Part 4 in the Obelisk Series:
Kingdom of Man, Kingdom of Beasts, Kingdom of Monsters, and Kigdom of Gods.
OBELISK:
KINGDOM OF GODS
"Before our forests heard the talk of men;
Before the first of Druids was a child;–
Long didst thou sit amid our regions wild
Rapt in a deep prophetic solitude"
John Keats: Endymion Book IV
When Sakura woke up the bedsheets around her were soaked with blood and people were screaming. She hadn't had a chance to heal herself in the dream world and everything carried over.
Nurses were coming to her and bending over her. Someone cut her shirt away with scissors and Sakura felt the fabric fall apart above her.
Through their hands Jugo stood in the corner, watching with a look of frozen horror on his face. Absently, she noticed the blood on his hands and wondered if that meant he was there when she first started bleeding and he had tried to stop it.
Someone slipped a breathing mask over her mouth and Sakura grumbled inwardly about the fuss they were making. This was nothing. This wouldn't kill her, not when Sai was in the hands of a dream killer.
Again.
She was sleeping but she wasn't.
When she slept she was back in the dream world, but not this time. She had been knocked out as they stitched her up, but her mind didn't go back to the dream, instead it hovered over her body in a formless void.
Sakura saw Jugo sitting at her bedside, looking sick with worry as he held onto her hand with both of his, watching her face. Even she could tell she was pale.
"Oh," a voice from the doorway. "You're still in here."
Jugo glances over his shoulder without moving his head to see Yamato standing in the doorway with a book tucked under one arm and a bag slung over his shoulder. "What did you bring?"
Yamato shuts the door behind him and makes his way over to an empty seat on the opposite side of Sakura's bed. He pulls out a candle, a blanket, and a docking station for a iphone. Without waiting for comment or consent, Yamato begins to arrange his items on the bedside table. Jugo is scowling but that doesn't slow Yamato down or stop him in the least. The music is a soft, far off Rachmaninoff, the candle is winter pine, and the blanket is put under her free hand.
"Are you planning on staying?" Yamato asks, casually. He tips open the book in the palm of his hand and lets it fall open to a random page. It's a book of poems.
"You don't have to be here," Jugo huffs, looking back over at Sakura, searching for some sign of wakefulness. She's as still as ever. "I'm not leaving."
"That's fine," Yamato hums, glancing down at his book before his eyes shift over to Sakura. When his gaze eventually travels down her arm to her hand to Jugo's his eyes snap up sharply to lock onto the younger boy's face. "I don't mind the extra company."
"This home and property belong to the chroniclers. You are the guest." Sakura is only partly aware that this is the first time she's seen her friend so outwardly frosty with someone.
"That may be so, but you forget which family I'm a part of. Danzo may be a man with his own agenda and his own ideas, but there is nothing more lofty than his duty to the dreamer and her protection. He won't let her die on this end, and I am a ward of Root, thus I am dedicated to this cause."
Danzo is a many with many faces and many words, all turned in opposite directions facing opposite fronts, telling opposite truths. Yamato knows this as well as anyone, but he also knows of the manic obsession that is greater than the old man's lies. More than his deception, Danzo's obsession with the dreamer and the idea of being a part of the birth of a new god knows no equal. Danzo was a snake, but he wouldn't let Sakura come to harm and he was doing his best to protect her.
In the apple orchard he had been explicit in his desire to have her shadowed, and good that he did. There were other nin, ones Genma couldn't identify, hiding between the trees.
Maybe they were from the old families, the ones overthrown during the divide? Maybe there were the men of the other elders? There was no way to know for sure, but it didn't matter to Danzo who they were. All the world was his enemy, there was no difference.
"Sakura is safe now," Yamato says, coming out of his musings with confidence in his statement.
Jugo's eyes flash. "You weren't there when it happened."
Yamato scoffs. "No one was there when it happened, you were just the first to rush in and see. This isn't the first time her injuries have carried over into the waking world, and I'm willing to bet she's seen worse."
"You think that's something to joke about?" Jugo nearly snarls, lifting his head and hunching his shoulders like he's about to propel himself over the bed. Sitting up he's tall, taller than anyone ever remembered him being. "What the hell do you know? She was-she was bleeding and a mess and her eyes were open and she was staring at the ceiling and I-she wouldn't stop bleeding."
Yamato's expression softens and his eyes fall off Jugo to land on Sakura. "She's fine, it looked worse than what it was."
Jugo's shoulders shake. "No, it's not."
"Jugo-"
"Shut the hell up! She-she was open and leaking and I couldn't stop any of it. I tried to put her back together, to pull at the pieces of her, but it was so wet and her eyes were open and I thought she was already gone." Jugo's eyes are wet and his throat sounds stuck when he turns his face away to watch Sakura again.
"That was the shock from waking up in a new world with old injuries." Yamato could only imagine what that must feel like. "She still had a pulse and a heartbeat."
Jugo curses. "I know that now."
"You probably went through some shock on your own. That must have been hard to see. You're not used to your friend looking like that. I don't think I've ever seen sakura so pale."
Jugo's shoulders don't shake anymore, but the tremors are only suppressed, not dismissed. "Don't talk about her like you know her so well."
Yamto's frown tugs deeper. "I'd like to think I know her a little bit better than most here, maybe not more than yourself, but I was close with Sakura before I even knew-"
"You walked away from her same as me, asshole," Jugo snapped. His words are full of bitterness. "When she wouldn't look at you, when she wouldn't face you with the same feelings, when she made you feel like so much more than you thought you were, only to leave you at the edge of a canyon of emotions with no way across…that was when you walked away. You did it when you realized what you felt and what she didn't feel were the same thing and that wasn't going to change."
Yamato can't find the words. Behind him the piano stills in the speakers as another track clicks on. Jugo is cutting with his assessment of things and it's painful to hear because he's right.
Yamato had walked away, or tried to, for those very reasons. He had seen it, the future he wanted with Sakura and the way they would grow towards one another, only to have that dream die in ripe soil. He tried to inspire that dream elsewhere with someone else, and then a few more, each one a more embarrassing failure than the last. He had seen it back than and not known it. Sakura looked like she was part of another world because she was. She was the dreamer.
"You sound awfully high and mighty for a man with just as many flaws." Yamato's voice is a whisper.
"I know what I did and I admit it freely, but that was then and this is now. I'm not leaving her now."
"You think it's that easy?" Yamato mockingly laughs. He closes his book of poem and reaches back into the bag to pull out a dreamer's account bound in leather. "You should know better, chronicler. Nearly all dreamers take lovers or find some stronger attachment in the dream world. She's already found someone I bet. Genma guessed it last winter when she seemed so much healthier and happier. She was never like that with either of us."
"I read her account of Sasori," Jugo sniffs. "I don't care. That doesn't change anything. He's dead and not even around in this latest dream world. I'm not afraid of some memory."
"Yet if you look at what happened to Itachi, Kakashi, or even Zabuza…they never had lovers in the real world. Lots of them forgot how to live like regular people in the real world. Rarely did a dreamer marry. I'm not sure Madara even knew the name of his wife for all he saw of her."
Jugo pulls Sakura's limp hand closer to his face and turns it so the knuckles are facing outwards. He kisses two at once, loving and reverent. "I don't care and why should I? It's not going to fix how I feel."
Yamto is quiet for a while. Eventually he sets the journal down and opens his book of poems again. He sighs. "No, it never fixes anything, does it?"
When Sakura awakens in the dream world it's been nearly a week of astral body hovering as she recovers in the real world. She woke up with Jugo still there and Genma at the foot of her bed. Yamato was asleep in a chair in the corner of the room. She didn't remember what she said, but it was funny because it made them all laugh.
She was waited on hand and foot as a male nurse came to see to her recovery while she waited to reenter the dream world. Something set her off and made the dreaming something she couldn't access. She saw fields of poppy and nothing else. Just a sea of floral red as far as the eye could see. She was a train run off the tracks, wheels still spinning madly in midair.
A week later she opens her eyes and sees glass.
Sakura blinked and inhaled before shifting. Looking down at her body she saw she was partially frozen in hazy sea foam green quartz so thin it looked like glass at parts. Her wounds were covered over in the stone and she could feel how the material stabilized her, thrumming with healing chakra.
"That's why it's green," she muttered out loud.
Looking up the quarts grew into a vented dome above her, allowing her access to air but also protecting her from attack. She reached out to touch the stone and it quivered,melting under her finger tips. As the stone fell away Sakura raised her glowing hands to the healing parts of her body to finish the process. There had been so much pain and stiffness in the waking world, but it was easy to smash her teeth together and bear it when she knew she could end it as soon as she dreamed.
She healed herself as the green quarts melted around her. By the time she was finished she stood in the center of a liquid pool of shimmering green, alone in the great hall where all the chaos had taken place. The melted quarts was trickling away, sparkling like starlight as it followed the grooves in the floor. She can rotate her shoulder again, and her back doesn't feel like it's split open anymore.
"Sakura?"
She turned and saw Kankuro, of all people, standing at the edge of the pool, chest heaving as if he had just finished running in. His eyes were wide and he was missing the hood but not the purple markings across his face. His features were a bit wider and more pronounced than those of his brother.
'Kankuro had been the second of his siblings to enter the dream. His sister survived a year and a month. He survived eight months. Before Gaara was nominated to take his place, the elders took precautions.'
"How long?" Sakura asks, knowing Kankuro will know what she wants.
"Th-three days only. You went into that stone after taking the attack for us. Temari and I would have died if you-" He swallows and it is loud enough for her to hear across the hall. "Why did you do it? You're a god."
"I am no such thing." Sakura waves a hand and her ruined armor melts away to a loose cotton dress that's meant for servants. It's more a rag than a dress, but it's loose and easy to move in. She doesn't have need for anything gold or fine. Her feet are bare as she stalks across the green covered floor. "I'm only pissed I lost my friend once again. Where is Gaara?" her heart stutters. "Was he hurt as well?"
Kankuro shakes his head. "He's by the pools. He'll want to see you."
Sakura nods, stalking off after the skittish boy who seems meeker than ever. There is a single bandage around his left hand, but nothing else about him looks damaged.
"Is Temari well?" Sakura asks as they turn a corridor.
He seems startled by the sound of her voice but looks back and nods before swallowing. "She was uninjured, but has had to take up the responsibility of governance in Gaara's absence. He's been…"
"You said he wasn't hurt though!"
"Not hurt, but Gaara's mood has been…well, I've never seen it this bad. He's angry, but it's more than that. He was tricked and outclassed and you were hurt. He didn't say it but I think he blamed himself for that in particular, because you defended his family."
Sakura snorted. "Please, this is nothing compared to what I've dealt with in the past, and I'm so detached from the pains of my physical body I don't even care when it's like this." Her eyes darken. "But I'm pissed as well. I let my friend down, I was not weary when I should have been."
Sakura shuts her mouth and keeps it closed, but her mind rolls on, blaming herself for failing to act in the first place. Because she waited so long, because she enjoyed herself for those nights, because she didn't move… Baki triggered those events to inspire her to action. She let the narrative go stale. It was her fault all this happened. It was her fault Sai was taken.
The turn one last corner and Sakura sees the sunshine bleed over the pale tan floor from outside. She steps out between the columns as Kakuro remains where he stands. He bows to her, eyes soft and downcast as he watches her leave.
Sakura crosses the walkway between the pools, following it all the way to the end where the Pharaoh sits in a mess of sparkling sand shifting up and down around him in agitated frequencies. His crown is gone and his hair is a wild mess of red.
There's sand all over the platform and before she can get far it shifts away from her and Gaara turns sharply, eyes narrowed in harsh anger only to melt when he sees who it is. His sand falls limp around him as he scrambles to his hands and pushes himself up off the floor, racing for her.
Sakura doesn't know what to expect, but she opens her arms anyway and is glad for it when Gaara fits into them neatly, like he belonged there all along. His shoulders shake and she pulls him closer, hand buried deep in his hair to sooth small circles through the mess of copper curls. Her shoulder where his face is buried is wet but she doesn't mind.
"Were you worried?" she hums, melting into amusement even though in the back of her heart she's worried for Sai.
"I couldn't reach you, you were hurt and I-I was there but I couldn't reach you. It's my fault."
Sakura pulls away and bops his nose. "Shush, it's not anyone's fault but that brat prince's. You didn't do anything wrong and I'm fine and whole. See?"
He looks over her. "Your wounds? I saw blood."
"I took care of it, I know how to heal myself, remember?"
Gaara blinks and she thinks maybe she forgot how to think in his grief. She pulls back further and uses both her thumbs to wipe away the tear trails on his face. He leans into her hands like a cat, breathing even under her touches. She kisses the corner of his head, unable to help but dote on the fearful and powerful 'demon dreamer.'
She read about what they did to him, but they marked his body and invited spirits into him to make him stronger. It worked, they though, only for Gaara to snap every so often and kill his caretakers in the waking world. The practice was banned after on particular bloodbath.
Holding the boy in her arms and looking down at him Sakura can't see what the texts claimed him to be. He's soft and hurt and crying for her. She found him alone, cut off from the others and stewing in his worries. Has he ever been held and cared for like this? Has anyone ever told him he was loved? Has anyone ever validated his existence outside of being the dreamer?
"Are you okay?" she asks in a whisper, face close and eyes searching his.
"I-I'm fine. I know what I am and what I am to this world. You don't have to worry about me. It's harder to kill me than you can believe."
"That's not what I'm worried about. You're shaking like a leaf. When was the last time you had something to eat or drink? I'm sorry I scared you. I was a mess, wasn't I?"
"You risked yourself for dead things." Gaara's eyes drift down and his tone deflates. "You're still alive but you nearly threw that away to protect a pair of siblings that haven't breathed in ages. I can not call you wise for this."
Sakura wrinkles her nose and doesn't stop her hand for going back to his hair. He shudders at the touch but leans into it when she starts to work circles into his scalp. "They're people you love. Even if they're dead, they're all you have here in the dream world. You're dead too, you know. I'd do the same to save you."
Gaara makes a sound like a mewl and glares up at her, eyes soft. "Foolish woman. My mother was foolish, they killed her for it."
Sakura's hand stills in his hair for a moment before resuming. "I know what they did to her. I know what efforts they took to ensure she birthed a worthy dreamer. I'm sorry, Gaara, but I'm not going to apologize for wanting to keep my friends safe. That's why I need to go after Sai again."
"He will come to you on his own, like he did the last time. He is not someone you need to worry about," Gaara mutters.
"That was before I knew he was with the dream killer. Sasuke was possessed when he took Sai because he knew-or the dream killer knew- I would follow him to save Sai. He's been with me through so much and I refuse to abandon him after all this."
Gaara's eyes are a fraction wider for her. "You do love him, don't you?"
"Sai? Yeah, he's someone I've shared so much with. He's my precious friend. Of course I love him."
Gaara's hand is close to the side of her dress, so he clutches it, wrinkling it between his fingers. Gaara swallowed, looking down at where he holds her dress. "The Sigh of Dejection said something that sounded the same, but do you…do you see him as a lover?"
Sakura thought of Sasori and her heart hurt. "No, I know what that feels like, but Sai's something different, nothing less, but different."
Sakura doesn't ask Gaara why it's so important she clarifies this for him. She has a suspicion, but wants to ignore it for the sake of her mission. No one's cared for him like this before, of course Gaara would start to feel differently towards her. It wasn't so far fetched to believe he could.
"You're going to go after Sasuke and Sai?" Gaara asks, searching her face, hand still gripping her dress. She's his lifeline.
"Yeah, it's dangerous if the dreamer doesn't move. Don't you know that?" she asks with a sad sort of laugh that makes her body feel so much heavier.
Gaara glares when he feels her tremble through the fabric still in his fist. He tugs her a little closer. "I'm coming with you."
"What? Wait, what about your job here, what about being Pharaoh?"
"That doesn't matter, Temari can do it, or I'll leave a sand clone to slunk on the throne while she does all the real work. I'm coming with you. Do you even know where they might have gone?"
"Af-after the last wild god." Sakura feels unsteady. "Sai said it was in the Valley of the End of Kings."
"And where is that?" Gaara sounds older as he stares her down.
"I'll find it eventually." She swallows. "It can't be that hard to find."
"The Valley of the End of Kings is where the greatest and only the greatest of the first Pharaohs were buried way back in our history. It is a place hidden from all others. Not even I am allowed to know where this place is."
"…But….you do know where it is," Sakura breaths, watching as Gaara's lips begin to curl at the edges.
"Of course, who do you take me for? I have my ways of finding what I want." He looks down at his hand that holds onto her dress. He tugs her even closer to bow his head into her shoulder. "I am going with you. You are not allowed to go where I can not follow."
"That sounds an awful lot like a royal decree," Sakura hums.
"I doubt that would make you listen to me any more."
"No, if anything I think I'd resent you trying to control me."
"I don't want to control you, I just don't want you to leave me again. I couldn't reach you behind all that glass, even though I knew you were hurt."
In the real world she had slept for nearly a week, but in the dream only three days had passed. It was an odd way to think of time, but she didn't dwell on it. Maybe things would get wonky, maybe they wouldn't. That didn't change the fact that she had a job to do.
Her knees buckled and she felt the dream world quiver around her. "I'm almost out of time," she whispered, eyes wide. "But I feel like I just got here."
"Your sleep may be disrupted for something on the other side," Gaara explains, frowning up at her before pulling his head back. "You've healed yourself. They'll notice. Go. When you return I will be ready to depart."
Sakura opened her mouth to say something but she slipped off the edge of the dream and fell into darkness once again, snapped and suddenly displaced once more.
When she woke up Jugo was gone as well as Genma and Yamato, but at the end of her bed sat Danzo, looking nonchalant as he peered down at the floor, hands rested on top of the cane between his legs.
"You've healed yourself."
Sakura licks her lips and then pulls back the cover to look at her body, still in scrubs. Her shoulder is still bandaged but she can feel the smoothness of the skin when she rotates it. The stitches and scars are gone. She is whole once more.
"You don't sound so surprised." Sakura swallowed and sat up in bed. "Are you here for a reason?"
Danzo hummed and poked something with his cane. Sakura leaned over to see the edge of a head, short hair messy and caked with gleaming blood. It was enough to chill her to the core.
"What?"
"You would have been easy enough to smother in your sleep, now more than ever. This was from Genma, thank him later. He hasn't had to kill a person in years, not since coming back from the tours of active duty." When Sakura didn't say anything Danzo looked up. "In comparison Yamato is more classically trained."
"You're here though," Sakura breathed, trying her hardest not to look down, not to see the body at the end of her bed.
The real body.
The real person.
The real blood.
Real, real, real, real, real, real, real, real, real-
"You're harder to kill than they anticipated. Healing has been a factor that's saved your hide more than once. They expect it to save you again in the future." Danzo turns to her. "It's not quite safe for you here, not with all the other elders here."
She pushed down the rising bile that threatened to come undone all over the bedsheets. She would not be so shocked in front of this man, not after what she has already done. Real or not, Sakura suspected it felt the same when she thrust a knife into the meat of a person. She was no better than him.
"I'm not so sure it's safe anywhere with you," Sakura admits before she knows what she is saying.
Danzo almost smiles at her. "You are right to recognize that. I am never safe, and I am not tame. I have killed and will likely take life again in this very real world. I am not a safe person but that is not a reason you have to fear me. I will not let you come to harm.
"I don't think I trust you."
"Good. Trust should not be so cheaply earned."
He makes the effort to stand and Sakura can see the years weigh his body down. He is old and almost frail for it, but there are too many years of hard work and sacrifice carved into his body for it to ever be considered frail. Sakura feels fear, but it's a far off fear. She almost believes him when he says she has no reason to fear him. She believes he doesn't want her dead, her gut tells her that, but sometimes there are things just as bad as death.
"Where are the others? Where is Jugo?"
"Your chronicler is well, though Yamato had to make an effort to remove the boy from the room earlier. He refused to be parted from you and we used force." Danzo nods at the body on the floor. "Not quite the same amount of force, of course. I don't want Log angry with me for hurting the only family he has in this whole mess of an alliance. He might turn against you if anything happened to Jugo."
"That's normal for family."
It is the early morning hours, the hours before sunrise and the world is still dark. Sakura's room is dim for it, with only silver outlines showing any shape. It is in this dark room with a dark voice that Danzo cuts her down.
"And yet your mother has made no move to contact you in all the time you have been suffering. True, she is cut off now, but she's been made aware of your condition. Hmph, family. Where is she now?"
"You should know better," Sakura growls.
"This world is coming to ruin. Your grandmother failed to pass on her legacy and one of the four houses is all but dead to the alliance. Log too, if not for Jugo his house would have no future. The time is ripe for a new generation, don't you think?" he asks, voice even and calm like the voice of a man discussing the weather or stock prices.
"What do you want?" Sakura hisses.
Outside the sun breaks and silver burns away to faded gold. His voice is filled with a frightening truth. "…I want you to live. I want you to succeed, and I want to be there to see it when it happens."
Sakura can see it, bleeding blazing glory, her dream world crumbling around her while she emerges a woman in white fire, hallowed and holy and blazing above the floor in front of a man who has worshiped nothing save this ideal for as long as he could whisper a prayer. She could see it, she could see the truth of what he wanted and it hurts her in a way she didn't expect.
'I am no such creature,' she wants to scream, but she can not.
He taps the body on the floor once more and then steps over it. "I will send in someone to clean up the mess, for now you should rest and doze while you can." When he looks at her his voice drops a pitch and sounds almost hallowed. "You will be the dreamer that swallows the sun."
For whatever reason, she came into her awareness along the banks of the Nile river. Sakura awoke and rose from where she lay on the sand banks just beyond the reed patch in the water. It was sunny and warm and she felt like laying out a little longer. The palace was behind her, she could run back there in no time.
Sakura stood from the sands and walked forward until the water lapped at her bare ankles. Her dress was a frayed mess that ended around her thighs, allowing her to take another deep step into the river without getting anything wet. With a shawl over her head it was almost cool outside between the sun and the sands: something she didn't think possible.
Sakura didn't want to leave from such a nice spot. Even when she took another step, pushing the waters away with her knees, the feeling was one of tranquility, anchoring her to the moment. The world around her was a mess of chaos and distrust and terror. A moment of peace was as rare as it was sweet.
And like all good things, it didn't last.
There was a thrashing in the not so nearby reeds, drawing her attention to the outline of a small river boat. A pair of disgruntled Nile hippos stood in the way, water up to their ears as they huff in agitation. A second boat bobbed not far behind he first one, already capsized. There was cursing and Sakura heard the angry call of the animal as it rose up and trampled the body of whoever was coming up from the waters.
The reeds were where the Hippos cared for their young, they were attacking what they believed to be a threat to their family.
A part of Sakura felt as heavy as the dead body at the bottom of the Nile, finding a startling lack of desire to help. Something bad was happening in front of her and she felt like napping. What was the body of a dream figure? She slept in a bed above the corpse of a real life human man with a family and a bank account and a blood type and a personalized set of pet peeves. What was anything in the dream compared to that.
Sakura moved just as the other boat turned over. She took to the water like a glass surface and hopped over the hippos to land in front of one and kick it's snout. Mentally apologizing to the ream animal, she sunk her heel into the water and kicked, sending her, the boat, and the last capsized body surging backwards towards the opposite bank away from the hippo family.
The ruined boat hit sand and Sakura lost her footing, tumbling backwards over the bank loosing her grip. Grumbling, she righted herself, knees still in the sun bleached grains and digging. She pulled her hood further forward even though her hair was a mess underneath it. She tucked it back with her fingers till it couldn't be seen while crawling upright on her knees towards the groaning body. She was glad he sounded alive, she wasn't looking forward to having to give him any form of CPR.
From not to far away she spotted another body in the water treading towards the shore. Another survivor? Someone lucky enough to get away? She hadn't seen him before, he must have been under when she walked across the water for the other guy.
"Hey!" Sakura reached for the body as it crawled up and hack up river water. Sakura waited till the man sat back and wiped his face with his shirt sleeve, still looking away from her, obscuring his face. His hair was bound under a turban. "You're still alive, right?" she asked.
"Only thanks to you, it seems," the voice drolly enunciated, still coughing up the last bit of sweet water.
Sakura froze, feeling struck by the actual sound of the man's voice. Her hands began to shake. Swallowing became difficult as behind her the other boy reached the shore and began to crawl out, calling out to his friend.
He turned to face her and smirked at the look on her face. "I suppose I should say thank you. I didn't think this way would be so dangerous." The cloth around his head falls apart and his hair underneath is wet and sticking to his face. "I know how to be gracious when I need to be. Who am I thanking, girl?"
Sakura stared at the beautiful boy who was now a man in front of her. She swallowed and felt her eyes sting as she pulled away. Sasori frowned, pulling away the last of his turban and wringing the water from it. From behind her, Deidara stumbled up the beach, calling out the other man's name.
"Sasori?" she breathed. She could have been echoing what she heard Deidara shout, but she knew too much and too fiercely for her word to be mistaken as an echo. This only made the redhead frown.
"You're called Sasori?" he teased, eyeing her up and down. "Funny, I thought that was what they called me."
"You're Sasori of the red sand in this world," Sakura breathed, leaning away from him as her mind reeled. "I didn't know you would be here this time as well."
"I'm sorry, but have we met?" Sasori huffed, reaching forward to grab her chin and lift her face up. Her hod fell back, but not far enough to show off the rest of her, only to dispel enough of the shadows on her face. His eyes went wide. "No, I don't think I would forget you."
Sakura blinked, remembering herself. She pushed his hand away and backed up in the sand, glancing from him to Deidara who was content to take the backseat and leave all the talking to others while he checked his pockets.
"Wh-what were you doing on the Nile behind the palace? If a guard had seen you-"
"We were invited," Deidara cut in, holding up a clay tablet with a seal scarab on it. "But I guess Sasori is the only one that kid Pharaoh wants. We're official though, we got passes and everything."
Sasori's eyes flashed to Sakura, taking in her rags. "What about you?" His head tilted to the side and Sakura felt her heart stutter. "What are you doing so close to the palace looking as you do?"
Sakura reached into her dress and imagianed the same table Deidara had pulled out being just beyond her fingers. When she removed her hand she heard the blond's scoff. "I was also invited. I won't say why, but I can imagine my reason is not so dissimilar from your's." It felt good, better than she could believe, to talk with Sasori like this again. He wasn't an emotionless doll, or a phantom, or a far off figure she had to run away from. He was in front of her and he was someone she would have to work with in this dream. He was close and he wasn't going anywhere she couldn't follow.
Deidara snorted, looking her over in a dismissive way, even if his cheeks did flush when his eyes landed on her face. "You don't look like someone who knows anything about anything."
"Not even about the Valley of the End of Kings?" Sakura cooed, smirking at Deidara's reaction.
Sasori whistled low, eyes half lidded in interest. "I though I was the only thief in this industry who knew such a thing. No one else has ever lived to tell their tales."
"I'm not a thief, I'm more of a historian, if you have to know," Sakura bantered, hating how easy it was to smirk and put on airs like a teenage girl again. She shouldn't, she knows she shouldn't. "Not that it matters. The Pharaoh will introduce us however much he chooses. Until then, just think of me as a mystery."
He seems to brighten to the way she curls her lips and she tells herself he is new and he is blank and he is empty of all the memories that ruined her and made her into something new. Every world has a new incarnation of the actors, and rarely are they ever ones that remember.
"You sound like you think you're something important, rags." He smirks at the state of her dress and Sakura doesn't know if she should be embarrassed or not.
"My name is Sakura."
He tries out her name on his lips and Sakura wants to shiver, but she doesn't.
"Were you here when he brat prince called down hell in the party yard?" Deidara asked, nodded back towards the palace. "We all heard about it, stories and what not. It sounds crazy."
It's too much of a temptation to play this game with him. Sakura looks to Sasori when she answers. "There have been quite a number of stories circulating, each one more wild than the last, but all I saw was the glass she spun herself into. It's all but melted now. No one knows where she went and everyone says something different."
"So you saw her?" the redhead asks.
Sakura shrugged. "Some of her, yeah."
"What did she look like?" Deidara demands in a breathy voice, full of longing and energy. "I heard she had eyes like Nile reeds and hair as dark as Nut's emptiness with a fierce set to her features."
Sakura remembered she had been wearing a wig during the fight, as was custom for most ancient woman of Egypt. It had also helped her hide from Sasuke by looking like everyone else in the hall. Pink hair would have stood out too much and Sakura was positive she would have been remembered more clearly.
"Yeah, I guess so, I didn't pay that much attention. I mean, the other things were more important than her eyes," Sakura responded, faking disinterest as she glanced backwards over her shoulder at the palace. She couldn't help but glance back to the two men. It was a temptation to ask Sasori what he thought, but she fought it down. "You can ask the Pharaoh himself, I heard he was awfully close with her."
Sasori chuckles at Deidara's crestfallen expression. "What do you expect, gods associate among their own. There's no place for the crawling class like us in their eyes. We're little more than bugs, remember?" When Deidara stutters and looks away Sasori chuckles in a way that is almost mocking, but not quite. His eyes canter to Sakura, his head tilts and it sends her world reeling. "Right?"
Sakura thought of germs and bacteria infecting the body, she thought of herself againts the Crawling Chaos, she thought of a mosquito trapped in a locked room at night, she thought of all the little things that still humbled her. She thought of the scarab on Gaara's body.
"I don't know, I've always been weary of bugs myself. You'd be surprised what little things can take a full grown man down."
"You're some sort of delightful," Deidara exhaled, grinning at her in a friendly sort of way. "That's a refreshing way of looking at things."
Sakura rolled her shoulders to the compliment, far from being unsettled from such words after two years of worlds where people were drawn to her. Still, when she looks up and sees the way Sasori watches her she almost stutters and looses it. Almost.
"It might not be so dreadful to work for the sand rat again if we're partners in this endeavor."
It hurts to see him again and she doesn't understand how she feels so happy. Why does her heart feel like it's bleeding when all she wants to do is smile?
"I'm heading back, are you joining me?" Sakura asks, pointing to the palace not far away.
"You got a boat somewhere in the brush?" Deidara asked, annoyance clear in his tone.
Sakura dreamed one up just out of view and led them to it. It was just big enough for the three of them and no more. Together the group made it back up the river and docked on the opposite bank, away from any hippo. Sakura tied her boat to one of the pillars around the pavilion in the middle of Gaara's floating platform and helped the boys out of her boat and onto the walkway.
They didn't make it much farther before the grains of sand around them began to stand up and levitate. Sakura felt electricity in the air before a swirm blinded her and forced her away from the two boys. When she opened her eyes again Gaara was standing there in traveling garb, red hair wild, scowl in place.
"You," Gaara growled, eyes narrowed on Sasori.
The taller redhead smirked and stepped forward, in front of Deidara. "It's been a long time, cousin. How's the kingdom?"
"How late did you plan on being?" Gaara went on, eyes still stormy.
"That's nice to hear. Why don't you move, you're blocking the view of my new friend." Sasori's tone was mocking and Sakura didn't know how he knew to set Gaara off so royally after only a minute and a glance of being in front of the younger redhead, but he did. When Gaara flinched Sasori chuckled, voice sharp and cutting. "You're standing in front of her like a shield, you never leave your back open to anyone like that. And where's your crown, you pompous bastard? You hate your red hair."
Gaara's voice was a curling growl, it was an animal between forces, being pressed in tighter and tighter. Sakura could feel his agitation around her in the air when she stepped forward, close enough to touch his elbow. The tension snapped harmlessly apart like a broken rubber band.
"Is he really your cousin?" Sakura asked.
"You don't see the family resemblance?" Gaara intoned, voice less agitated. He leaned in closer to her touch, a bit unconsciously. Sakura could feel his sand reaching for her skin, touching and dancing off her hands and face and legs. He was unsettled.
"Oi-what about the big fruit here, or have ou forgotten?" Deidara interrupted, stepping forward. "I heard a rumor that the newest owner of a godmark is here and she's single. Where are you hiding the lotos of the desert, yeah? I didn't put up with master's whining for nothing."
Sakura stopped a snort as Gaara's shoulders sagged. "I've made no such promise and I have no such power over her. As she remains here, she is my guest to go and do as she pleases. I will not summon her like a dog for your own amusement." Gaara looked to Sasori. "Not even for you."
"You never do anything for me," Sasori dryly commented. His eyes softened when he looked to Sakura. "But that's fine, I have no interest in a girl with a godmark that thinks so highly of herself."
The air was supercharged once more and Sakura had to actually grab Gaara's arm to make him drop the charge. Sasori was baiting him. Sakura so close put Gaara at ease once more.
"I didn't call you here for pleasantries. We're leaving for the Valley of the End of Kings tonight. You will lead us the way."
Sasori looked bored. "In exchange for?"
Sakura felt Gaara's sand snake up her arms under her sleeves. "The tomb of the Crawling Chaos has no god anymore, but my men still guard it. What could you do with undisturbed and unrestricted access to such a place?"
"True, you know what I want, and I know why I came here. Are you willing to deal me this?" Sasori asked.
"We are leaving tonight. It's a straight ride to Kalba Oasis, after that you will lead us the rest of the way."
Sasori looked between Sakura and then Gaara. "Does this 'we' you speak of mean more than just you and me?" When Gaara nodded stiffly Sasori began to grin. "Oh, that's fine then. You in a rush?"
"Someone has a week's advance on us, so yes." Gaara's sand shifted around them, but Sasori didn't seem concerned. "You never did like waiting. Are you well enough for such a task?"
Sasori raised a hand over his head to stretch, popping the bones in his back. "Well enough, I think. Deidara, stay here and look for your girl like a lovesick fool. I'll be back before the month is over. My cute little cousin needs my help."
"To live in fantasy is to break your heart."
-milktea-chan
AN:/ I lied! I told you that the last chapter is the last update for a little while, but I wanted to do an update every week in July and I did it at the last minute. I pulled it all together even if it almost killed me with work and a wrist injury and just plain old exhaustion from long work weeks. Bwahaha, I feel thrilled for this.
I know the chapter is shorter, but you'll have to forgive me because there is only so much flirting my two favorite dream characters can put into a single chapter and still keep to the plot of the story. I wanted to get to that ending with Sasori and leave you there to see where this is going. Sakura is going t be traveling across a very dangerous desert towards Sai and Sasuke with two redheads who both have the hots for her in different ways.
(Also the scene in the beginning with the boys from the real world was one I had been wanting to write for a good long while now. There is something about helpless desperate onlookers that I gravitate towards and I wanted to include another viewpoint in this story.)
If you can, please leave me a review to let me know you're still on board with the story and still find it interesting. I love to hear back from you and know my work is reaching people. Thank you!
Side Note: I also have a A03 account where I'll begin to start uploading stuff *coughsmutcough* (I'm super lazy) that usually shows up on my tumblr... my A03 handle is Vesperchan and of course my tumblr id is vesperlionheart in case you wanted to know.