Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto…
The MaelstromSakura stood looking outside the window of the ship, watching as tiny, sharp drops of rain pelted the glass and painted panes. She felt the tiny baby jump inside of her in response to the loud thunder and instinctively placed her hands on her stomach, rubbing it and humming.
"It's okay, it's just noise." She murmured, a smile on her face. "If it's your father you're worried about he'll be fine." Sasuke was outside with some of the crew, maintaining control over the ship in the perilous tempest. All while she withdrew from the group that gathered a level below, too worrisome for their light mood.
She frowned and walked away from the window, watching a giant waves coat itself over the crystal wall. She assumed it stretched up and over the walls of the rocking ship, like some giant, icy hand. A hand that would grope and fall back empty-handed only to stretch up again, and would return to Davy Jones's locker with a victim. Sakura decided she wouldn't bear witness to something as horrendous as that and she saw men act like savages when she was a captive aboard the Akatsuki, killing and torturing as if it were nothing.
She removed herself from the mindset as the baby began to squirm in response to her distress at the memories. She cooed and rubbed her belly, trying to calm the almost-ready-to-be-born child. The past was the past, it was all behind her now, she had to move forward for the baby's sake, and for Sasuke's. Heaven knows if allowed he would brood and lock himself away over events.
The ship rocked and swayed harshly in the cold gales and icy waves, and each motion caused a bought of queasiness when the storm worsened. The captain's wife moved out of the charting room and headed towards the bow of the ship. She was as restless as the ocean was.
Images of lightning splitting the skies filled her mind as the crash of thunder echoed in the ship and the remnants of the flash illuminated the inside of the ship. The sound of rain pelting the outside was as constant as the stars in the sky and Sakura could feel the waves as they slammed into the vessel.
"Sakura." She smiled as she spotted her husband coming down the steps, soaked to the bone, black hair clinging to his face. Alive.
"Sasuke." He looked surprised to see her but immediately met her halfway. "Is everything okay up there?" Sakura found herself asking, and she watched his light expression grow dark.
"There was a maelstrom, on top of the wind and the lightning. Normally they don't affect ships like ours, but it started to pull us in almost as soon as we spotted it." He explained, mechanically and evenly, the voice he always uses. His face grew grim then, and his black eyes became distant. "A ship was spotted too, Sakura. It was sailing as if it were in calm waters, and when lightning struck it vanished."
"Is that a bad thing?"
"The Dutchman Sakura, it had to be the Dutchman." She frowned at the mention of the cursed ship, doomed to sail for eternity with a crew of damned men. Legend said it appeared only during storms and the first to spot the sailing ship was destined to die and replace a crewmember.
"Sasuke. It had to be a trick of the storm--"
"Someone fell overboard and vanished before we could pull him back out, as soon as he pointed out the ship." Sakura frowned then, and cast an uneasy and questioning look. "Asuma." She froze then, he had a wife and a little boy in Singapore, he was on his way home, it wasn't fair. Sasuke put a damp hand on her cheek and lowered his head, mixing black bangs with pink. She placed her own hand over his, closing her eyes.
"Be careful, won't you?" she whispered when he pulled away. He nodded and kissed her, vanishing up the steps. She could hear the wind howl and the rain slap the deck and men shouting. She could only think about Asuma's wife and son and how they'd never see him again, and she could only pray that Sasuke would stay safe.
~x-x-x~
That was the conversation Karin was watching in the previous drabble. Reviews are greatly appreciated.
