"I thought Hinata and Neji were supposed to pick us up," Ino said to everyone. They were standing outside the train station in the middle of the woods. The train tracks ran right through the forest.
After the long train ride, they had gotten off at their stop in the middle of dense woods. Sasuke couldn't even see an ocean anywhere. There was no ocean breeze or salty smell, so how were they near the villa, which had a private beach? The wind tussled Sasuke's hair and he could detect no smell of salt. The only thing they had to look at to know they weren't in the middle of nowhere was a small dirt road and the train tracks.
"They said the villa was in walking distance from the train station, and we did get off on the right stop," Sakura told them, looking around. Sasuke could see she was trying to smell salt off the air too. When they had arrived at their stop, everyone seemed so excited and spirits were high, but now those spirits were crashing down and crumbling around them.
"When Neji says walking distance, he really means a mile," Naruto said with a sour looking face at the train as it chugged down the train.
"What?" Ino screeched. "I came here to relax, not to walk a mile to the villa while I'm all hot and sweaty!"
"Calm down, Ino. It's not like walking a mile would kill you," Shikamaru told her, with one eye closed. He had slept almost the whole way there on the train. However, Sasuke knew Shikamaru hadn't really been sleeping the whole way. Whenever Ino had gotten really excited and started to talk too loud, he had flinched.
"Are you trying to say I'm fat?" Ino glared at him. Sasuke heard Tenten smack her forehead. Well, this wasn't starting off to be the best vacation in the world. Before Shikamaru opened his mouth to say something stupid again, they heard voices calling their names.
"There they are," Sasuke told everyone as Hinata and Neji were walking up the opposite way everyone was looking. The whole grouped turned and the girls, including Tenten, gave a little sound at the sight of Hinata and Neji. Sasuke couldn't decided if it was giggle or a squeal. Hinata started walking faster and the girls left their luggage to meet Hinata in the middle. All at once there was high pitched voices and rapid talking that was going too fast for any of the guys to hear or decipher.
"You've been saved," Naruto said, patting Shikamaru on the back. It was more like a solid hit, Sasuke could hear it. Shikamaru coughed a little and had the decency to look like he was embarrassed. The guys walked over to the girls, meeting Hinata and Neji by the group of girls.
"Everything's set up, let's stop wasting time here," Neji told everyone. The girls stopped talking and looked at Neji, then smiled and went to get their bags. How can they talk so much, they saw Hinata three days ago, Sasuke thought.
Everyone had gathered up their luggage and Neji and Hinata started to lead them down the road. The road was just dry dirt and each other their footsteps created a poof cloud around their feet. Sasuke was glad that it hadn't rained in the last few days or they'd be walking in mud. The road was well kept, now that Sasuke looked closer. There were no ruts in the road and all the vegetation was kept cut and off the edges of the road.
"So how far until we get to the villa, Neji?" Ino asked. She shifted the two bags she had on her shoulders. They were probably digging into her shoulders.
"After we go up that little hill, we'll curve to the right. The driveway to the villa is right after that curve," Neji told her, complete with a point to the hill they were walking up. The group looked at the hill. It didn't look so bad, it wasn't that tall, so maybe this wouldn't be so bad. However, as they drew closer to the hill, Sasuke could that while it wasn't tall, it was steep. Scarishly so.
Naruto was determined and started the hill at a run. Hinata had told him not to do it, but he didn't listen. Not half way up the hill, Naruto tripped over his own feet and rolled back down the bottom where Neji and Hinata had stopped the group. They had known Naruto was going to fall back down the hill. Straightening up, Naruto looked at the hill again.
"Okay, let's try again," Naruto shouted and was about to run up again. Hinata grabbed his arm before he took off. He looked back at her. Quickly, she released his arm, face flushed.
"Naruto, the hill's really steep, you'll trip again. Let's just walk up it," Hinata suggested. Naruto looked at her and then broke out in a grin and patted her on the head.
"Okay, Hinata," Naruto said. He led the way up the hill. As Sasuke started, he realized how steep the hill was. It had to be at a seventy or seventy-five degree angle. How did any car make it up this hill when it rained.
"Hey, can cars get up here?" Sasuke asked. Everyone was panting by now, but Sasuke didn't want to wait until they got to the top to ask. If he did, he might have to wait until night fall.
"Yeah, some can. But in the winter, there's no way they do. Some can get up after it rains but it takes a lot of effort," Neji told him, panting a little. Everyone in this group was in shape and yet this hill was making Sasuke's lungs burn.
Sakura was walking beside Sasuke and out of the corner of his eye, he saw Sakura trip just like Naruto. Quickly, Sasuke slid an arm over her waist and clamped her to the side of his body. They were half way up, he didn't want Sakura to have to start all over again. Sasuke grounded his feet and stood steady as Sakura got her balance back. She gripped his shirt as he held her and Sasuke was just beginning to realize that her nails were a little uncomfortable.
She let go of him. As she moved, Sasuke smelled cherry blossoms. It was an effort for him to swallow as his mouth at gone dry and his heart was starting to be harder than already was, thanks to the hill. She stood on her own for a moment, getting her balance back and then smiled at Sasuke.
"Thanks, Sasuke. I would have fallen back to the bottom if you hadn't caught me," she said.
"No problem," he told her and shift his bags.
"Hey! Hurry up guys! We don't have all day!" Naruto said waving at them. The group had progressed higher while he had been helping Sakura. Sasuke and Sakura exchanged an exasperated look and started up the hill to catch up. It didn't take as long as Sasuke would have thought. Maybe that little stop while helping Sakura recharged him.
Five minutes later the group was at the top of the hill, panting and catching their breath. The leveling out of the hill came as a relief to Sasuke. If anyone needed to be tortured, he knew just how to do it. At the top, he shrugged off his huge duffel bag and left it on the ground, not caring if dirt got on it. Everyone, Sasuke noticed, had done the same, except for Neji and Hinata who didn't carry any bags.
"There's the curve," Hinata said, pointing. The group looked and saw the curve was on level ground, thank God. Sasuke straightened up and hefted his bag on his shoulder again.
"Let's go then. The sooner we get there, the sooner we get on the beach," Sasuke said. He started walking. Neji and Naruto were the only ones that kept up. The others lagged behind. The buzz of conversation came from behind him, but Sasuke couldn't make out what anyone was saying.
"Hey, Neji, do you have a dock that we can jump off of?" Naruto asked, eagerly.
"You'll hit your head if you jump off a dock," Sasuke said. He wasn't exaggerating. Sasuke had seen Naruto hit face first when jumping into a body of water. It wasn't the prettiest thing in world with Naruto's blood going everywhere and Sasuke trying to stop it from flowing.
"That was one time," Naruto defended.
"Three, actually," Sasuke responded, counting them mentally.
"We do have a dock, but the water is rocky under it so you can't jump off without killing yourself. You can only fish," Neji said. Naruto wouldn't be able to kill himself then, Sasuke felt better about this beach.
"So we can catch fish and eat them for dinner," Naruto suggested, hand gripping his stomach, which gargled. The girls behind them laughed. Shikamaru, who was behind the girls, smirked as well.
"You ate not even an hour ago, Naruto," Sakura said, smiling. Sasuke's gut twisted at her smile. He knew that smile on an eight year old Sakura. Damn it. At this rate, he wasn't going to last two weeks without doing something stupid.
"I know, but I'm still hungry. They go stingy on the snacks when you ride the train," Naruto complained.
"We can eat when we get to the villa. Then Neji and I can show you guys around," Hinata suggested. Naruto grinned back at her while walking forward.
"That'd be great, Hinata," he said. Sasuke agreed with Naruto. Food sounded heavenly, at the moment. The word 'eat' even perked up Shikamaru in the back, who might as well have been sleep walking. Sasuke wondered if he cracked his eyes open so he wouldn't run into anything or if he just closed them and didn't care about running into anything.
They rounded the corner and saw a small, gravel drive off to the right of the dirt road. Sasuke was starting to finally feel relaxed. They were almost there and walking wasn't necessary anymore. Sakura came up beside him as they turned right and walked on the crunching gravel under their feet. He was very aware of her. He could smell her shampoo, feel her body heat, feel her presence. The extent to which he was aware of her was starting to scare him. She was too close, and if he didn't do something soon, he'd reach out and touch her. Sasuke tried to get some more distance in between them. It didn't work, Naruto was stuck on his other side and there was no way he could get away from her and have it be subtle.
So Sasuke suffered in silence and shoved his hands in his pocket to restrain them from reaching out to her against his will.
The drive wasn't that long. However the endless row of trees on both sides made it seem like it would go on forever. As they walked farther, Sasuke saw a white structure in between the row of trees. It got bigger as they got closer and upon closer inspection it looked more like a mini mansion than a villa. The walls were white, edges trimmed with an off white color. The front porch wrapped around one side of the large first floor and there were separate balconies for each window on the second story.
The railing for it all was done in shiny silver and the windows were so clean that Sasuke could see his reflection in them from the main entrance. There was a small grassy yard around the house, but from what Sasuke could see, the circled driveway took up most of the grass space. The closer they got, the louder the girls behind Sasuke got. Sakura being the exception, as she was walking next to him, looking up in awe at the villa. She looked like a kid in a candy shop. Sasuke's lips curved up at her expression.
As if sensing someone looking at her, Sakura turned to him and he just managed to wipe the tell tale smile off his face before she saw. She wasn't discouraged at his, probably less than stellar, expression. She smiled up at him, warmly. Something in Sasuke's stomach contracted. He ignored. Well, tried to ignore it.
"Whoa, this is amazing," Naruto exclaimed. Sakura's attention turned to Naruto. She spoke across Sasuke.
"Yeah, it really is. I can't believe this is just a vacation house," Sakura said. "What does your normal house look like?"
"It's very similar, only less white," Hinata answered, walking ahead to led them into up the rest of the drive way. The group followed and their heels clicked on the white, shiny stairs. The white doors were wide open and as the group stepped over the threshold, the living room area came into view. The floor was dark hardwood, with neutral colored furniture and a fire place to right side of the room.
Hinata led the group down a hallway while Neji went into the kitchen to make some drinks for everyone. The walls were also white and had landscape and seascape paintings hung throughout the hallway. Hinata opened the first door on the right.
"Sakura, Ino, you two can stay in this room, it over looks the ocean," Hinata said. Sakura and Ino stepped into the room muttering things about how sweet the view was and how pretty the room was decorated. As the two girls put their stuff away, Hinata moved on down the hallway.
"Tenten, I thought you would like to share a room with me, if that was all right," Hinata asked, opening the next room on the right.
"Yeah, sure, that'd be great, Hinata," Tenten replied, going into the room. She was left to her own devices as Hinata led the boys down the hall and turned left. The first door on the right, Hinata proceeded to open it.
"Naruto, Sasuke, I figured you two would like to room together," Hinata said, stepping aside so they could enter the room.
"Do you want this villa to crash and burn?" Sasuke asked, picturing how the two weeks would go if he was sharing a room with Naruto.
"Come on, it's not going to be that bad. As long as you're not such a bastard, things should go fine," Naruto said, grinning mischievously at Sasuke. Sasuke scowled at him. They both stepped inside the room, Naruto murmuring how cool the room was. Hinata blushed a little and bowed out of the room to go show Shikamaru to his room that he most likely shared with Neji.
Sasuke left the door open and looked around the room. There were two neatly made beds three feet apart from each other with a nightstand in between them. To the right of one bed there was a door that Sasuke assumed was a closet. On the left wall of the room were two dark wood dressers with a mirror above both of them. The floors were hard wood with a few light colored rugs placed here and there.
Naruto claimed the bed closer the bay window that all the rooms seemed to have. He put his suitcase and travel bag on the bed and then stepped up and flung the curtains apart. The sudden bright sunlight made Sasuke blink several times before his eyes adjusted the sunlight reflecting off the hard wood floor.
"Aw, we don't get an ocean view," Naruto said, as he stared out at the tree tops. Sasuke stepped up to the window beside Naruto and almost forgot that they were on a hill and could see the tops of the trees as the sun was lowering in the sky.
"Well this way, you won't have to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night if you hear the ocean," Sasuke said, his lips tugging at the corners in a grin.
"Whatever, I just drank too much pop that night before I went to bed," Naruto retorted, crossing his arms. His head tilted to the side. "But, it's not really a bad view."
Sasuke nodded. He agreed. Being up high enough to see the tree tops made the view beautiful. As Naruto and Sasuke looked out, Sasuke noticed a little break in the trees. He stepped closer to the window, trying to figure out what the break was. A meadow, a piece of farm land?
"Does that break in the trees to the left look like a town to you?" Sasuke said, pointing so Naruto could have a reference point. But before Naruto could give an answer, Sasuke got one from Neji.
"Yes, there is a town in the break of the trees. A small one, but they throw amazing summer festivals," he said from behind them. Naruto and Sasuke turned to see Neji in their doorway with a tray of drinks. Neji came forward and set the tray down on the first dresser and walked up next to Naruto at the window. "If you had binoculars, you'd probably be able to see some festival decorations."
"They're holding a festival?" Naruto asked excitedly, turning to Neji.
"Not tonight, but the day after tomorrow will be the beginning of their three day festival. I take it that you wish to attend?" Neji asked.
"Hell yeah, I wish to attend. I haven't been to a festival since I was a kid," Naruto said, smiling.
"There's a festival?" Ino said, coming the room. Sakura followed after her. Sasuke stood up a little straighter. Crap, my bag's open, what was on the top? Sasuke stopped his line of thought. What did it matter, since when did he become so self conscious around a person of the opposite sex? What if it's just Sakura that I'm self conscious around? Sasuke stopped his line of thought again and looked away from her, when he even started to look at her, he didn't know. As he focused on the conversation, he realized it was being repeated as Shikamaru, Hinata, and Tenten walked in the room.
It was unanimously agreed that everyone would go to the festival the day after tomorrow. As the Hyuuga's explained the festival to the others, they grabbed a condensating drink off the tray that Neji had set down and started to casually lean or sit around the room. Sakura sat on the edge of Sasuke's bed and Sasuke demanded that his nerves calm down. However, he couldn't control them, much to his annoyance.
After much talking, the group decided to not waste the day. They put on their swimsuits and met on the beach. When Sasuke heard that they had their own private beach, he had thought they meant a section of it. However, as he soon realized, Neji really did mean their own private beach. The beach stretched on for a good mile and no one was on it, even though the day was a beautiful one. Hinata explained that the beach was their's as everyone around this area considered it off limits.
Sasuke shrugged off his surprised and tried to make sure that Naruto didn't kill himself while running into the ocean. The water was cool and Ino and Tenten found some blow up balls and threw them in the ocean. Soon everyone was being splashed or hitting the balls in each other faces while trying to avoid the water going up their nose. Sasuke, for the most part, managed to keep most of the water out of his nose. The day wore on and the sun was starting to turn the sky orange and red, so one by one, they got out of the water and landed on the towels that were heated from the sun's warmth.
Sasuke crashed face first on his towel and laid down while listening to the conversations buzzing around him. He heard everyone's voice except one. Opening one eye and looking up, he saw Sakura's mouth hanging slightly open with her fingers to her bottom lip. Sasuke sat up, confused and partially concerned. Why is she looking at me like that?
"What's wrong?" Sasuke asked. Sakura's head whipped up to his face as he sat cross legged on his towel to talk to her. Her hair looked a little orange in the setting sun, Sasuke noticed. Damn it, why was he noticing?
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to stare," Sakura apologized, pulling her hand from her mouth and fisting it in her lap along with her other hand.
"Stare at what?" Sasuke asked, having no idea what she was even talking about at this point.
"At your…um…scars," Sakura whispered the last word and looked away from him. Sasuke closed his eyes. He had almost forgotten about the two scars that were on his back, compliments from his father. He almost forgot the scar on his left palm, compliments of himself. However, she hadn't noticed that scar. Not many people did. Sasuke opened his eyes.
"It's okay. I don't care if you look at them," Sasuke said like it was no big deal, even though it had been a big deal at the time the scars were given. The two scars were healing when he met her, the first time. Sasuke dragged himself out of the past enough to listen to her reply.
"Oh. So, they don't hurt anymore?" Sakura asked, looking back at him. Her compassion was amazing him. She was compassionate at eight, and she still was compassionate at seventeen.
"No. I don't really know they're there anymore," Sasuke told her. He saw her swallow hard. He knew what she wanted to know, she was too nice to ask him for the answer.
"It wasn't tragic, if that's what you're thinking. I fell threw a glass window," Sasuke told her, hoping she wouldn't make that big a deal out of it. Sasuke could at least revel in the fact that he was partially telling her the truth. The only omission was that his father pushed him through said glass window.
"When did it happen to you?" she asked, keeping eye contact with him. Sasuke laid back down on his side, facing her.
"I was eight. It was a long time ago, don't feel bad," Sasuke said, looking up. The sun was setting even more now, it was starting to go below the ocean's horizon, so Sakura was bathed in dying light.
"But you must have been in a lot of pain," Sakura said. Somehow during the conversation, she had gotten closer to him and was putting her weight on her elbow. Her concerned expression was still on her face. Sasuke had the sudden urge to touch her face but held himself back as he remember the day he was given the scars.
"It's fine. Like I said, long time ago," Sasuke told her. He clenched his left hand into a fist trying to keep the memories at bay. He didn't need to drown in them again. If he did, the only outcome would be anger. Pure, unadulterated anger that would have him seeing everything in red. It was a dangerous place to go. He knew, he had been there.
"Hey, guys! Come on, we're going to go order pizza and watch some horror movies. Let's go back in," Naruto shouted from the sliding door that led back into the villa. Sasuke stood up quickly. Sakura was a little bit more slow, or maybe he was just ready to change the subject. Sasuke offered her his right hand to help her up. She took it and brought her towel with her. The two of them strolled across the beach and back up into the house with no words passing in between them.
Sakura shut and locked the sliding door as Sasuke and the rest of the gang went to get changed. Hinata was in the kitchen ordering some pizza for everyone. Sakura looked up and saw the pink scars on Sasuke's broad back as he walked away from her. They didn't crisscross, like the cliché scars. One was down the right side of his back, and the other started at his left hip and went at a forty-five degree angle but stopped right before it hit his spine.
Hinata came out of the kitchen as Sakura leaned up against the glass, staring at the place were Sasuke disappeared around a corner. Sakura wondered how a glass window could give someone cuts like the ones on Sasuke.
"The pizzas will be here in forty-five minutes," Hinata said smiling as she walked out. Sakura didn't stop looking at that place where Sasuke disappeared.
"Okay, that's cool. I'll go get changed," Sakura said. She didn't want to be rude to her hostess, but Sakura's head was going a million miles an hour as she walked to the room she shared with Ino. The door opened before Sakura could touch the door knob and Ino came out as Sakura went in. She was too deep in thought to go for a long conversation, so she passed Ino and shut the door again.
Sakura went through the motions of changing as she thought. She had been cut by glass, but it hadn't given her that big of a cut. Those scars looked like they were delivered from a knife, or some kind of edged weapon. But why did Sakura think Sasuke was lying? So what if he was? It wasn't her business. She shouldn't have been staring in the first place. She just couldn't help but think of Sasuke Uchiha as she looked at the scars on Sasuke Aoshi.
Sakura gritted her teeth. She just couldn't not stop thinking about Sasuke Uchiha. Although, it didn't help that she had been staring at his look alike nearly all day. It was a wonder he hadn't caught her looking at him. She had been catching glimpses of him all day. He was just too good-looking not to look at. And every time she looked at him or talked to him, it felt like she had been friends with him for longer than three weeks since they had met.
No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't shake that she knew him. She also tried to shake the attraction that she was feeling for him. Every time he touched her, she grew hot where he touched. It felt like her body was starting to ignite. She honestly thought she might have spontaneously combusted when he caught her on the hill earlier that day. There was just something about him that had her ticking like a time bomb and ready to explode.
Sakura took out clothes from her bag and something fell out. She quickly put on the pants and tank top and picked up the little jewelry box and opened the false bottom out of habit. Sliding out the aged picture she looked at the scowling little boy and guilt soared through her yet again. If only I said something…if only I'd done something… But it was too late now. She had to move on. Every time she looked at his picture, she knew she had to move on. She just couldn't do it. She couldn't take a lighter to his picture, not now.
A knock on her door woke her from her thoughts. She put the picture back in the false bottom. "Come in. It's open." Naruto poked his head inside the door.
"Hey, we're about to start the horror movie marathon, come on, Sakura," Naruto said, grinning.
Sakura smiled. Naruto always could cheer her up. The past three weeks had felt like they'd never really been separated for six years. Naruto stepped fully into the room and stopped on the other side of the bed. He nodded to the jewelry box…that still had the false bottom out.
"What's that?" Naruto asked. Sakura looked down, her heart racing. She'd never shown that picture to anyone. She didn't really want to start now, no matter how much Naruto meant to her.
"It's nothing, Naruto," Sakura said, smiling and snapping the bottom closed. Apparently it wasn't a good enough smile, because Naruto stopped grinning and looked at her seriously.
"It's him, isn't it? The Uchiha kid?" Naruto inquired. Sakura tried to smile again. It must have came out as a grimace.
"Yeah, it is. I forgot that his picture was in my jewelry box or I would have left it at home," Sakura said, putting it back in her bag and putting the bag on the floor. When she came up again, Naruto had crossed the bed and was giving her a tug on the arm with a comforting smile.
"It's cool. Let's go scare the crap out of you with movies," Naruto said. Sakura laughed and let him lead her to the living room, where their group took up the couches and sofas that surrounded the TV. The movie had already started when Naruto sat beside Sasuke and Sakura sat beside Naruto.
A/N: It took a while, but it's here. I have a few shows I have to do next week so I thought I should get this up this weekend before I'm totally swamped. I'm sorry that this took forever, but I didn't want to bust something out really fast and have it be crap, so it just took a little bit longer.