Disclaimer: I own nothing but the story itself.

Warnings: Language, some sex.

Finding Sakura

Chapter Five

By Michiru's Mirror

Sai didn't like his new apartment nearly as much as he'd liked his old one, but he supposed it was good enough. The tiny indent in the wall that served as a kitchen and the small bathroom were nice, but the most important thing to him was the one large room that took up the rest of the apartment space. He used it for everything from painting to sleeping to eating.

Sai's favorite part was the huge window in the wall; he had put his bed right next to it, and enjoyed the breeze which he could count on almost every night while he slept. It was good for painting, too. All he had to do was pull out his canvas and set it next to the window for lighting more perfect than any light bulb could create.

Sakura had discovered another use for it once they began having sex: she enjoyed being displayed in front of it.

Sai was surprised to find this out, because Sakura seemed to make such a big deal out of keeping their relationship a secret. Wasn't she worried about someone seeing her?

Sakura giggled. "No, silly. You have a huge overhang above the first floor of this building, so no one can see me even if they look up."

This would have been a good point in a village full of civilians, but in a ninja village where anyone could just jump up into the tree next to Sai's window, he couldn't quite see how she was protected by the overhang. He began to wonder if, deep down, Sakura wanted to get caught.

But he acquiesced to her wishes, and tied her sometimes to the bed and sometimes to the windowsill, where any passing ninja with some chakra to spare could watch as Sai gagged Sakura before pumping into her so hard she couldn't walk for hours after.

One day, he discovered something else that was strange about their copulation.

Sai had looked in his cupboard one morning and realized quickly that unless he wanted to turn into Naruto, he had to go to the store and buy something to eat that wasn't noodles. He made it out the door and halfway down the stairs before realizing he'd forgotten his wallet. Tripping his way back up the stairs and through his door, he finally managed to locate the stupid thing only to find it falling apart at the seams. He had to remember to buy a new one. For real this time.

He made it to the corner store after two minutes of ignoring people who tried to catch his attention to say hello. He knew it was a good idea to try and be friendlier to the people around him, but it was just exhausting sometimes. He'd been up all night with Sakura, trained all day with Kakashi, painted that stupid phoenix that he still couldn't get right for two hours after that, and was due to entertain Sakura again tonight. And he didn't have any food. He was not in the mood to put up with stupid people who seemed to think that they had to say hello every time they saw him. How much free time did they have?

The corner store was as tiny as it sounded, but it had everything he'd need in a pinch. Rice and vegetables would be fine until he could get to the proper market the next day. Sai was looking at a particularly large daikon radish and trying to decide if it was worth the price when a male voice floated back to him over the shelves.

"I just…get the feeling I'm doing something wrong."

"I am NOT having this conversation with you!"

"Please? I don't know anyone else who might have the experience to help me!"

Sai blinked and straightened up. Though he couldn't see over the shelves of canned goods behind him, he could easily recognize the voices he was hearing as Akimichi Chouji and Asuma Sarutobi. Just what had made Chouji sound so desperate? It sounded like a life and death situation—but in that case, why would Asuma-sensei sound embarrassed?

"I can't even believe this," groaned Asuma-sensei. There was a rustling sound. "Okay, I'm going to tell you this once, and then if you ever ask me to repeat myself I will take all your potato chips and burn them, got it?"

Sai didn't hear an answer, but assumed Chouji must have nodded since Asuma-sensei continued. He spoke very fast.

"Okay. Sex. Please tell me you at least know the mechanics."

"If I didn't know that, I wouldn't know I was doing it wrong!"

"Right, right. So, after you, uh, finish, what do you do?"

"Fall asleep, usually."

There was a horrified pause. "Right away?" asked Asuma, sounding as affronted as Sai had ever heard him sound.

Chouji's voice was defensive. "Well, she's got so much energy! By the time she's done with me, I can barely—"

"Okay, on a scale of one to ten, my eagerness to hear the rest of that sentence is a negative five. Listen, you cannot fall asleep right away. Women get so pissed when you fall asleep right away. Last time I did that, Kur—uh—my date threw me out the door naked. You have to be affectionate. Hug her or stroke her hair or some other romantic bullshit. If it bores you, she'll probably like it."

"I see," said Chouji, now sounding thoughtful. "So girls go for extraneous contact."

"Yeah, and they shut you off of the kinda contact you want if you don't give it to them. So give. Take a minute before you go to sleep. She'll appreciate the effort, if nothing else."

Sai thought about Asuma-sensei's words as he walked slowly home, bumping his shopping bag on his knees with each step. Was that true? Did Sakura want gentle touches as well as the more violent ones he gave her? She hadn't said anything, but Asuma-sensei and Chouji's conversation made it sound like their girlfriends hadn't said anything either. Was this one of those things that girls just expected boys to figure out on their own?

When he thought back on it, Sai realized that they had never kissed, not once. Wasn't that usually a necessary step before sex?

Well, Sakura must have been waiting for him to figure all of this out. She'd be thrilled that he had—he'd show her this very night!

It didn't work out as Sai had planned it, of course. He was getting used to this by now, since most of his other experiments into humanity had failed so badly. Trying to explain Naruto's feelings to Sasuke had bombed, giving people nicknames had made everyone furious, and trying to feed Naruto when the blond was unable to do so himself apparently ruined a moment between him and Sakura. It wasn't too much of a surprise that his experiments with sex would turn out just as badly.

Sakura came over that night, sliding through his door like a pink-tinted shadow and removing her coat as soon as he shut it. Without meeting Sai's eyes or saying a word she began to strip, removing her red dress and black shorts, folding them, and draping them neatly across Sai's currently empty canvas. Sai watched her, fascinated by how clinical her movements were.

His paintings were different that night. Instead of phoenixes, Sai found himself drawing tigers mauling antelope and dragons crushing birds in their jaws. Somehow, these were images that resonated with him, pictures that struck him as true. He didn't understand why, or how he knew, but these images were correct for Sakura.

Sai remembered Asuma-sensei's words that night, and decided to try and follow what sounded like good advice. Rather then cutting, Sai moved straight to the sex, and took care to be gentle.

But Sakura didn't come that night. Not once. Not when he stimulated her clitoris, not when Sai changed positions and angles, not when he tried going faster or harder. Sai was at a complete loss. Usually she had multiple orgasms each session. What was wrong?

When he'd finished his own disappointingly mediocre climax, Sai reached up to untie Sakura, and put his arms around her as he'd heard Asuma-sensei advise.

Sakura immediately went so stiff in Sai's embrace that it became uncomfortable to hold her. Hesitating, not sure if he was doing something wrong, Sai sat up and brought Sakura with him. Though her back was to his chest, it was a simple matter to take her shoulders, turn her around, and kiss her.

The reaction was immediate. With a slight scream Sakura launched herself back off of Sai's bed by kicking out. She landed in an undignified heap of ink and limbs on the floor, but leapt up before Sai could even ask if she was all right.

Sai was so taken aback by the terror on Sakura's face that his first instinct was to look behind him to see what it was that had disturbed her so. But there was nothing there except the usual tree, and so Sai turned back to his companion. Sakura had begun to tremble while he had looked elsewhere, and was shaking so violently by the time Sai turned to look at her again that he almost thought she was having some sort of seizure.

Standing up, Sai moved forwards to take Sakura's shoulders so he could sit her down and calm her, but she jerked back from his touch with another little cry. Sai knew better than to try and touch her after that.

Breathing heavily, shaking so hard that she could barely dress herself, Sakura left Sai's apartment. She didn't return for over a week, leaving Sai to try and understand just what had happened.

Sai thought he understood now, thanks to what Sakura's friends had told him.

Their sessions together had been like hospital appointments to Sakura; times to get something she needed to function. She had been sating some deep sickness within her and nothing more. Compassion, romance, intimacy…these were things she hadn't wanted, because she'd felt she hadn't deserved them, and even the barest hint of them had been enough to disturb her. Sakura had not gone to Sai for pleasure. She had gone to Sai because she truly felt she had no right to feel good, and only Sai had been able to make her feel as bad as she'd needed to.

Sai felt hands on his body, and then a warmth that spread through his limbs as the hands stroked up his torso and sides. A small sigh escaped from his mouth, and his forehead crinkled as he struggled to open his eyes.

There was no pain or discomfort, only a lingering feeling of heaviness, as though a blanket that weighed as much as he did had been thrown across his body. Opening his eyes took time, willpower, and real effort.

Sai's eyes came into focus after a small number of seconds had passed, and the tense face of Yamanaka Ino filled his vision.

"Hi, Bijin-san," said Sai sleepily. Wasn't there something he was supposed to remember? Why was Ino touching him…and why wasn't she smiling the way she always did when he called her Bijin-san?

Sai felt the heaviness begin to leave him, and he tried to sit up. Immediately, with that disturbingly tense look not leaving her face, Ino locked her slender arms around Sai's shoulders and helped him. Fuzzily, Sai wondered if she wasn't smiling because she was still mad at him for what he'd done to Sakura.

Then when he looked around, he realized it probably had more to do with them being under attack.

"Oh," he said stupidly.

Chouji swore loudly and emphatically as he ducked under a broad blue arm. His opponent was a nightmare horror: a huge blue creature with rolling, bloodshot yellow eyes and teeth as long as his fingers. Strands of foam dripped from its enormous mouth, and its arms had both huge bulging muscles and sharp claws. Its strength was truly impressive, putting even Akimichi males on soldier pills to shame.

If Chouji didn't know any better, he'd say this was a demon from the bedtime legends his mother would tell him as a child. He supposed it was possible—after all he'd seen in the last twenty-four hours, he could believe just about anything.

It was just his luck that he was the only one who could fight the damn thing. Shikamaru had tried to grab it from a distance with his shadow technique, only to find that it was so strong that it could pull out of his hold. Without him holding it in place, Ino couldn't even begin to try to grab on to its mind.

Besides, given what had happened last time she went into the mind of a demon, Ino was understandably nervous about doing it again.

So, they were making themselves useful in other ways while Chouji tried to brave his nightmares and not run screaming from the creature in front of him. He grunted as a huge blue fist smacked into his open hand, forcing him back in a spray of gravel and dirt. He was sweating heavily now, almost unable to see for the liquid trailing into his eyes.

Shikamaru, hurry up and think of something!

When Team Seven had fallen out of radio contact, Ino had searched for them by taking over the mind of a soaring brown eagle. It was just luck that they had managed to show up minutes before the demon did.

No one in Team Ten had the slightest clue of what was going on. What had caused the explosion and why Team Seven was unconscious was a mystery—but it was clear to anyone that the demon was attacking them, and Team Ten knew their duty.

Ino, who had already been in the process of healing Sai, had just continued on while her teammates went up against their attacker. When Shikamaru had proven to be useless against it, he had instead set to the task of moving Naruto and Kakashi's prone bodies out of the way of Chouji's huge flying fists and over to Ino, where they could hopefully be revived.

Kakashi was a heavy guy. Groaning and feeling like the weakest man in Konoha, Shikamaru had been reduced to grabbing the other man under the armpits and heaving him across piles of rubble and refuse. Shikamaru felt bad for leaving Naruto, but he did look like he was in better shape than his teacher (Naruto healed amazingly quickly—it was almost like he wasn't human) and Shikamaru wasn't strong enough to carry them both at the same time.

Shikamaru arrived at Ino's side just in time to hear her roaring at Sai in her Leader Voice. "What the hell are you sitting there for? Go help!"

Shikamaru grinned internally. It was so nice to hear Ino yell at someone else for a change.

The Leader Voice worked, apparently, since Sai went running by Shikamaru only seconds later to go join Chouji. He was bruised and battered, but obviously quite fit with nothing broken. Shikamaru felt proud; Ino would never have the power or the skill that Sakura did at healing, so she had learned to conserve the power she had to save as many lives as she could.

Not that he could tell her that. First of all, if he even suggested that Sakura had more skill than Ino did at anything Ino would fly into a truly impressive tantrum, and second of all Nara Shikamaru did not give compliments. Period.

Ino didn't say a word when Shikamaru came over to her, but just grabbed Kakashi's vest and lowered him to the ground to begin working on him. Shikamaru was proud again. What a pro.

But then, as he was turning around to go get Naruto, he heard Chouji's panicked voice: "We've got trouble here!"

Shikamaru swiftly turned to see the trouble: more demons. Three of them to be exact, lumbering over the uneven ground towards Team Ten. "Oh," he said stupidly. It was a mercy that he'd never know just how much like Sai he sounded.

Quickly, Shikamaru shook his head from side to side to clear it. There was no time for this!

"Come on!" he called to his teammates, bounding into a run. "This is hopeless—we're retreating, now!" Skidding to a stop beside Naruto's prone form, Shikamaru stopped only long enough to haul the other boy uncomfortably onto his back. "Chouji, you're carrying Kakashi-sensei! Sai, cover him!"

Chouji immediately responded to Shikamaru's command and bolted for Ino and Kakashi before Shikamaru had finished speaking. Sai quickly pulled out the only pen he had that hadn't been damaged in the explosion, and put it to a makimono. He'd been drawing a lot of eagles lately, but one seemed like the best thing now to give their retreat some cover.

The eagle attacked Sai's opponent with a screech, knocking it back, and it was then that Sai made the mistake of lowering his pen. Surely the demons would stop to help their friend.

They didn't. As one demon fell with Sai's eagle clawing at its eyes, the other three ran right past it, not stopping to so much as look at their fallen comrade. Sai quickly leapt back out of their way, hoping to avoid swiping claws and snarling fangs.

One of the demons, a small, flaming red creature was upon Sai before he could land. Bony claws swiped at his exposed midriff, and three deep cuts slowly turned pink before becoming as red as the demon that had caused them. Blood began to fall in a slow trickle as Sai landed; the attack had ruined his trajectory, and he found himself landing on his bottom rather than his feet. His breath left him in a sharp whoosh, pen and makimono flying from his hands and leaving him with nothing but a few kunai to defend himself.

Shikamaru swore and sent one of his own kunai flying at the red demon; it hit the thing's shoulder and knocked it away from Sai. Behind him Chouji was frantically trying to attach Kakashi to his back while Ino kept working on the worst of his injuries.

"Hurry up!" Shikamaru yelled at them.

"Look, if you think you can heal him faster, be my guest!" Ino snapped back.

Sai had regained his footing and ran towards them. "Anything I can carry?"

"No, just run!" With Naruto on his own back, and Kakashi firmly strapped to Chouji's, the four conscious ninja sprang into the air and ran as fast as they could.

"Everybody head east!" Shikamaru called. If they could get back to land that had some cover—rocks, trees, anything—they could make a stand. Here out in the open with no weapons and opponents who were stronger even then Chouji, they were dead.

Ninja though they were, they were human beings with limits to their strength. Ten minutes of hard running passed, and then twenty, and then Ino fell. All of her chakra had been used up on the injured members of Team Seven, leaving her without even enough to run anymore.

"Ino!" Shikamaru heard Chouji cry behind him. Fuck.

Well, if Ino hadn't fallen, one of them would have soon enough, Shikamaru admitted to himself. He had never exactly been a fountain of chakra, and Chouji had been expending a lot of energy earlier in the fight.

The red demon that Shikamaru had stabbed earlier was upon Ino, clawing at her and snarling. She screamed and performed a clumsy backward roll that barely took her out of the demon's path.

"Chouji, drop Kakashi-sensei—there's nothing we can do for him if we're dead!" Shikamaru ordered as he untied Naruto from his back. Chouji complied before running to Ino's side to help her. Fine, let him take care of that one.

To Shikamaru's relief, it seemed the huge blue demon from before had been taken down by Sai's eagle. That left them with three smaller opponents, one of whom had a serious shoulder wound. Even better, Shikamaru could hear Naruto beginning to moan and stir on the ground. With any luck, it would be a matter of holding the demons off until Naruto woke up enough to kill them with that ridiculously big wellspring of chakra he had.

Shikamaru ran into battle. There were two demons left: a green mucus pile with multiple eyes and a roughly humanoid black shape that was stooped over like an arthritic old woman. "Sai, take the black one," he ordered, collected as always. If the green mucus pile was as inhuman as it looked, it might not have its heart in any place Sai could stab with his kunai. But maybe Shikamaru could grab it with his shadow…

Used to having his orders followed, Shikamaru didn't even bother to check that Sai was doing as he said. Instead, Shikamaru leapt towards the green creature and stretched out his shadow.

There was a sound like a plunger sucking filth from a hole. Shikamaru's shadow, instead of catching hold of the green monstrosity was being sucked into it, sinking deeper into the disgusting creature with each second. Grimacing, Shikamaru tried to pull his shadow back to himself, only to find that he couldn't.

Swearing under his breath, Shikamaru dug the heels of his boots into the ground and tried to hold on. Inch by inch the demon was sucking his shadow in, and his body was following. He would be eaten alive, his body sliding into that green muck with all the resistance of water sliding down a pipe…

Vaguely, in the back of his mind Shikamaru heard a voice. It did not shout, but spoke in so commanding and firm a tone that he could not help but hear: "Chidori nagashi."

There was light, a lot of it, searing through the clearing like blue lightning. And suddenly Shikamaru heard birds, a thousand birds crying out as though they were inside the lightning itself. Throwing his arms to his head, for his arms were suddenly free, Shikamaru crouched to the ground and waited for the storm to be over.

It was easy to tell when it was; even through his arms the light had been so bright and the chirping so loud that he could see and hear them. Slowly, blinking and dazed, Shikamaru lowered his arms and looked around.

To his left were Chouji and Ino, helping each other to stay upright as they gazed as the charcoaled remains of their opponent. To his right was Sai. Though he was nursing a new gash on his leg, his opponent was just as dead as Chouji's. And, looking in front of him, the splatters of green mucus splashed around made it clear that Shikmaru's own enemy was taken care of too.

There were scraping sounds from his far left, and Shikamaru whipped around to see Naruto struggling feebly to his knees. Naruto hadn't done this, then. Who had?

Naruto rubbed his eyes, and looked to Shikamaru's far right, past Sai. He smiled, looking so dazed that Shikamaru could tell he hadn't come all the way back to reality yet.

"I knew you'd come," said Naruto, and his voice was not full of its usual hyperactive cheer. Instead Shikamaru heard a joy so pure that he was almost taken aback.

Shikamaru heard a sigh from the spot where Naruto was looking. He turned again to see what made Naruto so happy, and immediately understood.

Uchiha Sasuke was sliding his sword back into the sheath he kept tied at the back of his waist. He walked towards them with casual indifference, as though nothing had happened…but his appearance said otherwise.

His clothing was ripped in a dozen places, his exposed chest full of developing bruises, his hair a mess and his right eye almost sealed shut from swelling. Shikamaru had to wonder how that had happened. If Sasuke could so easily beat the opponents that had give Shikamaru's entire team so much trouble, what could have done this to him?

Sasuke straightened up and stopped in front of Naruto, staring straight at his old teammate and no one else.

"You want to tell me what's going on?" said Sasuke.

A/N

No, I'm not going to tell you which girl Chouji got. I'll be interested to know if you can guess, though. grin

Team Ten needs love. I was so fricking disappointed when they finally got a fight of their own against the Akatsuki, and then Team Seven had to show up and take it away. I thought I'd let the opposite happen here. :)