Against All Odds

Disclaimer: Naruto isn't mine.

AN: THANK YOU FOR YOUR REVIEWS! Fifty, huh? That's a lot more than I ever expected, so thank you, thank you, thank you! I hope you enjoy this story. X3

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7: Some Psychology

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It was a bitter world, Sakura realized. So she had asked to sleep only to find she could not. Only here. Yes, only here.

"You made us sit down to rest," Sasori said. "Now, why aren't you resting?"

Sakura shook her head at him, too tired to be mad or feel anything really at all. She couldn't sleep in front of him, someone she wasn't sure if she should regard as an enemy. It went against all the ninja code that had been crammed into her head and into her heart. He had acted civil to her for the last five minutes, but Sakura knew people well. They changed their minds often.

"Are you anxious?" he asked, clearly annoyed. "Because you know, the only way you'll be useful is if you've gotten some sleep. I agreed with you; that's why we sat down in the first place." He shook his head grimly at her, and his voice grew sarcastic. "If you want to talk about it, then talk. Hey, we can add this to our guidelines – talking about your problems!"

Sasori the shrink? No thanks.

"Oh, fuck that idea," she snapped. "I should've realized you'd use it to make fun of me."

He sighed.

"I'm not making fun of you entirely," he said. "I am trying to get along with you. Understand you to a point, I suppose. But I can admit I don't understand a teenage girl's mind, at least not in a respect that means not discovering her weak points. Why don't you explain, so that we can perhaps reach an agreement about our very dysfunctional relationship?"

Very dysfunctional relationship… what an apt description, she marveled. So, he was giving this his best shot, almost for the hell of it. Well, he'd have to give just a little more.

She tilted her head to look at him.

"It's true I miss my friends," she replied noncommittally, "and I miss my family. There was one friend I was going to see again, one of my best friends in the world, but I botched up the mission instead." She groaned, too drained to emphasize, but too nervous to fall asleep.

"Well what about you?" she asked bitterly to end the awkward quiet. "You have to have some loved ones that you miss, right?"

"A ninja has no need for loved ones," he told her in turn. "The only thing that matters is the mission."

Oh. Well, she knew that. She had read it over and over again, but…

"Well, come on," she chided grumpily. What she wanted to understand was him; it shouldn't have been the other way around! "You have to feel some emotions for someone. What about your parents? Most kids love their parents."

Sakura expected an immediate rebuttal, something along the lines of "not everyone loves their parents, and I'm far above that kind of emotion" kind of thing. She certainly saw it flash in his eyes, but it disappeared as soon as it came. What he said next surprised her.

"My parents were killed," he said finally. "They were killed in the war."

What war, Sakura wanted to ask. There had been no war for almost twenty years, not in Konoha anyway. Not that Sasori was of the Leaf…

"You're from the Wind Country, aren't you?" Sakura asked, though it wasn't exactly a question. She could tell now… his scarlet hair, his mannerisms – they reminded her slightly of Temari-san and Gaara-kun, plus he was a puppet master like Kankurou-san. His skin was tan like theirs, though his hair was much redder than Gaara's.

"From Sunagakure," he confirmed.

Still, that made little sense, especially to Sakura' very, very tired mind. Sasori didn't look much older than her, and she was born after the war had ended. He said he was old, but he lied often, too.

She didn't even try to ask why he was in the Leaf in the first place. Definitely not a profitable conversation.

"How is that possible?" she asked, unable to keep the exasperation out her voice. Every time she thought they were beginning to understand each other, he opened the doors to a million more questions or threw out some shocking revelation. He hesitated, then shook his head.

"You're a mystery to me. You say you don't quite get me – well, my problem is that I just don't get you," she confessed miserably. "We've been traveling together, and I don't even know who you are." She looked unhappy. "Can you blame me?"

Again, to her surprise, he shook his head a second time.

"Sometimes things are best left a mystery," he admitted, "as in this case. But, no, you're right. I don't blame you. I know all too well at this point the feeling of not being able to understand someone that well, and being forced with them anyway." He met her gaze and frowned, his eyes set. "Still I can't answer those questions."

Well, that made a little sense, her sleepy reasoning supposed. Sasori was after all a ninja. And she knew that ninjas had things that they'd rather not talk about, rather keep secret. But at this point, she had come to regard him as not just a ninja, but a companion. A comrade. Not at all a good one or a kind one, but it was the sad, sad truth. Was wanting to add to that list so bad?

"So you're an artist?" she asked after another long silence. "Well, what do you like about art?"

She almost saw him smile. Almost.

"Art is permanent," he said simply, but the way he said it sounded to Sakura like art itself. Never before had she seen him take on a tone as dreamy as his features. "A creation with eternal beauty, something that can last forever – if you can hold that within your hands, then you have touched true art." He peered down at his own hands thoughtfully as if expecting it to appear in his palm; Sakura half expected it as well. His thoughts seemed to deepen, and with it, Sakura saw his eyes reveal new depths – far past the cold and cruel exterior, a window to the soul. He turned to the sky.

"I've tried to find it," he almost whispered, "but I can't hold it. Not yet. I've made far past a hundred puppets, but what should be my final one, I've never been able to complete…"

And with this very small comment, this very insignificant comment, Sakura felt her heart open slightly, just so slightly, to this Sasori of Sunagakure, this lonely artist, this artist who could perhaps one day consider himself a failure. She felt regret for him – she truly did – about his lost parents and about the strangest look that had overwhelmed his voice and words.

Then his soft expression was gone, replaced by his usual blank and callous face. But the sympathy in Sakura still remained.

"But why do you want to know about art?" he asked her. "You don't look like the artist type."

"I'm not," she owned up immediately, "but I do want to learn about art, and the want is genuine because in truth, I want to know about you." His face took on a startled expression, bemused and amused both at once, and she grinned at him nervously. That was fast. Maybe that came out a little wrong.

"I mean," she explained, blushing furiously and mentally kicking herself for not being more awake, "I didn't until about a second ago. When I first met you, you were a horrible monster, and I absolutely hated you. And when I thought I could reach an agreement with that, I saw what you really looked like, and I embarrassed myself. That's my own fault, but you still acted like such an asshole that I just kept holding more and more against you." She looked into the starless sky.

"But now," she said softly, "I know that, although you'll probably have a million more revelations that are sure to piss me off, the one you just showed me, I don't really mind. When I heard you talk about art like that, when I heard just the smallest tip of your anxieties, I'm not so mad anymore or upset. I think you're a little bit okay, just now. You're still a snide, sarcastic asshole, but I saw it myself: you're human. And I can live with that."

He paused as if he were unsure of what he was supposed to say, as if the conversation had gone in the last direction he ever expected it to. But the words he spoke next were as cold as ever.

"Ninjas aren't supposed to be human," he reminded her. "They're supposed to be monsters." He snorted slightly. "Just what I'd expect of someone from Konoha."

"Well excuse me," she said, voice rising slightly, but still – the world seemed a bit more tranquil. Almost like she was arguing with Naruto or Shikamaru. A friend. Not entirely of course, but the echoes of conversations long past were still there. "You know, nowadays, they've been changing the way in the Suna as well." She looked up, a smile on her face as she recited the news.

"The Kazekage, Gaara-sama, has recently stressed the importance of comradeship within the Suna community, as well as better public relations with the rest of the world, changing perhaps, some of Suna's most rooted, hidebound traditions." She paused. "From The Konoha Times. You should know that if you're from Sunagakure."

"I suppose."

Sakura frowned at him as he shifted, very slightly, so that he no longer looked at her directly, and she knew that talking about his more deadly occupation wasn't really a discussion he'd like to have with her. And to be fair, he had asked her few questions about her own past.

"Tell me about art." She gazed at him pleadingly, and (though perhaps, she thought later, she had imagined it) he really did smile. A smile almost genuine.

"Okay."

And when he spoke of great artists of the past, of talent that transcended history and even the future, Sakura found herself listening and conversing until finally, under his misty and gentle voice, she had finally found the peace to sleep.

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"An ancient Taijutsu challenge?" Kakashi asked Gai as they surveyed the mountain before them. Kakashi was impressed. He had actually never visited this area before (it was reserved mainly for medical ninjas and environmentalists), and it was stunning even in the night's darkness.

"Yosh!" Gai said sagely. "There are dozens of legends circulating this mountain, but only one of them is true! Have you heard the tale of this mountain?"

"Who hasn't?" Of course, he had heard the legend, heard about the secret sealed within the mountain's cave. Not that it ever really interested him.

"Well," Gai said, closing his eyes as if in deep thought, "then you know we absolutely cannot go in there!"

But Sakura was in there that much was certain. Kakashi had seen the hole in the blue gate, the footprints in the cliffs around it. Yes, Sakura had certainly fallen somehow into the cave. And he needed to retrieve her. But if Sakura hadn't come out, then perhaps those legends had some truth within them after all. Sakura was a smart and talented ninja. It would take one hell of a place to keep her trapped forever.

Kakashi sighed, worried for his student.

"Then what do we do?" he asked grimly. "If we can't go in there, how do I retrieve someone stuck within?"

Gai smiled.

"That's why I'm here!" he bellowed. "I came with you because I had a hunch that your student Sakura had fallen somehow into this incredible cave!" He gave Kakashi another Gai-smile, accompanied by a thumbs-up. "We're going to have to get rid of the cave from the outside."

"But how?" Kakashi asked doubtfully. Yes, how could they get rid of a gigantic mountain?

"There are points around the mountain," Gai instructed, "points, that have certain and very ancient curses within them." He nodded. "If we are to break the Genjutsu and Ninjutsu within the mountain, we will have to break all the seals that cause these curses on the inside." He sighed. "They say that these curses have incredible effects on Ninjutsu and Genjutsu especially." He smiled, obviously pleased with this idea. "Only the greatest in Taijutsu could enter it and search for the meaning of life. My student, Rock Lee, would excel here!"

Kakashi slumped as he watched Gai rant about his student. He had no idea about how much of what Gai said was true, but he could believe that there were certain objects creating traps and illusions inside the mountain, traps that, without the Sharingan eye or something similar, would be extremely difficult to see and would be harder to fight against, especially once inside. He pulled his headband off his other eye.

"This will take a long time," he admitted. "We'll need some outside help… could your students assist us here?"

Gai nodded fiercely.

"I'll go back to the village," he told his partner, "but until I return I'll trust you to get started." Kakashi nodded, his Sharingan activated, when Gai grabbed his shoulder once more. "And, Kakashi," he warned, "don't fall in the cave."

Kakashi nodded. Of course. Only idiots would enter anyway.

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AN: Wait, what? They don't hate each other as much? Well, that's no fun. XD. (And sorry for the short chapter. Next one's pretty short, too.)

And amen to Kakashi. But no, Kakashi won't fall into the cave (someone asked about that, but I also wanted to put this down anyway, so that was just their psychic ability shining through. And BTW, that was hilarious. Puppets? Pirates? Ha, ha! I never would've thought of that. Yeah, you can kill me now. XD). That is the cave of Sakura and Sasori's Great and Epic Love in which no other characters will encroach on. :D.