men twenty years her senior following her every move and leaving her lovingly harassing notes at all hours of the night, someone had loved her enough to grant such a beautiful day on their journey.
"Good morning," Yamato greeted, stretching his arms upward with a wide yawn. Had he been awake this entire time or had he just woken up? "Did you sleep well?"
"As best as you can with rocks as pillows and leaves as bed sheets," she replied sarcastically, forcing enthusiasm into her tone while annunciating each word crisply. "In other words, dandy."
The captain laughed, rubbing his stubbly chin with a gloved hand.
"You do have a point. Those two seemed to have slept well…" he trailed off, verbally gesturing to Naruto and Sai, still passed out within arm's length of one another. Lord knew that couldn't be good.
Case in point, awake or in sleep, Naruto rolled and subconsciously dealt Sai a blow to the face, his fist sliding down across the pale boy's nose and landing just below that. Sai, half-awake if not completely asleep, swung his leg up and dealt him a rough blow to the groin. Naruto's eyes overflowed with tears and he cringed and moaned, but was somehow still unconscious.
"Amazing," Sakura whispered, shaking her bubblegum locks around her face. Those two were like a cat and a dog. Maybe even worse than Sasuke and Naruto. That was a frightening thought.
"…get them up, we can head onto the village ahead of us and settle…" Yamato's voice drifted in her ears and slipped right back out. How long had the captain been talking? Her mind must have wandered elsewhere…
To the best of her knowledge, for the five to ten minutes she had been awake, Sasori had not left a note or any sign of his presence last night. That scared her more than if he had.
"Get off of me, you homo," Sai gurgled, shoving Naruto away from him.
"I wasn't even on you idiot!" Naruto spat back in hysteria, rolling over with his back to Sai before flipping back to face the other boy. Sai apparently wasn't trustworthy enough. Not that she blamed Naruto, by any means.
As predicted, a beautiful morning ruined by the childish bickering of adolescent boys - and she got the pleasure of calling them teammates.
"Would you guys grow up and start acting like the mature adults you're trusted to be?" She yelled to them, but Sai had drifted back off and Naruto was in the process of doing the same. "How the hell do I live with you two?"
"They're your teammates," Yamato commented, poking into her one-sided conversation. He was right though; the team was probably her sole reason for putting up with them and their , at least neither of them was Sasori. That was one man, good or bad, she could live without.
"Screw you!" Naruto cried. "Am I not allowed to sleep now?"
"You're breathing on me," came the patient, soft reply.
Naruto's face reddened as he glowered at the other boy.
"Bastard."
"We need to get going anyway," Yamato informed them, which got Sai to open his eyes, at least. "Sleeping all day isn't on our agenda."
Ignoring the latest fuss between her three - well, mainly two - male team members, Sakura turned to her belongings and began re-collecting things. Astonishing. As usual, she was the most mature one here.
As she grabbed at her duffle, that was when she noticed it - a tree branch sticking out. How the hell did that manage to get there?
Pulling at it and tossing it aside, she watched as a small paper followed.
Shit.
Opening the sliver, she read the few words imprinted on it in red ink:
Look up.
Frozen, she stared at the paper before getting a grip and shoving it into her pack quickly to keep the others from noticing. Faking a yawn, arms stretched towards the sky, she craned her neck but saw nothing.
Look up?
Glancing around the clearing, she examined the innumerous trees that stood like guardians around them. It was then that she noticed the slight line in the dirt beside her.
What the hell…?
It led to a tree with a wide base, a warped branch crushed and fallen, the remnants of a storm.
Lo and behold, there it was - pinned to the trunk with a kunai.
Sasori really did put far too much thought into these things.
Hoping not to draw attention, since the others were busy packing anyway, she began to creep over towards the tree. Unfortunately, a still immature voice called to her.
"Sakura! Where are you going?"
Leave it to Naruto in all his endless curiosity and ADD to notice her trying to slip off. Damn…time to wing it. Imagination - why didn't they enforce that at the academy?
"Uh…I thought I saw something in the tree and…I just wanted to check it out, make sure we aren't being targeted already. You know?" Not waiting for a reply, she burst off in a flash and dashed up the trunk, snatching the kunai and letter in the process.
As she sprinted vertically to the tree's canopy, two squirrels darted and leapt to another branch.
Lucky her.
As she crept back down, kunai at her side as if it had been hers and note folded within her palm, Sai raised an eyebrow at her but remained otherwise expressionless.
"You really mistook squirrels for enemies?"
"Shut up," Sakura snapped, too focused on the paper pressed to her clammy palm to conjure a witty reply.
"Alright, alright," Yamato stressed tiredly. "You just woke up twenty minutes ago. I don't want to listen to you three bicker until the last one falls asleep."
"Yeah, knucklehead." Naruto glared at Sai, who either missed or did not acknowledge the facial gesture.
After glancing around the grounds, Yamato nodded his approval. "Let's head out."
The paper still crumpled neatly in her fist, Sakura couldn't help but wonder - when would Sasori's twisted game be over? The sickening feelings she had in her stomach told her he was far from finished - more likely just beginning.
"I won't let him keep this up," she thought bitterly, suffocating the paper even more. Twisted asshole!
"You alright?" It was only when addressed with this question that Sakura realized she'd been holding her breath. Her face was cherry red.
"Fine." Giving Naruto a dismissive hand gesture, she inhaled, refilling her deprived lungs with the air they deserved. The blonde didn't look convinced, but watched her only a moment more before turning back around and continuing on.
No male, not even Sasuke Uchiha, had ever, ever made her lack sanity like this. Sasori made her livid; he made her skin crawl. It was as if he looked at her as one of his god-awful puppets, tied to strings of chakra, dancing by the tug of his fingers.
That would never happen. She would never be that maniacal creature's plaything.
Shivering, she wrapped her arms around her. It was a warm day too, yet she was freezing. The thought of him made her mad. It really did.
Catching Naruto's watchful eyes again, she flushed and turned away. If he asked, now she really couldn't lie it away. Of course, he did.
"Are you sure you're alright?"
Sakura managed a meager smile and looked at him through sorrowful, sleepy eyes. "Yeah. Just feeling a little bit under the weather is all."
Naruto frowned in displeasure, but sighed and shook the expression off. "If you need to stop and rest…"
"I'll be alright, really. We need to continue on."
Accepting her statement, Naruto followed her word. More than likely he did so begrudgingly, as he always liked having his way - even if it meant caring for her, the girl of his long-lived affections.
Quickening her pace to catch up as not to look too ill, Sakura's thoughts became a twinge more than resentful.
"Eat or be eaten. Keep this up and I'll see to it you aren't able to write your next letter and terrorize me any longer."
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Sorry again for the delay! Please review. If the contents of this chapter seems off, please notify me. I was having trouble with the format and such from uploading the doc...hmm.