VII -
The nights were sleepless, the days dragged on like old dogs too thick with fur and laden with fat to enjoy the world the way they once had.
Sakura stayed defensive like a wild animal, back to the wall during her minimal slumber, kunai under her pillow. Her senses had heightened, hearing becoming acute to that of a wolf and sight aligning with that of an eagle. All the better to hear and spy her enemy with.
The foursome had headed out of their resting place, the location of Sasori's most recent appearance, quite a few days earlier. Having been walking since nine-thirty this morning, Sakura could feel the dirt building on the bottoms of her feet. It was a texture you got used to after innumerous trips out of your home land.
"You're awfully quiet," Sai proded purposefully, purpose being to piss her off and get under her skin - as always. "Did that demon inside you finally crawl back to the ugly hole it came from, or, at least, that wide-spanning blockade that is your forehead?"
Sakura's eye twitched simultaneously with her fist's impulsive balling, but released the tension that had been mounting in her body for days. There was no mistaking that Sai was, well, a dick, but Sakura's frustrations were not meant to be taken out by bashing his face in and severing his (what she could only imagine to be miniscule) member off. A nin like herself had acquired patients with time -
"That's a nasty expression you're wearing, Ms. Haruno. It would be preferable you unfurrow your brow and unwrinkle your nose - who knows? It might actually make you pretty." Sai shrugged along with his statement, so eloquently worded it sounded as if it had melodically floated out from under the upturned nose of a homosexual male. "Then again, simply wearing a mask would do. That would kill two birds with one stone; I won't have to see your intolerable face and you can wear those hideous expressions until your heart's content."
Sparing a wayward glance at the pasty young male to her right, she caught the expression on the tanned, blonde boy's face behind him. The emotions beared in those blue eyes were fighting one another as well as mixing together; anger, frustration, sympathy, humor. It was an ironic and sickening combination, if any. Sakura turned her gaze to the road before her, leaving Sai's brutality to dissipate behind them in the breeze.
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Yamato had to be deaf.
Of all the crude, rude and obnoxious commentary traded amongst the three (former) squad members of team seven, he said nothing if any one word passed his ears. Kakashi would have most certainly caught the appalling banter and had his fair input, defensive or dismissive.
Kakashi was always a nostalic thought in Sakura's mind. It had been what felt like decades since she had crossed paths with her ex-sensei.
That man, so gallant and charming in his lopsided mannerisms as well as lopsided mass of silver hair, was just another missing piece of Sakura's past. Just another piece that may never fall back into place, to re-construct her future.
The past; when team seven consisted of Kakashi, Naruto, Sasuke and her. When Ino and she had still been friends. When...
"We're here."
The gates of Sunagakure loomed before them, treaterous, scathed and welcoming like the arms of a war-warn soldier. Guards lined the gargantuan doors inch for inch, an outright and intentional display of Suna's military power. Whatever it takes to defend your country.
For most, Sunagakure would have been a fearsome place without the scar-faced soldiers standing with dark eyes watching every nook and crevice surrounding the sand city. The climate was terrible, the shinobi were soulless, yet one has yet to open their eyes until they bear witness to the Kazekage; born a demon, killing his own mother as well as those around him without feeling. Gaara's muderous days were over, but his capabilities to such wickedness had doubtfully withered.
Yamato approached the guards, who then proceeded to pull apart the gates to the desert just enough for Sakura's thin figure to weasle through. The entire country was on lockdown.
Inside the city, children frolicked, albiet heavily supervised by their parents. Citizens went about their daily errands, some with wandering eyes cautious of the sky above them and the shadows trailing their feet.
What could have happened here?
x - x - x - x - x
"We think it may be the Akatsuki," Gaara confirmed in a voice that had grown raspier with age. "What remains of them, at least."
Sakura stiffened in a cryptic way, as if experiencing rigor mortis as a living being.
"Haruno-san?" Gaara addressed her, surprisingly formal. "Are you feeling well?"
The blood had drained from her face, presumably leaving her pale as Sai. "Yes, continue."
Yamato interjected, seeming distinctly naive about the topic. "Most of them are dead, correct? If I recall what I heard, there are only five members remaining."
Wrong.
"Yes," Gaara confirmed, also incorrectly. "Uchiha Itachi, Deidara, Hidan, Kakuzu and Akasuna no Sasori are all deceased."
Wrong, wrong, wrong.
"Hmm." Yamato mused, face pursed in question. "What about the others?"
"The only potential appearances that my shinobi have come to face are that of a mysterious man by the alias of Tobi; Deidara's former partner."
"Crazy little bastard," Naruto spat from under his breath. "Tobi isn't dead yet?"
Gaara shook his head disdainfully in reply. "It would be quite a relief to find that any of them have passed, but it is not likely."mi
Yamato sighed, Sakura still stood rigid. Sasori was more alive than he had ever been - ressurected by his own hands, now flesh and blood.
The man had, basically, been reborn for the third time.
How sickening.
"We will continue this conversation later. I have some side matters to tend to, as well you should be getting settled in."
"Right," Yamato agreed, pivoting ninety degrees as to face Gaara along with the door before taking leave. "We will see you come morning."
"Good evening, Captain."
Getting settled in sounds terrible. This is not a mission for positive outcomes, but rather, a suicide quest.
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I know; it has been eons since I have last updated. I have become wrapped up in school and other such things, so please forgive the lack of advance on this story.
I'm sorry if I contradicted any earlier points - I can't remember all I wrote before detail for detail.
Please feel free to review. And thank you for all the reviews I've been getting. I appreciate it ^^