And FINALLY chapter 6 appears - I'm sorry it has been such a long time since my last update, I've just been so busy with... well, life.

I'll do my very best to keep pumping out the chapters

The morning after their fight with the shinobi slave traders, they both agreed that they might be better off picking up their pace a little, cautiously sprinting through the tree tops and crossing rivers and gorges avoiding the bridges that civilians would have to use.

Thanks to that, they reached the coastal town they had been aiming for a lot quicker than they had anticipated.

And they had avoided a lot of trouble along the way.

Although the town seemed a lot more prosperous than the last village they had visited, the buildings still looked in the same state of disrepair.

They arrived at midday and headed straight to the docks, hoping they might be able to get straight onto a vessel to take them to the Land of Lightning.

Sakura watched from a distance as Sai spoke to several people out on walkways.

She wasn't encouraged when he came back to her with a grim expression.

"So how screwed are we?"

"Wait here." He said simply walking down to a nearby side street. She could just about make him out talking to a withered old man. He disappeared into a doorway for a moment and then returned carrying several canvases. "I paid the last of our money for these."

"You did WHAT?!"

His eyebrows went up. "We didn't have anywhere near enough money to pay for passage on a vessel. So I'm going to make more."

"Do you not think you might have consulted me about this first? I'm pretty hungry Sai."

He shrugged, "We're kind of in a hurry; I wanted to earn money fast and this is the only way." He gestured out onto the beach. "I'm sure there's plenty of food out there."

Close to punching him, Sakura inched closer to Sai, "I hate shellfish." She growled as he looked down at her.

He smiled, that plastic smile she swore he just used to wind people up. "Well I'm sorry my love, but that's all we can afford right now."

She narrowed her eyes at him. "You had better come up with a masterpiece before I get back." His plastic smile remained, so she decided to walk away before the lamped him.

The idiot hadn't even thought to keep a few Ryo aside so they could buy a meagre meal.

She really hated shell fish.

Sai watched Sakura storming off contemplating her bad temper. It seemed to have re-emerged during their travels. She wasn't as volatile as she had once been. When he had first met her she would fly off the handle over just about anything, and she was constantly shouting at Naruto over one thing or another.

When they'd had their reunion in Naruto's office she had almost seemed like a completely different person - there was no hint of the uncontrollable outbursts she had once been prone to.

But since he had started travelling with her, she seemed to be falling in between those two points - she wasn't as bad as she had once been, but apparently she wasn't as in control as he had initially thought.

Or maybe she just didn't like him.

He set up his canvass thoughtfully, still watching Sakura out of the corner of his eye.

No, it wouldn't be that Sakura didn't like him. He almost cursed himself for thinking it. They both belonged to Konoha, they were team mates and they were in team 7.

According to her own words, that meant they had a special bond. A bond which meant that even if they bickered every day for the rest of their lives, they would all still love each other as family.

He remembered the day she spoke those to him.

It had been a long, bleak day full of tears and declarations of things like dedication.

The day of Sasuke's memorial.

They had finally found some peace away from all the other sympathetic mourners when Sai finally whispered to Sakura that he didn't really understand how the team had managed to keep from falling apart with anger and hate.

She had turned to him with a small, tired smile.

"Well Sai, we're all Konoha shinobi, and we all have The Will of Fire. That will is an important part of our culture - it means we'll protect each other regardless of our own safety.

But more importantly Sai, we're Team 7. We have a unique bond holding all of us together. It started with just the four of us. But our family has grown to include you and Yamato.

We're family Sai. And no matter how much we annoy each other, nothing can change that. That is the bond we all share."

He blinked, the memory slipping away suddenly. He wasn't paying enough attention to the task at hand.

Maybe he would ask her about it later, but at that moment, he had to focus on not making Sakura more irritable.

Down on the beach, Sakura had stopped grumbling to herself. She had remembered that she was a 22 year old shinobi, not a child, and if she had to eat shell fish in order to further her mission then she would do so.

She gathered her cloak closer to herself to fend off the cold.

Even so, it was amazing how Sai had retained his ability to drive Sakura up the wall - even after she had spent all those years cooling her temper.

She crouched down to pretending to examine a rock, knowing that she wouldn't find any food under it.

She may have known nothing about finding shell fish; but she knew that on a beach like this she had no chance of finding anything. It had probably been stripped bare that morning.

She had interpreted Sai's instruction as - go take a walk while I deal with this.

It wasn't like she was actually angry with him. It was just so easy to slip back to her old ways. In a strange way it was fun. It felt like those early days again, when he would call her Ugly and Naruto would have to hold her back so she wouldn't knock him out.

It had always been fun.

A strong wind whipped through the bay as she stood back up and looked out across the bay looking for hints. She ignored her hair as it flew around her, covering the grey and brown world in pastel pink.

Seeing an encroaching storm on the horizon, she began trudging back. She squinted up to where she had left Sai.

A crowd had gathered.

Uh oh... was all she could think. All she could hope was that Sai hadn't seriously offended anyone. Unless he was doing well, but with a crowd like that, the man just had to be supervised.

Sai was surprised by the amount he had so far collected for his work. He had been under the impression that this coastal town wasn't particularly affluent. And yet, here were these people, wasting their money on black and white paintings of anything they could possibly ask for.

It turned out that a few of the buyers were from a nearby town and they ran part of the fishing trade. Others had come off a vessel on their way to somewhere else - it was just lucky for him and Sakura that they were there and willing to pay big money for his paintings.

He had already set aside some money in order to buy Sakura a decent meal – after all, in hind sight he guessed he could have held back a little money when he bought the canvases.

He also doubted that Sakura would really find any food out on the beach, but hopefully the walk had calmed her down a little.

He glanced out beyond his canvas, seeking her out, as he dipped his brush into his jar of water.

The bay was a bleak, sandy brown crescent stretching out before him with a grim grey sky bearing down on the scene.

The sea lapped against the beach gently, in contrast to the stormy sea. The bay was sheltered, so the water was calm.

Right in the centre of his vision was Sakura.

Her back was turned to him, so all he could see was her dark travelling cloak.

A wind whipped across the bay, blowing her hood back onto her shoulders.

He watched mesmerised as her long pastel pink locks were whipped around by the wind. He desperately fumbled through his pack for more paints.

Seeing a splash of such a cheerful, vital colour in that bleak place… it filled him with… hope?

For the first time ever, Sai felt inspired.

His brush whipped across the canvas painting the scene before him.

A dark grey-blue sky formed and merged with the sea where they met on the horizon. Then the dark damp beach extended from where it met the water up to the slate grey sea wall and the front of the little town.

A few dark figures formed on the beach, huddled up in their cloaks.

It was done, save the most important piece.

He grasped desperately in his pack for more colours - he needed to finish it, needed to capture the scene completely.

A figure in a dark travelling cloak began to form on the canvas. Not quite at the centre, no, offset to the left and down a little. He could see the motion of the wind in the scene as her soft pink hair was whipped up by it.

The image of winter, with spring blossoming at its core.

Sakura arrived just in time to see Sai add the finishing touch to the painting.

It was... beautiful and bleak and emotional. The contrast of her own bright hair in the image, which should have looked out of place, seemed to belong there.

It touched her in a strange way, to see herself portrayed as a splash of colour in a bleak place. But it seemed less superficial than just an ornamentation.

"Why do you think the hair is pink?" A gentleman standing a few feet away was speaking.

"The artist is clearly trying to show that even in dark times you can find beauty." Another man said knowingly.

She resisted the urge to snort as more people joined the discussion - art fanatics... but at least their cover wasn't blown.

She stepped up to Sai putting a hand on his shoulder. "It's beautiful."

He seemed to snap out of some kind of reverie when she spoke.

"I suppose it is." His obsidian eyes looked pensive as they roved over the painting. He opened his mouth to speak but was interrupted.

"I'll give you five thousand for it." One of the art enthusiasts has stepped forward boldly making his offer.

Sai's expression changed subtly.

"No, I'll give you five thousand five hundred." Another offered.

There seemed to be a miniature auction beginning behind them as Sakura bent to speak into Sai's ear

"You don't want to sell it?" It was clear in the way he looked down ever so slightly. "We can't afford to bring it with us though - leave it to me." She patted his upper back gently. She had never really seen Sai become attached to his paintings so she would do what she could. Maybe she could arrange for one of them to rent it?

She would figure something out for him.

Four hours later they were sitting in hotel room, cleaning their equipment while dressed in their sleeping clothes.

Sakura had joked that it was a ninja pyjama party

They had managed to catch a spot on a small vessel, which would be leaving the next morning. So they had sought out a hotel to sleep in for the night, seeing as they had plenty of money to spare. They had also had a sumptuous meal, which Sakura had enjoyed immensely.

"I can't believe we got up to fifteen thousand Ryo for that one painting." She grinned up at Sai. "I wish I could make my money that easily - it's not like I'm poor but damn. All that money and you didn't even have to risk your life for it!"

"We were lucky, they seemed quite keen. Had they not been here we would have struggled." Sai pointed out as he dried one of his brushes carefully. "This obviously isn't a thriving town."

"Well that would be because Sound isn't a thriving country at the moment." She gestured at the bed. "There's a distinct lack of double beds. You know your country is poor when there's no double beds."

Sai's lip quirked up into a slight smile. "I didn't know beds were so important in economy..."

"Very important. People clearly aren't able to pay out for the luxury of a double." Her tone was deadly serious, but her jade eyes gave up the game as they sparkled with amusement.

"We should probably get some rest soon, our vessel will be leaving early tomorrow, and there's no telling what the weather will be like for the next few nights." Sai finished carefully putting away his inks as he spoke.

"oh yeah that's right, sea travel doesn't agree with you does it?"

His eyebrows shot up in surprise. "How did you..?"

She grinned at him. "As a high ranking medical shinobi I have to read through all reports of illness during missions. Even top secret missions. It was a new procedure introduced by Lady Tsunade, in order to keep an eye on the general health of our shinobi." She shrugged as she tucked a few scrolls into her pack. "I'm surprised you didn't know about it."

She climbed onto the bed next to him, pulling the covers back and taking the side closest to the window.

"Well now I do."

He watched her stretch and sigh as she pulled the covers over her. "You won't have to worry about sea sickness while you're with me though, I'll take good care of you."

Sai lay down with his back to her, facing the door.

Silence fell as he considered her words.

They lay there for some time before he finally spoke, briefly rousing her from sleep.

"Sakura - thank you."

All done - I'll try to get the next chapter up as soon as possible!

EDIT - Just a little formatting change to break apart some parts of the chapters