( Disclaimer: I Don't own NARUTO! They belong to His Highness Masashi Kishimoto! )
Some mature contents will occur! I warned you!
Chapter Twelve - Inside The Fire
Sakura woke up, feeling feverish as she usually did early in the morning. The room was still quite dark and she rolled over to drag herself up from the bed to open the window, but was faced with something she hadn't expected.
She let out a low yelp of surprise.
"...It's really early... Sakura... You should go back to sleep..." a muffled voice said behind her and she turned around slightly to be met with another surprise.
She blinked twice, before she let out an annoying groan.
`No wonder I'm warm...´
There she was, laying between two half sleeping men, one that was brown haired and the other one was silver haired. And the thing that annoyed her the most was that (once again) her silver haired Sensei was invading her private space.
"...Sensei..." she growled in a low voice.
"...Hum..." the silver haired man gruff.
"I'm feeling a bit warm... Could you please take your arm away from me!"
The man glared up to Sakura from his position on the pillow, but didn't move a muscle.
"If you are warm, take off your dressing gown..." he muttered.
"No...! I will not take off anything while I'm laying beside a perv...!" Sakura growled still in a low voice.
"Suite yourself..." and with that, the silver haired man turned his head back down to the pillow and fall to a light sleep.
"Bastard..." she growled once more and turned her face to the brown haired man that had his back towards her and was almost laying on the floor...
`On the floor?´
Sakura looked around and saw that they where sleeping in the little living room on a quite big futon.
Why was all three of them sleeping together on this futon? Had they had some 'fun' and Sakura hadn't even remember that?
Well no... They couldn't have. She was still dressed in that dressing gown she had dressed in after she had taken that bath and so where they (well, not in a dressing gown, but they had at least underwears on).
"Taichou...? Yamato-Taichou..."
"...Mmm..." the brown haired man answered.
"Why are we sleeping on a futon and in the living room...?" Sakura asked.
Yamato lifted his head slightly to look at her and raised an eyebrow.
"You don't remember...?" he asked.
"Gomen... But my memory have been really bad since I got pregnant..." Sakura mumbled a bit ashamed.
"Can we talk about this when we are a bit more awake... Try to get some sleep and if you are warm, just take of your dressing gown. I will not peek or... touch you..." Yamato said and settle himself back on the pillow.
"...I'm not concern about you..." she muttered and fell back to the futon, starring up to the ceiling. She was feeling really annoyed and warm, but she didn't want an excuse for her Sensei to grope her while she was sleeping.
But then again, he had already seen her naked. So why should she care if he saw little more of her, but that was not just that. The thing was that she would feel really exposed if she would concider to take of her dressing gown in front of them. She wasn't and would never be feeling easy to undress herself in front of others, even if that others was her best friend and female. She had alway hated her body and she didn't even look like a woman. Well her pregancy had change parts of it, but now she was more sickning of her own body. Now she looked just fat and those who didn't know that she was pregnant would call her ugly and fat.
`Maybe even Kakashi thinks I'm repulsive...? Why do I CARE if he thinks that of me? But it would hurt...´
And once again Sakura started to wonder why the three of them was laying on this futon and not in the big much more comfortable bed. Had Kakashi maybe used a Katon* and burned down the bed? That would be just ridiculous, but he could have.
"...Just sleep, Sakura..." the silver haired Kakashi mumbled and dragged his arm away from her waist.
`Thank god... Finally...´
"Can we open the shoji?" she asked Kakashi.
"No..." he answered.
"No? But I'm warm..."
"Then take off your dressing gown..." Kakashi muttered and glanced up to her.
"Why can't we just open the shoji? It would be nice to have some fresh air..." Sakura told him.
"But think about me... I lay nearest the shoji, I will be cold and maybe even get a cold as well..." Kakashi mumbled and he could hear how Sakura turned to lay on the side and she looked down to him with an annoyed face.
"You... Get a cold...? You haven't have the cold since I don't know when, not even the flu..." Sakura hissed to him. "You are the healthiest man I ever have met... So don't try to argue about you will get a cold, just to get under my panties..."
Kakashi lifted his head from the pillow and come face to face with Sakura, who had a frown in her face.
"I'm not trying to get under your panties... And besides, I have already succeed that..." Kakashi said in a bit annoyed-mocking tone, making Sakura frown even more.
"And I'm not going to let you do it again..." Sakura assured him and he raised an eyebrow to her.
"Really...?" he said still with an annoyed-mocking tone and he looked to her with a hidden amusement.
"Really..." she told him and looked in to his eye, not sure what she could see in it.
Suddenly she could feel his hand began to reach after the sash around her waist, under the quilt and began to tug it loose and after that she could feel his big warm hand over her slightly bigger belly.
She could tell that he was a bit uncomfortable with stroking her belly in the way he did, but then he traced his hand from her stomach and stopped at the edge of her panties. She froze and saw how he came closer to her.
"Wasn't you the one who wouldn't let me do it again...?" he whispered in her ear and she could feel how she began (strangely enough) to shiver with lust.
Why was she reacting to him like this? When he just had his hand on her panties and the way he had whispered in her ear. It was strangely indeed, but she didn't take off his hand from its position and she could feel how he began to go lower down.
"Are you not going to stop me...?" he mumbled in the crook of her neck and let his hand travle further south, until he stopped at her labia and teased with his finger at her entering.
She shivered again and felt how she began to be wet down there and her face grow all hot.
She didn't want to feel this thing she felt when he touched her like this and she cursed herself that she had began to get all wet.
"...Oh, why are you getting wet...?" Kakashi teased her still having his face down in the crook of her neck. "Do you want this...?"
He pushed his finger inside of her cunt and she let out a soft, muffled moan, while getting wetter.
"Stop it..." she hissed to him and then she let out a surprised moan when he pushed in one finger more.
"You are not saying it like you mean it..." Kakashi murmur to her and nibbled on her neck softly, making her moan a bit louder
A loud cough beside them brought both Sakura and Kakashi back to reality and they both looked down to the brown haired man beside Sakura.
Sakura began to blush hysterically and hide her face in her palms, while Kakashi (who had lifted his head from her neck) looked down to the brown haired man with a smirk.
"Do you want to join, Yamato...?" Kakashi asked him and right then Sakura whised she just could die.
~oOo~
The breakfast was a pain in the ass. Not just because she was getting small looks from a certain middle age male, but also because she still was embarrassed that Yamato had caught her and Kakashi doing something she even didn't want to think of. And looking at Yamato made her blush in every single shade of red that existed.
And she was tired, because one hour after that incident she couldn't sleep any longer and neither could Yamato. So she had decided to take a quick shower and it was right after that Sakura had got a cold shiver down her spin.
She walked out of the bath room and was heading towards the bed room to pick out a fresh kimono to wear and when she was about to reach out to slide the shoji to the bed room open, Kakashi had grabbed her wrist.
"...Sensei...? What do you want...?" she said annoyed.
"Eh... You shouldn't go inside of that room..." Kakashi said and looked a bit troubled.
"Don't tell me that you really Katon the bed...?" she said with an amused smile on her face, when Kakashi gave her a raised eyebrow.
"Nani?*" Kakashi looked surprised and he could hear a low chuckle behind him. "Did you tell her that, Yamato?"
"No I didn't, but I find it quite funny... And shouldn't you tell her why she shouldn't go inside of that room...?" Yamato told him and she looked confused to Yamato and then to Kakashi.
"Is there something wrong?" she asked and looked a bit worried to Kakashi and back to Yamato.
Kakashi gave Yamato a scowl and the looked to Sakura and sighed.
"You have been target..." he told her firmly and she raised her eyebrow to him.
"What is that supposed to mean...? Why am I target? And by whom?"
"We don't know why and we don't really know by whom..." Yamato continued. "But Kakashi believes that it could be someone who lives inside of this manor..."
"Then it could be anyone!" Sakura said agitated and turned to her Sensei. "How long have you know this?"
"Not very long... And I didn't know that they would actually target you. Last night, though, changed my mind..." Kakashi told her and she let out a low frustated growl.
"Then what happened last night? I don't remember a thing!"
"They left something behind..." Kakashi mumbled.
"...In the shape of a young womans corpse..." Yamato told her and Sakura frowned.
"A corpse...? Are you seriously?" Sakura asked like she didn't believe them.
"If we wasn't... Why would we even bother to tell you...?" Kakashi asked.
"Just to scare me or... just to make me spill what Kusari wanted with me..."
"And talking of that man... I don't think you should be with him alone anymore..." Kakashi told her. "He is after all one that could be behind it..."
"And why do you believe it could be him? Do you have any proof?" Sakura asked a bit annoyed.
"Just one..." Yamato said. "All the other victims have been rapped before they got killed..."
"Wait... Did you just say it have been more that have been target...?" Sakura asked and Kakashi gave Yamato a killing glare.
"Aaa... And as Yamato said, they have been rapped and then killed... And Kusari is the one who fits the profile perfectly and if you are planning something with him alone, we need to know... So we can be there..." Kakashi told her.
"You are doing it again Kakashi... Don't you think I can take care of myself?" Sakura growled.
"It has nothing to do with that you can take care of yourself. If he is a bloodthirsty killer, you will be no match to him even how strong you are and your..." Kakashi paused. "And your chakra control isn't that perfect, due to the little thing inside of you... Yes, I have notice..."
Sakura closed her mouth right after his comment.
So he had noticed.
"Just show her, Senpai... She maybe have to see it to believe it..." Yamato told Kakashi who frowned slightly.
"See what?" Sakura asked.
Kakashi looked annoyed, before he slide the shoji open and Sakura looked inside. She gasped out loud and glanced to Kakashi who looked at her with a stony gaze.
She then began remembered why she had those nightmares. It had been because of that body of that young woman, that hanged from the ceiling and those words;
YOU WILL BE NEXT, WHORE!
At first she hadn't believed it. She couldn't believe it. And now she was faced with this hideous shight again. A thing she never could take out of her mind and it would follow her to the end of her life.
"... Who could be so cruel to do such a thing...?" Sakura looked down to the floor and Kakashi laid a hand on her shoulder.
"We have been faced with many horror filed things throught our missions, Sakura... Mankind is cruel and you should know it... You, yourself have experienced it..." Kakashi said and Sakura looked up to him, with a flash of anger.
"Aaa...! I do..!" she snapped to him and stormed back in to the bath room.
Sakura was still angry with him. He (if someone) should know, what hell she had been throught. She got rapped and beaten to a bloody mess twice and a top of it, she got pregnant with a man that doesn't even want to acknowledge her unborn child or even herself. A man that was her Sensei.
Yes, she hated him with passion right now. But still she couldn't just trow him out of her mind and life, not just yet. She still had unfinish business with him, until her child was born, after that she could trow him out.
Sakura smiled darkly to herself and then Yamato tugged her sleeve to her kimono, she turned to look up to him.
"What's with that smile...?" he asked her and she looked dumfound up to him.
"Um... Nothing..."
"Okay... Anyway, He wants to talk to you after breakfast..." Yamato told her.
"With He, do you mean him..." Sakura glanced to Kusari. "... or do you mean erojiji*...?"
"E-Erojiji...? Well, hai..." Yamato said and she frown.
"Then I don't want to talk to him..."
"Don't began with this again..." Yamato sighed. "I who began to think that you two had finally began to be more friendly with each other... But maybe I was mistaken..."
"We where only 'friendly' with each other, because we needed too..." Sakura hissed to Yamato and raised from the chair. "I'm done... I will see you later..."
"What.. Wait... You shouldn't go alone..."
"I can take care of myself..." Sakura told him and walked away from Yamato who frown.
Why had her rage over her Sensei, burst out over him? It wasn't fair. All he just wanted was her to be safty.
`Just like Kakashi-Senpai want...´
But he and his Senpai was two different people. What Kakashi thought of protecting was something else to Yamato and that was why they wasn't a great team while they were together on a mission. But still they were good friends, when Kakashi didn't try to kill him or doing something improper with him and he couldn't understand why Sakura was so cold to him (well he could understand, he had hurt her obviously), but she could at least try to be a bit more cooperative with Kakashi during this mission (like Yamato tried too).
Yamato sighed and looked down to his plate of half finish breakfast.
"Problem with your woman..?" a husky voice said behind him and Yamato looked up to find Kusari leaning his hand on Yamato's chair.
"Kind of..." Yamato answered for lack of anyother thing to say.
"She will come around... eventually..." Kusari said and hide a smirk that didn't go unnoticed by Yamato. "Between us men... All she need is just a good screw, after that she will be as gentle as a lamb..."
Yamato hide his snort and nodded to Kuasri with a bit of consideration.
"Just give it a shot..." Kusari said and slapped Yamato in his back and walked away.
"...Target one is moving out of the dinning hall..." Yamato mumbled to the well hidden wireless radio in his clothes and didn't wait for an answer berfore he too walked out of the dinning hall.
~oOo~
"...Target one is moving out of the dinning hall..."
Kakashi looked up from his thoughts and answered quickly to the call from the little wireless radio.
"Wakatta*..!"
He glanced down to the floor and watched how Kusari walked passed him and he was eying that pink haired, pregnant woman that had stormed out just a minute ago. If Kakashi had deared, he would have killed Kusari just because he was looking at her in the way he did right now.
But he decided to just follow Kusari in the shadows and not bring to much attention to himself. As he walked down the halls, his mind drifted to the moaning pink haired Kunoichi he had earlier almost gave an orgasm to and he regreted that he had teased her so that he almost had lost it, because of her impassive way to say things. And he who had promised himself to not touch her in that way again. But she had responded to him in the same way she had done back in ChimaChima (when she had crashed in to the inn and crying over the fact that she had killed a family). He had a hard time this morning to restrain himself from not 'ravish' her, because he wanted her so badly and he didn't know how long he could restrain himself if they was to spend one night more on that futon.
If Yamato hadn't been there, who knows what he would do to her. Kakashi known himself to be not so gentel when he grew sexual frustrated and he would hurt her more then necessary if he got what he wanted from her. She had become a drug to him, a much better drug then the saké or the shouchuu* and she satisfied him more then just a common prostitute at the pleasure quarters in Otafuku Gai. But he couldn't compare her with a prostitute. She was so much more then just that, she was his former student, his equal, someone he cared for and she carried something he never could have imagien she would do in her age. Something that was made out of his stupied need. She was maybe carring his child and a pice of him died every time when he looked to her and knowing what would happen to her if they would find it out. And yet he could do nothing to stop or change that.
Kusari suddenly stopped and so did Kakashi.
Kakashi pressed himself up against the cold stone wall and was hidden from veiw thanks to the shadow of a big antique vase that had been recently filled with fresh flowers from a far away country. Kakashi watched how Kusari began to talk to someone Kakashi couldn't see and just to be on the safe side he suppressed his chakra and dragged up the navy-blue bandana (he had folded to a headband) and reviled his Sharingan.
He tried to read Kusari's lips, but didn't get much out of it, due to the fact that he was most part mumbling. But Kakashi did find out that Kusari was interested in one thing and that was Sakura, well Tara and the reason why he was interesed in her, he didn't yet know. For Kakashi it could be anything, her body or worse, seeing her dead.
Kakashi decided it was best to go back to Sakura and Yamato who was (most likely by now) sealing the corpse inside of a scroll until they could bury her proparly. He pushed the headband over his Sharingan, stepped away from the wall, making sure that Kusari hadn't seen him and then he walked back to the hallway he had come from.
He hadn't walked more then half of the distance to Sakura and Yamato's room when he suddenly heard someone behind him. He stopped and began to frown.
"What do you want... Hinoki-Sama...?" Kakashi asked the woman that had appeared out of the shadows and was now walking up behind him.
"I just want a little chat with you..." Hinoki said with her silky voice and caressed Kakashi's muscular back. "I just want to know how a simple and low ranked guard like you, could know that I used a jutsu... Just that have made me very interesed in you..."
Kakashi didn't turn around to face the woman, because he knew that her eyes was more enchanting then her voice and even lips.
"I was once a Shinobi from Ame*..." Kakashi began. "I began to work for Deigo-Sama's father as his guard and adviser... Later I began to work for Deigo-Sama as well..."
"A Shinobi you say..." a cold laught could be heard from Hinoki. "That would explain a lot I guess... But that doesn't explain why your mistress said that you where new to the job..."
"I have just began to work as Tara-Sama's personal guard..." Kakashi said and felt how Hinoki began to press annoying close to his back.
"Alright... I will believe that you are a former Shinobi from Ame... But I will have to keep my eyes one you, after all you are a Shinobi..." Hinoki traced her soft lips against Kakashi's ear, before she whispered in to his ear. "I have never had a Shinobi before... Maybe you will be my first...?"
"I will never be your first..." and with that Kakashi walked away, leaving a smirking Hinoki behind.
"We will see about that..."
~oOo~
Sakura patted the back of a petrified maid and looked towards Yamato who just had walked out of the bed room with a scroll in his hand.
"Are she alright?" Yamato asked Sakura, who nodded her head.
"I think so... Poor Kiku, how could He asked her to clean the bed room..." Sakura said a bit angry and looked back to the black haired maid Kiku who just rocked back and forth on her heels on the tatami* in the living room.
"Don't ask me... That man is, sometimes, not thinking at all..." Yamato said and hide the scroll in the backpack of his Senpai.
"But he must at least know that he couldn't just send a poor maid to clean up this mess..." she said and looked up to Yamato again, who shrugged his shoulders. It was then something struck her. Maybe it had been his opinion to send Kiku in to this mess, but that would be really far-fetched she thought.
Why would he send a maid to the the very room there a corpse laid in? Why send Kiku?
As Sakura's head was filed with speculations (while comforting the rocking Kiku on the floor), the door burst open and a silver haired man walked carelessly inside.
Yamato looked up to him and looked a bit annoyed, while Sakura still was glancing down to the floor, still thinking about a million things in her head.
"What is she up too?" asked the silver haired man and looked down to Sakura.
"She is comforting the poor maid that you send to clean our room..." Yamato said and the silver haired man looked confused.
"Nani*...? I haven't even talked to this maid today or even ordered any maid to clean the room... I'm not that cold hearted to send a maid to do our work..." he said to Yamato.
"Then why did she tell us that you had send her to clean the room? Well, to be honoust, I thought that was kind of odd for you to do such a thing..."
"It is odd for me to do such a thing... And I would never even do it." the silver haired man said and looked down to Sakura once more. Then he walked up to her and crouch opposite of her. "Saku-..."
SMACK!
"You sick perv! You awful excuse to a man!" Sakura yelled and the silver haired man rubbed (shocked) his hand against his stinging cheek. "I should just castrate you!"
Yamato looked shocked to Sakura who had slapped the man in front of her and he began to move away from Sakura and the man.
"Please don't..." the silver haired man groan in pain and he was still rubbing his stinging cheek and now aching jaw and then he glanced to Yamato. "...And don't you dare walk away..."
Yamato stopped and glanced down to the floor, annoyed.
"Why the hell did you tell Kiku-San to clean my room when you knew?" Sakura growled.
"I didn't tell her to clean your room!" the man growled back. "I haven't even met her today! So how could I possible even tell her to clean your room!"
Yamato watched the pair as the argueed like an old married couple and it was almost like watching a game of ping-pong. The arguees was flying from one mouth to another and no one was winning in the very end.
Finally Yamato had have enough.
"Will you two please stop it!" he almost yelled to them. "You are scaring that poor girl more then necessary!"
Sakura and the man looked to the still rocking Kiku and both looked a bit ashemed, but niether of them opened their mouth to say something, making Yamato frown and sigh heavly.
"I'm not going to discuss this while the maid is still here..." Yamato said and looked to Sakura who tried to cheer Kiku to raise from her spot on the floor.
She did it with unsteady feets and her legs shaked like jelly and she glanced up to Sakura with fear in her eyes.
"...Ta-Tara-Sama... I-I want just... to-to go home..." Kiku sobbed and Sakura patted her back.
"There, there, Kiku... I will ask them if you could take some days off..." Sakura said friendly to Kiku.
`Or the reast of this year...´
Sakura walked out of the room with Kiku and one hour later, Kiku was asked to resign herself from the post of being a maid of Iyagaru court and Sakura was really upset with that.
"That's not fair...!" Sakura growled when she had entered their room again and crashed down in the antique armchair and Yamato and the silver haired man looked to her.
"What is not fair...?" the silver haired man asked and glanced to her from his position on the tatami, looking out throught the shoji that was a bit open to relive the garden, before he closed it.
"That Kiku was forced to quite because of what she had seen...!" Sakura said and the both man raised their eyebrows.
"Did she tell Kusari what she had seen?" Yamato asked.
"No, well... I tried to convinsed Kiku that everything had just been a dream and Kusari came to me after he had talked with Kiku and asked me if it was true what Kiku had seen and I said no..."
"Good... I think that if you had say anything else, it maybe had cause problems for us..." the silver haired man said and stood up.
"I'm not stupid, you know..." Sakura growled to the man. "I feel so mean to poor Kiku... And can you answer me just one thing, Kakashi?"
"And what is that...?" the silver haired man asked.
"Why did Kiku say it was you who had asked her to clean the bed room?"
"How would I know...? I haven't even talked to her and-..." Kakashi paused and looked a bit shocked.
"What is it...?" Sakura asked.
"I think I got it..."
"Got what...?" both Sakura and Yamato asked him.
"Kusari... I saw him talking to someone just after breakfast... He must have hired some Nukenin* to do his dirty jobs..." Kakashi said and looked from Yamato to Sakura, both looked confused to him.
"Kakashi, you do understand that Kusari don't need to hire some Nukenin to do his dirty jobs... That man is capable to kill a tiny woman without consideration..." Yamato told him. "I have spend much time with that man to now a thing or two about him and as I said he is not the type that would hier a Nukenin to kill defenceless womens..."
"And what make you think that?" Kakashi asked.
"Because he told me that he once had been a warlord... He has killed before, so why not now?" Yamato looked from Kakashi to Sakura. "You should be careful Sakura..."
"I'm always careful..." she told him and earned a cough from Kakashi. "I'm!"
"Anyway, as I was about to say, even if Yamato don't believe my theory that Kusari have hired some Nukenin. Someone must have Hengen him- or herself to me!"
"Either you are right or you have become mental..." Yamato muttered and looked to his Senpai that looked to Sakura.
"That maid, Kiku... She has become very close to you, hasn't she Sakura?" Kakashi asked Sakura.
"Aaa, she has... And she has been with me most of the time when you haven't been around and we have become friends..." Sakura told him.
"Exactly! The only way to get closer to you was to get rid of that maid... And of couse, she is a young woman and she has never in her life seen a thing like that before... Of couse she would freak out and tell her master... And to not spread rumours, she was forced to leave, making it even more simple to target you, Sakura..." Kakashi finally said.
"Wow... You have really think this throught, haven't you?" Sakura said and glanced to Kakashi whit a sceptical expression on her face. "But still I think it is too vague to just accuse Kusari to be a killer, well he is just like Neikan and even Shinkou when it comes to that thing, but I can't really see him as a killer..."
"Shinkou was a killer, what makes Kusari not...?" Kakashi asked.
"I-I don't know... It's something with his eyes... Those was not the eyes of a killer..." Sakura told him and looked down the her feets. "He maybe have killed before, but I don't think he have done it to those womens... Maybe raped, but not killed..."
"What ever he has done or not done... I think we should keep you on a shorter leash now forward..." Yamato suddenly said, making Sakura frown to him. "It's for your own good... I still have to buy us time with him, so Kakashi has to be with you for the most part..."
Sakura was about to open her mouth to protest, but Yamato was quicker.
"Deal with it..."
~oOo~
Kakashi looked out to the now dark and rain drenched garden and he leaned his head to the wall and took a deep drag on the cigarett he had in his mouth and blow the smoke out through his nostrils.
He was annoyed with this situation they were in and he didn't feel like Yamato or even Sakura took her threats seriously. If she become hurt by someone, Kakashi wasn't the one who would say; "Didn't I tell you so". If both of them was being too careless, it wasn't up to him to 'save the day' or at least he hopped they in the end would listen to him. Or had he just been paranoid?
Maybe the threat hadn't been towards Sakura. Maybe it had been towards Hinoki and the 'Killer' had walked in to the wrong room, this place was after all quite big. But Kakashi find it not very likely.
Kakashi looked down to the wooden deck he was sitting on just right outside of their room and watched how the ash fell from his cigarett and landed on the deck, making a hissing noice as it met the wet wood.
And Sakura had still not yet told them what she and Kusari was up to and that was only making things more complicated to watch over her. And Kakashi knew very well that Sakura wasn't someone that would accept help that easy, if she didn't ask for it herself and that was the only reason to way Yamato had told him to watch over Sakura. To find out what she was up to and of couse Sakura didn't knew about that.
The Shoji slide open more and someone walked out the deck, making the wood creak under the person walking out to sit beside Kakashi.
"Are she sleeping...?"
"Aaa... And since when did you began to smoke...?" the person asked Kakashi who glanced to a brown haired man beside him.
"Today... Because I can't drink..." Kakashi told the man who frown.
"I don't think Sakura would like to see you smoke as much as she like you to drink..."
"She don't rule my life... If I want to smoke, I smoke. If I want to drink, I drink..." Kakashi mumbled and stub out the cigarett on the wet wood, making it hiss angry and leaving a black mark on the wood. He tossed the butt carelessly out to the garden and the man beside him sighed.
"Why do you even believe that Kusari is the killer, Kakashi...?"
"Don't you find him strange, Yamato...?"
"Well not stranger then everyone else I have met throught my days as ANBU..." Yamato mumbled and Kakashi looked to him. "I think you are over reacting... If he had wanted to kill Sakura, he could have done it yeasterday... But I don't really understand why the poor maid was to get involve in this...? It makes no sense..."
"I agree with you..." Kakashi said.
"You were the one who came up with that stupid idea that the maid was just a pice of this 'game'..." Yamato said.
"I know... But I was just brainstorming... I could be wrong, but it still don't explian why someone hengen in to me to tell Sakura's maid to clean the bed room... I can't stop thinking that who ever did it wanted the maid gone..."
"Even if you believe it, that still doesn't expalin why the 'killer' wanted her gone..." Yamato said and looked to Kakashi.
"Didn't I tell you and Sakura that before... The maid was almost with Sakura everyday, the 'killer' couldn't risk to have the maid close to Sakura if he wanted to kill her..." Kakashi muttered.
"The 'killer' could just have make it easy for him- or herself... He could have just killed the maid, before going after Sakura..."
"But don't you think that Sakura would ask after that maid...? And then some people would look after the maid and if they found her dead, it would maybe be harder to take Sakura... It would explian if the 'killer' did tell the maid, in my form, to clean the room we yet hadn't clean out... The maid wouldn't handle to see such a thing..." Kakashi told Yamato who nodded.
"That is just one problem... How could the killer know that we hadn't clean out the room yet...? Any normal person wouldn't have stayed, even if you slept in the room beside..." Yamato said. "Maybe we have been seen throught...?"
Kakashi looked away from Yamato and looked to the wet grass and sighed.
"Maybe we have been..."
~oOo~
Sakura woke up early in the morning as she usually did and glanced first to the brown haired man beside her and then to the silver haired to her left, who still was having his arm around her waist as he had have those two nights they had slept on this futon.
She was still a bit annoyed about the way he held her against him and how he always ended up with his arm around her. Not even Yamato did it (well he was apparently not very found of laying near womans, that could explain it), but still he didn't try anyting.
Sakura looked away from the silver haired man that was snoring down on his pillow and she sighed deeply. She glanced to the chest of drawer that stood opposite of them and she saw something that hadn't stood there before.
She pulled the silver haired mans arm away from her and he let out a displeased groan, but was still sleeping and then she raised up from the futon, her joints in her back cracked a bit and she hissed in pain, while walking towards the chest of drawer and it was then she saw it.
She raised a eyebrow in surprise and looked down to the thing on the chest of drawer. It was a Wara Ningyo*. The most creepiest Wara Ningyo she ever had seen and it had a needel stuck in to it's 'chest' and a little piece of paper attach to it.
She knew what a Wara Ningyo was used for and she didn't like how it had appeared in to this room, while they had been sleeping and she didn't knew if she even dared to read the little piece of paper stuck on it.
She reach out a shaky hand and grabbed the little Wara Ningyo and she began to read the piece of paper. Her heart froze and she dropped the Wara Ningyo to the floor and she began to breath heavly and faster, almost in a panting sort of way.
It was those breathings that had woke up the silver haired man, who almost jumped out of the bed and dragged Sakura closer to him and she could feel how he froze on the spot.
He had noticed the Wara Ningyo on the floor.
And he pressed Sakura closer to him and she could hear the fast beathing of his heart and she felt somehow safe in his kind of embrace.
"Are you okay...?" he asked her with his deeply manly voice and she could hear the concern in it.
"...Hai..." she mumbled in to his chest.
"Good... Should I burn it...?" he asked and looked down to the thing on the floor with a bit of contempt in his face.
"Please do..." she mumbled and closed her eyes.
She could still see the words written on the little piece of paper.
'For each day I will bring you a new one... For each day you will lose something importent... For each day you will die inside... For each day I will count down to the days you have left... I will began with your lover...'
~oOo~
Sakura walked out of the manor and walked down the muddy road to the stables. It was dark and the bitter winter winds was tugging on her kimono as she walked down the road. The heavy rain that had falled the previously night was on some places laying as a thin layer of ice that cracked as she walked on it and the moon light left its reflektion on the ice.
The stables was warm, much warmer then she thought it would be in this time of the year and the horses was chewing on some hay or nickering to each other and Sakura find herself sitting on a hay bale with her chin in her palms.
She sighed deeply.
"...Wonder were Kusari is...? I know I was late, but he is even later..." Sakura mumbled to herself and looked down to her feets. "Maybe Kusari just got tired of waiting and walked away... And whose fault is that if he did..."
Sakura looked annoyed up to the ceiling and almost slamed her head in to the stall behind her.
"NO WAY!"
"But Sakura, you have to tell us..." Yamato said and looked down to a Sakura, who was pouting like a spoiled child.
"I don't have to tell you anyting! What I do with Kusari is my buisness...!" she told Yamato who frown.
"No it's not! I'm Taichou of this mission! I can't send you out, when some creepy person gave you a Wara Ningyo...!" Yamato told her. "Tell me so at least we can protect you!"
"I can protect myself, thank you!" Sakura growled.
"Right now you can't! Sakura-...!"
"Yamato... Just let her do as she wish..." Kakashi suddenly said out of no were and grabbed the brown haired Yamato's shoulder. "If she believe that she can handle it, then just let her go..."
"Sen-Senpai? What have flew in to you all of sudden...?" Yamato asked and looked surprised to the silver haired man beside him.
"Nothing... I just believe in her, that's all..." Kakashi said and looked to Sakura with a crinkled eye. "Or shouldn't I believe in my own student?"
Sakura looked to Kakashi.
The way he had said student, had began to annoye her. She wasn't his student, well she had been, but that had been a long time ago.
"I'm not your student anymore!" she barked.
"You will always be my student, Sakura..." Kakashi told her, still with a crinkled eye. "That will never change..."
Sakura looked to Kakashi and gave away a low growl.
"No wonder I still hate you..." she muttered and saw something flashing past his rather calm face.
It could have been a flash of hurt, but it was still hard to tell, because he gave her soon afterwards a impassive expression.
"You should go now, Sakura... or you will be late..." Kakashi told her and then he was gone with a 'poof' and Yamato cursed him for being himself.
"I will take my leave... Don't dare try to follow me..." and with that said to Yamato, she walked out of the room.
Sakura sighed once more and she felt somehow happy that Kakashi had finally bagan to believe in her own power. But something bothered her deeply.
It was the fact that Yamato had mention the Wara Ningyo and it was then she came to think of the note.
'... I will began with your lover...'
Sakura frown and wrinkled her nose.
"...My lover...?" she mused and began to pull the seam in the sleeves of her kimono absentmindedly.
`Who is my lover? I had one, but it was only once... Well twich...´
The tread in the fabric got lose and the hem began to show on her expensive kimono.
`Kakashi... He was the only one, but I don't belive they could be after him... or could they...? And if they were, how the hell could they know that he once had been my lover...?´
A soft nuzzle on top of her head brought her back to reality and she looked up to be faced with the soft muzzle from a grey horse. Sakura gave away a shriek of surprise and even fear.
She had never liked horses. They were big and scary and who knows what was running throught their minds?
Sakura had seen much while she worked at the hospital. Head injures, broken bones, crushed tail bones and even nasty bite wounds. And most of those injures was from none Shinobi's working with horses in some kind of way.
And yet she couldn't understand why those who had been wounded could be so calm and blame themself for gotting these wounds. Wounds caused by a horse.
She flew up from her position on the hay bale and began to walk away from the horse, that was actually looking at her while she walked away.
"Strange creature..." she muttered while walking away.
When Sakura came closer to the middle of the stable, she looked around but she didn't see anything or Kusari by the way. But suddenly she could smell a sweet smell and she began to follow it curiously.
She couldn't really put the finger on where she could have smelled that smell before, but she was certain that she had smelled it somewhere before.
For once she was thankful to have evelope a keener smell due to her pregnancy, but yet it was far from Kiba or even Kakashi's and even if it was like that, it didn't stop her from follow the faint sweet smell from somewhere in this stable.
The smell got stronger and stronger the closer she got to the end of the stable and then she found herself standing in front of the place the hay was placed on after its journey down from the hayloft.
She frowned and looked down to the stack of hay that was laying on the cold cobblestone floor. The source of the smell came from the hay and Sakura began to feel sorry for the horses, that was given (obviously) decayed hay.
But something didn't feel right about the smell, from the stack of hay. It didn't look decayed and Sakura wasn't even sure if decayed hay smelled like this smell she could smell. And the cold moon light from the stable window made something under the hay to glimmer and it was then Sakura's incurable curiosity to take over her mind and she bent forward to push away some hay to get a better view at that glimmering thing.
Her hearth froze in her throat and she looked down with shock in her eyes to something that was far from glimmering.
It was a hand.
Author note:
Everyone is more certain that Sakura is the one that is being target, by an unknown person or as Kakashi suspect Kusari himself. But protecting Sakura is proven to be more complicated then both Kakashi and Yamato have thought and it doesn't make it easier when Sakura is being stubborn about that she can take care of herself. And what will Sakura do know when she is stuck with a hand in the haystack?
It may contain some spelling errors...
And some notes;
When I writes the text 'like this' it means that the person in question is thinking. When I writes like this the person emphasis just that word and when I writes like this that means flashbacks.
Mini Japanese dictionary and little more;
Ame* = Amegakure (Hidden Rain Village)
Erojiji* = Dirty old man or pervert
Katon* = Fire Release
Nani* =What
Nukenin* = Missing-nin
Shouchuu* = Japanese liquor similar to vodka
Tatami* = Tatami mat (Japanese straw floor coverings)
Wara Ningyo* = Japanese voodoo doll made of straw
Wakatta* = I understand or All right.
Sorry everyone that this chapter have taken sooooo long! I have been very busy with my job and now when my vacation have started I still ended up with no spare time to write (due to my I-can't-sit-still-for-one-minute boyfriend, who forced me to drive to every single place on the west coast he could think of! Sorry, I just felt I had to get it out... D)
Do feel free to ask me if something is bothering you.
Thank you all for your reviews! It always make my day much better after I have read it! I also want to thank everyone els who read this and fav it! Thank you so much! ^-^
Take care!
Next Chapter: Lightning Crashes