"If I fix this car of yours, do you promise to hire me?"
Surprisingly, Sasuke shrugged.
"If you want." He mumbled.
Tenten was speechless as she watched the man in front of her step forward to pull the door open. He placed a hand on her shoulder to lead her out of the exit. She shivered at his touch. His hand was hot, extremely rough and calloused, and felt prickly on her back.
"Really? Just like that?" she whispered now that they were out in the open. Sasuke handed her a helmet. The office blocked them from the view of the crowd on the other side, but Tenten could actually catch a stream of conversation now, although she no longer cared for what they were saying.
"Isn't that what you want?" He whispered back, as he put on his own helmet.
"Yeah…" she mindlessly followed his actions, putting the helmet in her hands onto her own head. Suddenly, everything seemed confined and dark. The helmet pressed tightly on both sides of her skull, to the point where she could feel a pulse at where there was most pressure. Her hair felt as if it was being yanked from her scalp. Motorcycle helmets sure were uncomfortable.
She turned to the red and silver motorcycle in front of her.
"A Ducati, huh?" She said, her voice muffled by the piece of plastic on her head.
Sasuke was staring at her.
"Yes." He replied, not taking his eyes off her. "You know about bikes?"
"I know about vehicles in general" she added, slightly smug.
"So how many times have you been on a bike?"
She turned her head to him.
"Why?"
"I should say: have you ever been on a bike?"
"I…is this important?"
"You forgot to unbuckle the strap before putting your helmet on." He said.
She froze as Sasuke lifted the helmet off her head, loosened the strap, and then placed it back onto her head again. She happily obliged when he reached down to do the buckle for her. She had no embarrassment quota left for today.
The helmet now felt a lot snugger around her head instead of feeling as if she had stuffed it into something she shouldn't have.
"You first" Sasuke said, pushing her towards the motorcycle.
Uneasily, she climbed onto the back seat of the Ducati, awkwardly swinging one of her legs over to the other side.
"So you've really never been on a bike before, huh." He said dryly.
She was glad he could not see her blushing beneath the helmet. The truth was, she had seen a lot of motorcycles, read about them, knew about every inch of their structure – she'd even fixed a few, but had never been on one.
"No." she said.
"Why not?" He seemed to be smiling, although she could not tell for sure. The tips of his mouth seemed to be headed up, but his eyes were still the same, cold, dark stones.
"Because my mother doesn't like them."
"Oh. You sure she won't mind you riding this one, then?" Yes, he was defiantly smiling.
"It doesn't matter."
"Why not?"
"Because she's dead."
The movement in Sasuke's face stopped abruptly and his expression returned to how it was just a minute before. Too bad, she thought. She had just managed to get something other than stoic out of his face, and now, it had disappeared again.
Without speaking, he climbed onto the seat in front of her, and Tenten suddenly felt the heat emanating from his back, inches from her face. She took a whiff of him – he smelled good. She could not quite put a name on his aroma – in fact, he was a mixture of many smells, a complicated sort of wild, animalistic scent.
"Hold on" he said.
And before Tenten could work out where to put her hands, the engine revved, and in an instant, the bike had accelerated from zero to god-knows-what speed. Tenten let out a quick squeak, throwing away all poise and clasping her hands tightly around Saske's waist.
Before she knew it, they were soaring out the back gate and full throttle into a sandy road with trees and bushes on both sides. Tenten wondered what the people they had left behind were thinking. They must have heard the engine revving up.
Soon, they broke out of the trees and onto a wider cement road which snaked its way across the grassy plains ahead. The sun raged brightly above them. Tenten could hear the wind hitting her helmet and feel it rushing through her hair. The scenery around her came and went too quickly for her to work out, until eventually; it became one streaky blur of colours. The engine rumbled and choked beneath her. At first, the sound was too loud and extremely uncomfortable for her ears, but soon after, the constancy of it allowed her to slowly block it out of her head, until it became nothing but a strange ring at the back of her mind. At every turn and bend, Sasuke's whole body seemed to ripple as he steered the handles about. This… was like how she had always imagined a motorcycle ride would be like. It was an exhilarating sensation – dangerous yet thrilling, and somehow, calming at the same time.
When she felt slightly more comfortable in her position, she allowed her grip around Sasuke's waist to loosen, but at that moment, as if challenging her, he sped up the bike some more, and Tenten grabbed two fistfuls of his vest in response.
She was not sure how long they had been travelling for – it felt like eternity, but sometime later, Sasuke slowed down, and Tenten tilted her head sideways from his body to see ahead. In the distance, she saw a van; it was another Dodge Sprinter Wagon, blue, and a man with a mass of fiery red hair was leaning against it.
The engine began to die down and finally slowed to a stop. Tenten watched as Sasuke removed himself from the motorcycle, and suddenly, the sun was blasting full on at her face. They had parked in the middle of a country road which cut through flat grass fields stretching beyond Tenten's vision. A few trees were scattered here and there, and a row of bushes stood on either sides of the road, but otherwise, the land was bare and level.
"What took you so long?" The red haired man spoke with a sort of bored, monotone voice.
Sasuke did not reply. Instead, he nodded towards Tenten.
"She's here to fix the car." He said.
Realizing nobody was going to greet or help her off the vehicle, Tenten quickly and awkwardly (again, still…) scrambled off the bike and pulled off her helmet. Sasuke stepped up to take it from her.
There was another round of awkward silence, as Tenten stood looking from one man to the other. They both looked back at her, as if expecting her to say something. Soon, she realized that with these two, she was going to have to take the initiative – a lot.
"Well… nice to meet you." she said, looking to Red Hair. "I'm Tenten."
"Nice to meet you too." He replied in a tone which seemed to indicate the opposite.
Silence.
"Uh… what's your name?"
Frowning and a little surprised, Red glanced over at Sasuke to give him a look as if to say is she for real?
"His name is Sasori." Sasuke said. "And we don't have much time."
"Fine, got it." Tenten rolled her eyes and turned to the large van in front of her. The head of the car was emanating smoke. Typical.
"So tell me what happened." She started walking over to the hood. The two men followed her.
"I was driving, and then the hood started smoking. Stopped the car and couldn't start it again."
"Sounds like overheating." She said. "Is your air conditioner on?"
"Yes."
Tenten lifted the hood and a rush of white smoke charged at her face, hitting her nose with a metallic, oily smell and heating up her already hot body. She fanned away the smoke with her hand to clear up the view.
"Open the doors, turn off that air conditioner and turn on the heat." She said to them.
"Turn on the heat?" Sasori replied in a tone slightly louder and higher than his usual voice, which, she assumed, was his version of 'exclamation'.
"Yes, the heat." she said. "It'll help cool off your car."
The two men obeyed, and as the smoke was finally beginning to clear up, Tenten began skimming around at the interiors of the car.
"Overheating is usually caused by… Aha!" She smiled. Sasori came round to peer over her shoulder.
"You see that?" She said to him. "Broken hose. The coolants have been leaking out all over the place and not going where they need to be."
"Huh." Said Sasori.
She had been hoping for something a bit more impressed and enthusiastic, but ok.
"Have you got a spare hose?"
Sasori frowned again, crossing his arms in front of his chest.
"Actually…" He mumbled quietly, walking over to the rear of the car and opening the trunk. "Will this work?" He emerged with a coil of black rubber tubing in his hand. "Some spare stuff from last time…" He glanced at Sasuke, who seemed to understand what he was referring to, and nodded.
"Uh… I suppose that will be able to hold for the meantime." Tenten said. "But we best fit it with a proper hose when we get back to the garage."
Sasori tossed the hose over to Sasuke, who took it over to her. Tenten extracted an army knife and screwdriver from her bag and began carefully carving the old hose away.
"You carry a screwdriver in your bag, huh?" Sasori had come back up to the front again, and was leaning in to inspect her work. She would have replied with a well I am a Konoha engineering student, but she felt as if she had said that too many times already today (without inducing the desired result), and so, she dismissed the question with a nod and a "Mm…"
A few minutes past – Tenten took little notice of her surroundings and concentrated on fixing the car. The sun shone harshly at her back, and she could feel her t-shirt was heating up. Why, oh why, did she decide to wear black today, godammit.
Somewhere in the grass, cicadas were singing in a loud chorus. She stopped to tie her hair into a quick bun, relishing the whisper of air that was now able to caress her neck, before going back to work again.
When she had fully removed the original hose, she picked up the coil of rubber and began measuring out a segment to cut.
"I hope you don't need this anymore" She said, hacking at the tube. The other two had been silent throughout the whole procedure so far.
"Do whatever you want with her." Sasori replied. Somehow, Tenten shivered, despite the heat, at his words.
Suddenly, a low, steady beat of a hum arose amongst them. It was difficult to tell where the noise was coming from. Tenten stopped momentarily to poke a curious head out, and found Sasuke fishing out a phone from his trouser pocket. It was vibrating, and she watched as he answered.
"What?" he said into the speaker.
If possible, Sasuke's face seemed to turn from solemn to even-more-solemn. After a few seconds, he looked up at Sasori and said:
"He's coming."
As soon as the last syllable of that sentence was uttered, the two men snapped their heads towards Tenten.
"How much longer?" Sasuke almost shouted at her.
"I, uh. I just need to screw this in. Just a minute."
She did not know who 'he' was, and she had no idea what was happening, but somehow, the panicked atmosphere Sasori and Sasuke were emanating had infected her too. Her brain was moving too fast, but her carnal reflexes could hardly keep up, and the imbalance made her hands clumsy. She dropped her screwdriver onto the ground.
"Easy…" she said to herself. "Rushing yourself will only take longer."
Taking a deep breath, she steadied herself, and began turning the nail again, this time, making sure to take things slow.
"We really need to go." Sasuke said in a dangerously low tone.
"Alright, alright! If you don't want this thing popping out in the middle of your rush to wherever you're going, than shut the hell up and let me do my work!"
Surprisingly, the two men did as they were told and did not make another sound until she pulled her head back up from the hood a minute later and wiped her hands on her jeans. Immediately, Sasuke was at her side to slam the hood close and Sasori was already climbing into the driver's seat of the van.
"Me or you?" Sasori shouted, looking at Tenten.
"They'll be targeting the van, so with me." Sasuke replied. He handed Tenten her helmet again, and pushed her towards the motorcycle.
"Later, if I tell you to do something, do it." He said to her in a low growl. "Don't hesitate; don't ask questions, just do as you're told"
"Alright." She replied, lifting the helmet onto her head. He seemed to have established from their previous experience, that she was incapable of buckling her helmet, because he pushed her hands away to do it for her.
"You know, I can strap myself up, I just…"
"Just get on the bike." He said breathlessly.
"Hey!" Sasori shouted from the car window. He threw something at Sasuke, who snatched it from the air with a hand.
"Put this on." He said, handing the lump of blackness over to her. She held it at one end to let it stretch out.
"Leather!" she exclaimed. "In this weather?"
"What did I tell you?" he said.
"Yes, yes." she took it from him and covered herself with the leather jacket.
"Properly!" he said again.
"Sheesh, you sound like my dad!"
He watched as she stretched her arms through the sleeves. The jacket was obviously too big for her, the hem of the body reached Tenten's thighs and the sleeves dangled loosely beyond her hands.
"Zip it up…" he started reaching over to the bottom of the coat, but she pushed his hands away and zipped up the coat herself.
"There, good?" she asked.
"Hn."
Sasuke climbed onto the front seat, and she was immediately surrounded by his wild scent again. The engine revved loudly – by the sounds of it, Sasuke was planning on going really fast. She braced herself by holding on tightly to his waist, sweating from the sun and feeling the leather sticking onto every part of her exposed skin.
The next moment, Tenten felt her heart escape from her chest and choked on her breath. The bike had taken off so suddenly, she had felt it before even realizing it. She listened to the crackle in the engine, and she knew Sasuke was pushing the limits of his bike. She turned her head back and saw Sasori driving the blue van behind them.
Once again, Tenten lost all sense of time and direction. This ride was different from the last. At odd places, Sasuke would make sharp turns. He ignored any lumps and bumps on the road and flew over them. A few times, this caused the bike to actually leap away from the ground, causing a nasty crash of a land every time it hit the floor again.
Then, she suddenly felt Sasuke tense up, and at that moment, she knew whatever trouble they had been escaping from had caught up to them. In the distance, coming head on towards them… Tenten could see it for certain now. It was the Maybach from earlier. The black car zoomed straight past them and then, a few seconds later, they heard a loud, intense screech from behind, and if Tenten's ears were not fooling her, a few gunshots had been fired. She saw Sasuke's knuckles turn white as he gripped firmly onto the break, and she tightened her hold around his waist. She had known this person for less than an hour, and he had pulled her into, what seemed to be, deep trouble already. Yet, he was the only person she could trust at this very moment. Tenten felt the motorcycle lash a terrific U-turn before skidding to a stop.
"Go hide in the bushes." He said to her.
"What?"
"Go and hide in the bushes." He repeated. "Don't come out until I come to get you. If I don't come back this way in 10 minutes, wait until they've gone, then run."
Tenten did as she was told. She crept in behind the row of shrubs on the side of the road and concealed herself, watching Sasuke rev up the engine again and speeded to where Sasori and the Maybach was about 50 meters away. She tried her best to keep still, but her heart was restless. What had happened in that gunfire? Had anyone been hurt? Who had fired them, and what in the world was going to happen to Sasuke now? Yes, she barely knew Sasuke or Sasori, but they seemed nice enough for her to wish they came out of this in one piece.
Tenten squinted her eyes to look into the distance. She could see that the Maybach had its rear towards her, with the front facing the Sprinter Wagon, which had stopped at an odd angle in the middle of the road. The men she had seen earlier, the one with the long hair and pale skin plus the younger man with the silver hair, were making their way towards the back of their car to receive the oncoming Sasuke. This, indeed, was a very lucky layout in a very unlucky situation, Tenten thought.
Sasuke stepped out of his motorcycle and pulled his helmet off. He took a good look at the two men in front of him. Orochimaru and Kabuto. Some people never changed.
"Sasuke, you went off so quickly just now, I didn't even get a chance to catch up with you?" Orochimaru smiled.
"Sorry." He replied. "I have nothing I want to say to you."
"Tsk tsk, what a shame"
Sasuke allowed his gaze to slide towards the blue van beyond the two men in his way. The windshield now sported a visible bullet hole; the glass had crackled around it, extending like a spider's web. He saw Sasori inside; his mass of red hair was visible through the distorted glass, but Sasuke could not tell whether he was moving or not. He felt his fists clench tightly. He had to refrain from doing anything careless right now. He could not let Orochimaru near the car.
"Ahh, Sasuke-kun, relax!" Orochimaru grinned harder. "Isn't this like the good old days? Me and you having a nice little chat?"
"Yes, isn't it nice."
"Of course, that was before you betrayed me. Ah, but let's not bring up old accounts. After all, you got your punishment in the end…" He threw his head back and laughed – a high pitched, ear splitting laugh.
"Orochimaru, you…"
"You can't blame me, my dear Sasuke. From all those years with me, don't tell me you didn't realize that I'm the kind of person who likes to make things fair and square. Now, we're even"
Sasuke opened his mouth to talk back, but suddenly stopped and stared at the movement in front of him.
That. Stupid. Girl…
Tenten was creeping up towards the Maybach behind Kabuto and Orochumaru's back. She seemed to have crawled her way, in the bushes, all the way from where he had dropped her off to where the car was, before stepping out of the bushes again. She gave him a glance and put her finger to her mouth, indicating for him to keep quiet, before giving a mischievous little grin. What the hell was she thinking?
Orochimaru seemed to have noticed Sasuke's change in expression, and began turning his head towards his gaze.
"Orochimaru!" Sasuke shouted loudly. He had to play along with her now. He didn't have a choice.
The two men in front of him turned their heads back towards him.
"Oh, Sasuke, what are you shouting about?"
From the corner of his vision, Sasuke could see Tenten reaching the Maybach. She slowly and silently situated herself at the side of the car next to a wheel.
"You will never get your hands on them, not as long as I'm alive." Say something really dramatic. Don't let them turn around. He thought to himself.
"Oh? Well in that case, I suppose you'll have to die then."
Orochimaru gave Kabuto a quick glance, and in an instant, he had whipped out a gun and was pointing it straight at Sasuke.
"You see, Sasuke" Orochimaru continued. "I don't want to do this. You have no idea how much it pains me it has come to this." He was smiling.
Sasuke could not see what Tenten was doing, but she had somehow removed the hubcap of one of the front wheels and was now fiddling around with what was inside.
"Ok." Sasuke said slowly and quietly. "Let's talk." He wished Tenten would hurry up.
"You never were the type to be afraid of guns." Orochimaru cocked a head to one side.
"I'm not." He said. "What do you want to talk about?"
Orochimaru threw his head back and roared out his high pitched laugh again.
"Sasuke, you haven't changed at all!" he shrieked.
Tenten had replaced the hubcap now, and had moved on to the gas tank spout. She had managed to open the gas tank door. Then, she grabbed a pile of leaves from the nearby bushes and began dropping them into the spout. Sasuke smiled.
"Oh, I haven't? How so?" he said.
"Egocentric, as always." Orichimaru replied. Sasuke wanted to roll his eyes. "Tell me, Sasuke. How is someone as power hungry as you content with being in a group like Akatsuki?"
"What's wrong with Akatsuki?"
Tenten fished out a bottle of water in her bag and began pouring its contents into the spout.
BANG!
Kabuto had suddenly fired a shot into thin air without warning, and Tenten fell back onto the ground in shock. With that, Orochimaru and Kabuto turned at the noise and saw Tenten staring back up at them, wide-eyed and frozen.
"What the…" Kabuto mumbled.
"MOVE!" Sasuke shouted at Tenten. With that, she snapped out of her shock and began racing towards the Dodge Sprinter. She could tell the silver haired man was after her. She heard his footsteps and his screams for her to stop. Hastily, she scrambled for the handle of the door to the front passenger seat, and saw a slightly pale faced Sasori grabbing onto his arm. There was a bit of blood on the floor and the seat.
"Were you shot?" she said quickly.
"Just on the arm, what the heck…"
"Drive! Drive!" she shouted at him, as she climbed onto the seat. Kabuto had come sprinting over, and was just a few paces away. She was just about to slam the door when the man called Orochimaru appeared out of nowhere and pulled the door back open to stare right at her. She gasped and saw him raise a hand. Something hit her in the head.
"HEY!" Sasuke shouted.
That was the last thing she heard before she realized black spots were appearing in her vision, and she could no longer tell whether she was still sitting in her seat or had fallen already.
A/N: Yes, yes, I know, I know. It's been too long. I am awful. But see, I made it up by making this chapter really long, See? 3,963 words! That's double my last chapter!
*Runs and hides*