Chapter 3: The weapons that weep
Karui was dreaming. She knew she was dreaming yet she didn't want to wake up. She was on a swing. She felt the exhilaration of the air rushing through her hair as she swung higher and higher. She felt large hands pushing her from behind. Probably her dad, she thought.
Her mother had died when she was just a baby. Her father was a Cloud Shinobi, and had the scars to prove his fierceness in battle. He was one of the biggest men in the village. When her mother died, he had no idea how to raise a small little girl. He tried his best but while her friends all had dolls to play with, Karui had ninjas. She didn't mind so much but sometimes she would gaze longingly at the pretty made up dolls that her friends would show her. Karui's dad would always take her to the playground on a sunny day. Her favorite thing was the swings. She always dared to go higher, knowing that her dad would never let her fall.
It was one of those days in the dream. She felt herself swinging higher and higher until she flew right out of the seat. Her dad would catch her as always.
Wait, she thought in sudden panic, my Dad's dead, there's no one to catch me!
Just when she felt that sudden panic, she felt the warmth of arms around her. She didn't crash. She was floating. It felt so good. She nestled closer and her mind sunk back down to slumber.
"Whew, that was close! Good thing you caught her Choji. This storm is bad. It's rocking the whole ship." Ino said from where she had tied herself to the nailed down bed. Choji too was tied onto his bunk but he had been keeping a close eye on Karui in the hammock. The moment she had swung out of it, he was there to catch her.
He held the girl close and felt her sink into him before sleep reclaimed her. He repositioned her so that she would be more comfortable. The bunk was barely big enough for him but he found a way for them both to fit. As the storm kept on howling and the ship kept getting tossed to and fro, Choji kept his arms around the Cloud girl.
She was here because of him. He looked over at the trunk where they had stored their belongings. The bag of bottled sauces and spices were inside. No girl had ever brought him a gift, much less one so thoughtful. He looked back down at the girl in his arms. Yes, she was his responsibility. It was his job to keep her safe. No matter what the future may bring when she wakes up. He sighed.
::
Kiba and Akamaru led Sakura through a crack in the rock face. It was about 2 feet wide at the leanest sections and went on for about 100 yards. The fissure was located to the side of the mountain face that bordered the village to the west. It was a bit claustrophobic at times but they eventually emptied out onto a wide ledge next to a waterfall. The landscape was breathtaking. The sky a clear blue and the sun was beating down. However, Sakura couldn't help but shiver even though she was wearing a thick coat. Everything was covered in sparkling snow. The waterfall was still flowing from a hot spring near by.
Wow, she thought, I've never seen so much snow. She looked down to her knee high fur lined boots and was glad that Kiba had insisted that she buy them. She put the hood of her jacket up to shield herself from the sudden blast of cold air that assaulted her as soon as she exited the safety of the crevice.
Sakura held her breath, now what?, she thought. Suddenly she heard Kiba gasp and his arms windmilled as he tried to regain his balance. Sakura could only watch in horror as he fell off the ledge. Akamaru leapt off the ledge as well. Apparently trying to save his master.
Sakura couldn't help but cry out as she made her way as quick as she could to the spot that her comrades had just been. The snow was heavy and it took her a little time to get used to it. She looked down, fearing the worse, and saw a smiling Kiba waving to her from a ledge about 15 feet below that was shielded by the waterfall flowing down. Akamaru's tail was wagging wildly. They both looked utterly pleased with themselves. She jumped down and felt the spray of the waterfall. She was surprised to feel that the water was quite warm. In fact the cave itself was quite humid due to the wall of cascading warm water.
"That wasn't funny." She admonished the two when she reached them. Akamaru had the good grace to look sorry, however, Kiba just roared with laughter.
"Oh come on Sakura. You should have seen your face. Do you really think that I could be done in so easily?" Kiba roared.
Sakura gave him a withering look. "Don't test fate or me Kiba!" Her nose couldn't help but wrinkle at the musky smell.
"Yeah it doesn't smell too good in here, but if we follow this cave then we should be able to get to more tractable ground." Kiba and Akamaru started to walk away but Sakura stayed listening. She had an uneasy feeling.
"Well come on. What you waiting for?" Kiba said.
"This was too easy. Do you think that we are being followed?" Sakura wondered. Other than the hiccup with Karui on the ship, everything else had gone smoothly. Kiba had turned Akamaru into a clone of himself and had him walk a little bit behind them. Therefore, if any suspicious Cloud ninja were looking for a white dog then they were out of luck.
Kiba sighed. They had stopped several times while traveling through the fissure. Each time there was no indication that anyone was following them.
"It's fine, Sakura. You are just being paranoid. Let's get out of this mountain, find your pretty boy, and then get back home. I'll never complain about the cold of winter in Konoha again."
That made Sakura laugh. She still had a feeling that all was not what it seemed but shared Kiba's wish to find Sasuke and get home.
By the time they came to the exit of the cave it was early afternoon the next day and they were both exhausted. They had been walking nonstop and only taking short breaks to rest and reassess their position.
"Well this explains where you were for those 2 days that you went missing." Sakura said.
Kiba smiled, "Yeah I wanted to make sure that we could find our way out. Good thing my nose was good at picking up the waft of clean air."
Sakura shivered. The cave was filled with offshoots. Often they would end up in a cavern with 4 or 5 different paths that they could follow. It was a total labyrinth. Maybe that was why they didn't bother to guard that crevice too carefully, she thought.
Inner took that moment to snort, Yeah keep telling yourself that. Sakura shivered.
"Okay let's make camp and survey our surroundings." She ordered Kiba and then brought out the chakra infused emerald that she used to track Sasuke. Kiba told Akamaru to follow and they left the snow encrusted cave to search the area for some dry tinder for a fire.
Sakura left the cave and began to scan the area. She could tell by the burst and heat of the stone that Sasuke was indeed close by. Good, she thought, he's closer than I thought he would be to the village.
They camped that night in the mouth of the cave then started out the next morning. As they walked following the light of the stone, Sakura began to grow warm with the exertion. She shed her large fur lined jacket and wrapped it around her waist. The sky again boasted no clouds and the sun at their altitude seemed to beat down on them.
Kiba couldn't help but shiver as he looked in her direction, "Aren't you cold?" He said.
Sakura shrugged, "I think I'm getting used to it." She answered.
Kiba gave another shiver and muttered to Akamaru, "I could never get used to this." Akamaru whined in agreement.
They continued to trudge through the snow and made a little progress towards their goal. They seemed to be going towards an adjacent mountain from the one that they just exited. They camped that night in a tent that Kiba had managed to acquire. The howling wind made it hard to sleep and Sakura found herself sharing the warmth of Akamaru's fur. In the morning they headed out again. The mountain had seemed so close when they had started out but they found that the snow hindered their progress. Two days later, they finally managed to get to the foot of the mountain. Twilight this close to the mountain face came early and darkness was quickly approaching.
"Do we stop for the night again?" Kiba asked Sakura. Sakura could feel the heat from the stone. It was practically burning a mark through her gloved hand. She felt the stone's urgency.
Maybe it's just your own, snickered Inner.
"Quiet!" She said out loud, "Sorry, not you, Kiba. I just feel that we are close, very close. We need to go on." Kiba nodded. The sooner they found Sasuke the sooner they could get out of this infernal winter.
They began to climb up the mountain face following the glow of the emerald in the darkness. They slipped and slid until they finally made it to the mouth of a small cave. The glow got noticeably brighter at the spot. Kiba and Sakura stared at each other. This was it. They had found his lair. Kiba looked questionably at Sakura. He didn't know if she wanted him to go first or if she should. It was Sasuke after all. He was more likely to not kill Sakura when she entered. Who knew what he would do Kiba.
Sakura took a deep breath and plunged into the darkness of the cave. They started to follow the cave to a large cavern set quite a ways back into the mountain. There on the floor in the glow of the emerald lay none other than Sasuke Uchiha, covered in blood.
His eyes slowly opened and focused on Sakura, "You came" was all he said before passing out completely.
::
It had been 2 days since Karui had awakened in the arms of Choji Akimishi in the wake of a tremendous storm that had left the ship a bit floundering. Instead of the usual 5 days, the voyage would appear to take a full week.
Karui looked over at Choji who had been helping the ship's crews with repairs. Her feelings were in turmoil. On one hand the guy had essentially kidnapped her for lack of a better word, yet every time she looked at him he would smile that sweet smile with those cute dimples and her mind would go to mush. In fact, just now she found her eyes wandering over his body as he helped move crates from one damaged storage room to another. He had taken off his shirt and she was utterly mesmerized.
Then she heard Ino shout, "For goodness sake Choji put your shirt back on! You want to scare everyone on the ship!"
That seemed to break the spell that Karui was under and she quickly looked back at the endless ocean scenery. What was wrong with her, she thought, she was their prisoner yet here she was making googly eyes at one of her captors.
Ino sauntered up to the pretty dark haired girl and stood next to her on the rail. She couldn't help but notice the slight pink that still lingered on the girls cheeks. Ino smiled.
"You know, you aren't helping yourself by doing this." Ino said looking out to the ocean and feeling the breeze.
She saw the girl's shoulders stiffen, "I don't know what you mean." Karui replied. Karui had refused to speak to either of them very much in the last few days.
"You know Choji, really likes you. We already explained our mission and our reasons behind why we had to do what we did." Ino turned to put her elbows on the rail and looked at the girl. "You have the rare opportunity to spend some time with him, alone." She turned back to the ocean so that Karui couldn't see her face. "You know in Konoha the girls are always falling all over the big guy and you know how nice he is. He doesn't even realize their advances but I was so sure that one day one of them would finally snatch him up." She slid the girl a sideways look, "And the worse part is that most of them don't even like barbeque!"
Ino thought that last bit was over the top but she saw how the girl's demeanor seemed to stiffen even more at the mention of the Konoha rivals.
Suddenly as if Karui had reached a decision she turned and walked over to where Choji was working. Ino saw the two talk and saw how Choji's eyes lit up. Karui seemed to laugh at something Choji said. The two walked away out of sight.
Ino smiled and stayed at the rail enjoying the breeze and the sun. Oh you owe me big time, Choji. She turned back and looked over the water again. Now, she thought, if only her own love life was that easy to fix.
::
Sakura quickly assessed Sasuke's injury. He had an arrow protruding from his thigh. Why had he not taken the arrow out, she wondered. She ordered Kiba to go find some wood for a fire. She doubted that Sasuke could make a fireball in his current condition and she needed boiled water fast. Sasuke's chakra level was barely palpable. He was close to death. She dug into her medical bag and gave him a energy pill which should give his chakra level a jump start. She felt his chakra level spike then felt the slow ebb as if his chakra network for some reason could not maintain flow.
What in the world? She thought. How long had he been like this? First thing first was that this arrow needed to come out. She grabbed it to snap it and found it was made of metal. In the dim light, she hadn't noticed. What the hell? She thought. She had never seen a metal arrow before.
Kiba came back suddenly dropping his meager load of tinder.
"Sorry this is all I could find in the dark? How is he?" Kiba said as he quickly started to build the fire.
"Not good. He's feverish. This arrow wound has festered. He's also severely chakra drained. He needs a hospital. For now though, can you help me with this arrow. It's metal." Sakura said as she started to prepare a somewhat sterile area. As much as could be expected under the conditions. She brought out her emergency alcohol flask from her kit. She poured some on the wound. Sasuke barely flinched. Not a good sign, she thought. Then poured more on her hands.
"Hold him, Kiba! This is not going to be pretty."
Kiba threw his body on top of Sasuke's. Sakura took hold of the arrow and counted down 3..2..1. Then she pulled. Sasuke screamed, the arrow barely moved.
Kiba looked over with the same concerned glance. The arrow should have pulled out. Sakura was a strong shinobi. She had strength in abundance. She tried again and said 3..2..1 and pulled. Again the arrow moved slightly then seemed to nestle back into the wound.
"What's going on, Sakura?" Questioned Kiba. He had seen Sakura on the battlefield. She had never failed to pull out something as simple as an arrow before.
"I don't know. It's like the arrow is alive. It's fighting me. I can almost feel it screaming when I grab hold of it and pull. It's weird." She pondered it once more. No doubt about it if the arrow stayed in then Sasuke would die.
She dug in her pack and couldn't believe she was doing this to remove a simple arrow, but she grabbed an energy pill and bit down on it. As she swallowed she felt the rush and heat of the increased chakra flowing through her body.
"Okay Kiba here we go! This arrow is coming out now!" Sakura said as she started to build up all her chakra into her hands and feet. Kiba resumed his position. Sakura planted her feet on either side of Sasuke's pliant body and grabbed the arrow.
"3" she huffed, "2" she all but yelled as her chakra built up to a boil, "1" she screamed and pulled with all her might. Sasuke's scream of pain mingled with her battle cry and Sakura could swear she heard a third scream as well. The arrow came out and the momentum sent her crashing back into the back of the cave. Dirt and debris showered her but she held up the arrow in triumph. After the elation was over, she looked at the bloody metal weapon in her hand and wondered, "What are you?"
She left the arrow at the back of the cave and instructed Kiba to keep away from it. She tended Sasuke as best as she could. The removal of the arrow seemed to render him unconscious once again. She dressed his wound and gave him another energy pill which she noted with satisfaction seemed to take this time.
After Sasuke seemed to be sleeping better, Kiba came around and sat next to Sakura at the fire. Akamaru curled up next to him.
"Sakura, what is that thing?" Kiba said looking into the blackness of the cave where the arrow still laid.
Sakura felt her eyes go to where the arrow laid as well, "I don't know but it's nothing good I can guarantee you that."
They both were lost in thought and too tired to notice at first. Suddenly Akamaru's ears perked up and he jumped up with a growl.
"Looks like we found you guys!" Omoi said as he and two of his men entered the cavern. "Can someone tell me where Karui might be? For your sake the answer better be…alive."
::
Naruto was meeting Hinata again on the training grounds today. She had been acting strange lately, or rather more strange than normal. Lately she had seemed preoccupied. Sometimes he had to repeat a question three times before she answered.
He found her sitting on a log fingering the kunai that he had given her for her birthday. She was never far from it. At first, he had been so pleased that she had liked the gift so much that she couldn't stop holding it. However lately he was almost jealous of the weapon which was so silly he even gave a laugh as he walked up to meet her.
Hinata looked up at him with vacant eyes.
"Hinata?" He said as he looked into her expressionless face. She showed no indication that she had heard him. Then suddenly he looked down at her hands and saw that they were covered in blood. She had been using the kunai to stab herself.
Naruto grabbed her suddenly as she started to fall back, "Hinata!" He yelled.
"Naruto" she said suddenly and her eyes focused on him and became suddenly clear, "Help me!"
She collapsed into his arms still clutching the bloody kunai in her hand. Naruto scooped her up and ran to the hospital at lightning speed.
::
Hello everyone! Yes the penny drops and now you know why this story is titled Birthday Present. Sorry it's a short chapter. Again if you like the story then please click follow. Thank you to those who are following/reviewing. It really makes my day!