Found
F is for Flavor
O O O
The splash of water was oddly relieving as Sakura threw those damned chakra-binding ropes into the ocean. They'd been her worst enemy for a little over two days, and finally being able to toss them over a cliff was quite satisfying.
She brushed off her gloves and stared in the direction she had just come from, frowning at the hair lashing around her face and sticking to her lips. The spray of the ocean misted her front, though she didn't move.
Sakanamura was nowhere to be found.
Her feet seemed to move of their own accord, and she began to run once more, keeping to the coast and hopping from rock to rock. Once or twice she would dart to the actual beach, down a long, rocky precipice, and hide herself among the landscape expertly. She kept her chakra masked, but they were still former Akatsuki members. They'd be tracking her relentlessly by now.
She ran for hours and hours and hours, passing by village after village, always keeping well out of sight. She ran until her calves were burning and sweat was soaking her shirt. Her feet were screaming for her to rest, but she didn't.
They'd kill her if she did.
She'd have to face him if she did.
She'd have to face the reality that an S-Class criminal—a member of the Akatsuki—a sick, twisted, demented, morbid shell of a man who got his kicks from blowing people to bits and then dancing in the rain of their carnage—had done things to her that…
She shook her head fiercely. It wasn't her fault. She'd drank something that acted as an aphrodisiac, and that mixed with the little bit of alcohol had made her mad with lust. It had clouded her judgment and destroyed all moral senses she'd ever held dear.
But at least she hadn't completely, full-out had sex with him, and for this she was glad. She may have been inebriated, but she remembered it all as if she hadn't had foreign herbs—drugs—pumping through her system.
She neared another municipality—this one was slightly larger than the last couple—and a ray of hope shone somewhere within her. The larger the populated borough, the better her chances were of it being a major city. She had no idea where she was, besides that she was near at the east coast of the continent. But if she could just find a place that housed the Leaf embassy, or one that could at least point her in the direction of it… Surely then she could make her way back home.
She tried to remember the basic geography of their beloved little hunk of land. But even then, she would have seen multiple ninja roaming about by now or at least a hidden village of the respective country. So it was possible that she was in one of those few-and-far-between ungoverned areas. They were the areas that were mostly rural, neutral places lacking any and all involvement with their shinobi neighbors. Simple, slow, easy-going people governed each small village, and it was a simple, slow, easy-going life.
So that was why they had noticed neither Deidara nor Kisame for who they were. Hell, even she had a chance of being recognized. She was the pink-haired apprentice of one of the legendary sannin—the student of Leaf's Hokage, the slug-woman.
Sakura lowered her eyes as she approached the large, seemingly bustling city, biting back the wave of hopelessness she could feel swelling just beneath the surface. "Tsunade…I promise I'll be home soon."
She was the only one she had left.
O O O
They'd been flying around the sky on Deidara's clay bird for hours. His eyes hurt from scoping the landscape, frantically searching the coastlines, forests, bogs, oceans, and even the air. The girl could be anywhere by now.
"Hopeless," Kisame said, and his pupils retracted to their normal sizes as he withdrew his chakra net. "She's gone."
"We have to keep looking, yeah," Deidara muttered, pulling away from the edge of their avian transport to remove his scope and rub agitatedly at his eyes. "It's not even about wanting a medic-nin by us anymore. She'll inform the Hokage first thing that two members of the Akatsuki somehow survived, and they'll hunt us down until we're gone for good."
Kisame sat back, staring up at the clouds.
"We just aren't strong enough," Deidara continued glumly, even as he replaced the scope and blinked to adjust it, "to ward off the fleets that they'll send. We alone aren't able to do it, yeah."
"Hidan is still out there," Kisame said, sort of distantly, squinting into the grey of the heavens. "I know he survived."
Deidara returned to searching the scenery below them, leaving Kisame to keep searching the sky. "But even if he is, he'd kill us on sight."
"Why?"
"If he did survive, which I'm sure he did because of that whole immortal thing," at this he waved a dismissive hand, "he'd be furious with Leader and the organization in general, yeah. He'd blame us for it."
"That's stupid. He knows it wasn't us. It was Leader for being an over-confident, power-hungry prick."
"Still, it's the principle of the thing." He glanced at Kisame briefly. "Didn't you notice? Hidan hated being in the Akatsuki. But he stayed, because it was good karma in the eyes of his religion, yeah."
Kisame was silent for a moment. Then: "How do you know all of this?"
His eyes lowered, and he tried to ignore the frown forming across his lips. "Let's just say I was dedicated to the organization."
His blue-haired partner sniffed. "Some sort of emotional attachment, or what?"
"More of a dependency, yeah."
"Lonely?"
He looked at Kisame over his shoulder again. "Who wasn't?" He turned his attention back to the ground below them, and the beat of the bird's wings momentarily distracted him. "I joined…because I was in pain. Someone put me in pain, and it was the only way I could think of to relieve it, yeah."
Kisame laughed. "You're reasons were no less selfish than any of ours, Deidara. Don't kid yourself."
"I'm not saying they were. And I'm not saying I regret it."
"But you're justifying it."
"I'm explaining it, yeah. Since when are you my personal therapist?"
"Since when do you care now that the dust has finally cleared?"
"I don't."
"You do. That's why you're telling me your reasons for joining. By trying to get me to believe and accept and even praise your decisions, you're actually attempting to make it easier for yourself to believe and accept them."
He huffed. "You don't think I praise myself?"
"I'm sure you do," he laughed gruffly, picking something off of his shirt. "But that doesn't mean you like it."
"Alright, that's enough psychoanalyzing me, yeah," Deidara snapped angrily, glaring at the trees moving beneath them at an alarming, blurring rate.
"You regret what you've done?"
"Shut up."
He laughed again. "Most everyone does, eventually."
Something that stuck out from the scenery caught his eye, and Deidara slowed the bird down a bit, zooming in on the object with the scope. A small pink and red dot dashed between each crosshair, zipping quickly along the coast. Waves crashed onto the rocky beach, and the occasional gull soared past unnoticed.
He grinned broadly and swerved the bird to loop toward the ground, just on the other side of the city that she was heading in a beeline for.
"You found her?" Kisame asked as the sudden drop in altitude caused their ears to pop.
Deidara nodded. "Guaranteed she's looking for an embassy, yeah."
The bird neared the ground, and Kisame pulled on a mask to cover all but his eyes, grey and alert even as the water around them splashed in all directions from the bird's landing.
Deidara rolled up his pants legs to his knee and removed the tattered cloak, holding it before him.
"You have to get rid of it," Kisame said as he hopped down, uncaring of the water that covered most of his feet and drenched the hems of his pants. "We're getting into bigger cities, now, and they'll recognize it."
Deidara nodded and reached into the clay pouch at his hip. He produced one of his explosion birds, which stared up at him blankly as he set it atop the cloak. The cloak was placed neatly in the water.
The bird blinked and Deidara turned away. "Come on, Kisame."
His partner nodded, joining him at his side as the giant bird disappeared into the mud at the bottom of the bog. The small bird sat sentinel atop the discarded clothing.
When they were about two hundred paces away from the landing site, an explosion rocked the forest.
Kisame smiled bitterly, but a hint of satisfaction tinged the edges of his voice. "Couldn't just put it all behind quietly, could you? Had to go out with a bang."
Deidara copied the sentiment. "Nothing lives forever, yeah."
And to this, Kisame agreed with a deep, rumbling chuckle. "Was fun while it lasted."
O O O
In truth, Sakura paid absolutely no notice to the city or its inhabitants as she strode through the preliminary gates. The few guards on duty watched her walk, apparently determined that she was harmless enough to get through the first examination. But the second set of gates had a full search operation they needed to run her through. They had her remove everything from her pockets, which wasn't much save for a few discarded wrappers for medical tools, and even take off her boots and empty them out in front of them. She was then moved to a new terminal, where a female guard was summoned to pat her down.
She was determined safe and received a bright orange badge to wear, signifying that she was a guest and not a permanent resident. When she decided to leave, she would have to return the badge. If she lost the badge, she would be forced to pay for it. She even had to write her name down on a sign-in sheet, as well as the date and time. From what a nearby guard told her, it was one-eleven pm on October the twenty-fifth.
"And how long will you be staying?" he asked, nodding his assent.
"I'm looking for the Leaf embassy, actually. Is it here?"
The man pointed to the tallest building in the gated city. It reminded her faintly of the Hokage Tower back at home. "Not in this village, but that's the information building and office of the mayor. They'll tell you where to find it."
She bowed slightly. "Thank you very much." And then she went on her way, straight to the offices.
The building itself was polished and clean-smelling, with several people waiting in the lobby. A few receptionists spoke busily on the phone as they wrote things down, and she even brushed past a lovely little fish tank on her way to the main desk of the place.
The woman there was giving information to someone on the phone, apparently telling them where and when they needed to make an appointment.
"November twelfth at eleven-thirty, that's right," she said, nodding as she wrote down the date in time in a large leather-bound book. "I apologize that that is the soonest we can get you in, but the mayor is very busy with keeping things in line here." She paused for a minute, opened her mouth to speak, was apparently cut off, and then made a sound of concurrence. "The war, yes. It's been terribly hard on all of us." She glanced once at Sakura, smiled, and then glanced back at her book. "I do so hope it blows over soon. Leaf and Sand have my full support, if you don't mind me saying." The person on the other end said something that made the woman nod again. "Akatsuki?"
This had Sakura perking up. The leaf of the plant on the desk she'd been fiddling with dropped from her hands.
"I've heard brief mentions, but nothing too detailed. Something about an explosion or a malfunction within the group."
Another silence.
"No, of course not. I imagine that if any members the Akatsuki," she whispered the word as if it were cursed, "were still around, they'd be completely impartial to the war. After all, it's none of their business. I'm sure they don't care either way, the selfish mongrels." She looked at Sakura apologetically. "Well, I'll let you go now. I have someone I need to help now." She confirmed the appointment and hung up the phone, then sighed in relief and brushed some burgundy bangs away from her eyes. "I'm sorry, miss, what can I do for you?"
"I need to speak with someone about the Leaf embassy."
"Foreign affairs are handled on the third floor," she said, pulling a small map from her desk drawer and handing it to Sakura. "From there, go to the green room indicated here—can you see it? Good. You'll want to talk to the receptionist there, and she'll tell you what you need to know."
Sakura nodded and tucked the map into her pocket. "Thank you."
"You're from Leaf?" she asked, just as Sakura was about to walk away.
"Yes. I'm Haruno Sakura," she said, hoping against all things that the woman would recognize her. "A medic-nin from Leaf and apprentice to the Hokage."
"You have such a pretty name," the woman said, grinning again and oblivious to the importance of being a direct student of the Hokage. "I wish you luck on returning! And be careful with that war going on."
She nodded again, this time a bit more dejectedly. Large city that it may have been, it was still in neutral civilian territory. These people knew little to nothing about Leaf, Fire, Sound, or any of the other shinobi countries.
She made her way carefully to the elevator, but then decided against taking it and went for the stairs instead. She was still being hunted. She needed to avoid taking unnecessary risks at all costs.
When she finally arrived at the third floor, she immediately recognized the groups on ninja strolling about. Most wore Rain or Mist headbands—two of the countries that weren't at war—though she spotted that might have been from either Rock or Sand. She hadn't gotten a good enough look to be sure.
The receptionist here wasn't quite as kind as the one on the first floor, and she forced Sakura to take a number and wait her turn.
She glanced down at the ticket. Forty-three.
An automated voice came over the loudspeaker. "Twenty-one at Gate C."
Sakura groaned. There were only three gates and twenty-two more people that needed to be seen. The spaciousness of the room had thrown her off to the number of people that waited their turn.
So, without further ado, she plopped down in a free chair. A mother beside her was nursing her child beneath a blanket. She didn't appear to be wearing any visible markings of her country.
The woman saw Sakura looking and smiled. "I live in this town," she clarified sweetly. "But my son lives with my ex-husband in the Fire Country. I'm requesting a visa so that I can visit them."
Sakura smiled back. "I'm from there. It's a beautiful place to live. What's your son's name? I might know him."
"Satou Makoto," she replied, her brown eyes wide and hopeful. She went on to describe her son, but Sakura wasn't listening.
Makoto. Deidara. Danger.
The woman was staring at her again, and so Sakura shook her head. "No, I'm afraid I've never heard of him."
"Twenty-two at Gate B," the loudspeaker announced, and the woman rose, pulling the baby away from her chest and cradling it as it fell asleep immediately.
"That's my number," she said happily, and she slung her purse over one arm. "It was nice meeting you."
Sakura nodded. "You, too."
And then an instant later, all of the twenty or so shinobi in the room tensed into their own battle stances, Sakura included in this group. There was a presence loitering just outside the doors leading to a balcony, a presence that Sakura was all too accustomed to. It was a chakra signature that was loud, so to speak—in terms of identifying levels of chakra, his was absolutely outrageous and boisterous compared to normal jounin—and it caused her stomach to flip nervously. The person, who had apparently dropped in from the heavens, pushed aside the balcony doors and strode inside, covered from head to toe in rags.
Hoshigaki Kisame pinned Sakura's gaze with his.
He was gone the next second, and so was she, sliding just out of reach of one large hand as he groped for her. In her haste to escape she knocked over a potted plant, sending dirt and clay pieces across the floor.
He didn't speak as he repeatedly tailed her, and Sakura cursed the worthless shinobi that proceeded to quickly exit the room via the stairs, elevator, or even the balcony. And really, while Kisame's company was quite intimidating, he wasn't that scary.
A flash of teeth caught her attention, and she ducked out of the way quickly. Kisame landed against the wall directly beside her head, crouched, and then pushed off in her direction.
Okay, so he was extremely fucking scary when he wanted to be, but damn it, why wasn't anyone calling for help, or at least trying to evacuate the civilians? Ridiculously greedy, lousy, selfish bastards—
She evaded what would have been a swift kick to the ribs with a clone, and she darted off behind an empty receptionist desk. When Kisame came close, she shattered it with her fists, sending shards of wood and plastic shrapnel in all directions.
She made a break for the balcony. Who was she if she wasn't Sakura, the girl-who-excelled-at-tree-walking? Running down the side of a building was no different than hauling ass down a tree trunk; that was for sure.
Something caught her ankle, though, and swung her around to meet a hard surface that felt surprisingly like a broad, warm chest. Two hands held her shoulders in a vice grip that was sure to leave bruises in the morning.
Kisame stared down at her for a moment, the excitement of battle glinting in his pale eyes.
She grunted, struggled, attempted to kick him, and even drew chakra into each endeavor to wriggle out of his grasp. But nothing seemed to work, and eventually he raised a hand to, undoubtedly, perform his latest favorite action.
And Sakura would be damned if he got the chance to knock her out again.
Taking him off guard, she skated on her heels between his legs, appearing on the other side of him and landing a well-placed kick to the back of his head. Well, that certainly was beating him at his own game.
She watched as he groaned, fell to his knees, and then collapsed on the neat tile floor.
The skylight suddenly exploded in a shower of glass that cut wherever Sakura's skin was exposed.
Deidara fell through it, baggy Akatsuki-grade pants billowing and his hair a tangled mess from who knew what. In one hand he clutched a small clay bird, and the other was pressing flat against the floor, driving him backwards atop another less-than-decimated desk before she could blink.
"Come back quietly," he warned, outstretching the hand with the bird, "and I promise not to blow you up, yeah."
He was out of the way quicker than she could shove her fist into his pretty, smug face, and for this she was very disappointed.
He landed next to Kisame on his toes, as graceful and flighty as ever, grinning maniacally. Kisame pushed himself to his feet slowly, growling and using a piece of a broken chair for support. The two stood side by side, faces of indescribable fury and exhilaration brightening the gloom of the impromptu battle arena.
And then Sakura remembered who she was up against.
Akatsuki.
She raised two tentative fists and groaned in exasperation. "Oh, fuck me."
Deidara grinned and released the bird, where it fluttered a bit around his head, and then headed toward Sakura gaily. "If you insist."
Sakura glanced between the two S-Class criminals warily, briefly registered that Kisame was moving and moving fast, and then the bird was landing on her nose.
A blue blur was all that she saw before the bird was knocked aside, where it exploded in midair, taking out a whole section of a wall.
Wait… It exploded?
She glanced in horror to Deidara, who was, in turn, glaring at Kisame like he'd just kicked his puppy.
And Kisame was pissed.
He took a step toward Deidara, pushing Sakura behind him once more, though he kept a hand tight around her arm. "What the fuck are you thinking?"
"Disposing of the evidence! What do you think I'm thinking?"
"That's a bit fucking counterproductive, don't you think? That's the whole reason we stole her in the first place!"
"She's no use to us any more!" He motioned wildly—angrily—to Sakura, who was still half-hidden behind Kisame. "Look at her! She's too much of a damned hassle to keep around, yeah."
"Unless you can find a market that sells medic-nin who just happen to be apprentices to one of the cages, then you let me fucking know, because if that's the case, then I'll gladly dump this girl off in some ditch somewhere. But otherwise, we keep her."
"And if she gets away again? Then she's going to go run her mouth to everyone and their mothers that two Akatsuki survived!"
Kisame ran his free hand through his hair, visibly trembling in rage. "So you think that blowing her up is going to fix everything?"
"The dead don't talk!"
"The dead don't fucking heal, either!" He whirled around, grabbed Sakura by the hair, and tugged her forward.
Sakura thrashed. "Let me go, you son-of-a-bitch!"
Deidara, seemingly fed up with the world and everything within it, kicked her hard in the gut. She curled around the injury instinctively, grunting.
A crash sounded from somewhere near the stairwell, and two pairs of Akatsuki eyes immediately glanced to the source.
"Talk later, yeah," Deidara said quickly, sprinting toward the balcony.
Kisame slung Sakura over his shoulder and followed, and soon they were out in the bright sunlight again.
The two men jumped over the railing of the balcony, and for a moment, Sakura was sure she was going to die. What were they, psychopathic and suicidal? Out of all the people in the world, she had to have been kidnapped by them.
But her thoughts—hopes, perhaps?—were dashed when Kisame landed on something solid, yet anything but stationary, and the object with which they were floating with took off into the sky.
She managed to get a glimpse of flapping wings and the smoking mayor's office turning into just a speck in the distance before Deidara pulled her into the center of the vessel by the throat.