Part 4 in the Obelisk Series:
Kingdom of Man, Kingdom of Beasts, Kingdom of Monsters, and Kigdom of Gods.
OBELISK:
KINGDOM OF GODS
"If I sit still and don't do anything, the world goes on beating like a slack drum, without meaning.
We must keep moving, working, making dreams to run toward; the [poverty] of life without dreams is too horrible to imagine: it is that kind of madness which is the worst: the kind that fancies and hallucinations would be a bosch-ish relief."
-Sylvia Plath,
February 25, 1956 The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath
Sakura stopped in her tracks, staring up at the looming dome ahead of her. "What waits in the Temple of the Maker of the Earth?" she asked with bated breath.
"He has many names."
"What, Gaara?" She stressed her question, feeling something pull in her gut.
"He is the gate of all the bastard gods, the knowing and guardian of space and decay. The gate of past, present, future, are all in him and he knows where the old paths scar our world, who walks them, and who will walk them, and who has always walked them. Of all the bastard gods, he is the least likely to be killed in his knowing. He knows where the oldest of the old have tread our humble fields, and why no one may be able to behold the sight of those who walk with such authority."
As if his words were not omen enough, the shredding cry of beasts crawling over stone and through sand from the ruins ahead of them made Sakura tense. Up ahead she saw Sasori crouch at the ready as a wall broke apart and revealed a mutated looking amalgamation of scorpion and lion.
Gaara's sand went up first and the battle began.
Sakura wiped the blood off the end of her dress, staining it further. Chimera blood was black and blue, but it was a mess of gray and navy stains in the white cotton of her clothing. Gaara stood a handful of feet away, shoulders hiked sheepishly as he looked on. His own clothing was pristine and free of stains. Sakura hadn't even lifted a finger while Gaara ripped the monsters apart with his sand storm, but she was the one that ended up looking a mess.
"What a lovely shade of blue for your deft skin, my dear," Sasori purred, making his way over, cresting the dune and sliding the rest of the way down. Unlike his cousin, Sasori was rich in still soaking stains. Gaara had seemed to almost make it a point to hit his cousin with Chimera blood. Still, Sasori didn't seem too off put by it.
With grace and ease, the older redhead approached Sakura and dragged one of his thumbs through the blood on his cloak. With his thumb stained a darker shade of blue, he dragged it over Sakura's cheek, following the path to her collarbone. Sakura groaned at his touch but he chuckled and told her to hold still while he painted the other half of her face. When she thought he was done he took a third finger full of blue paint to her chin and dragged it from lip to throat in a long, straight line.
"Happy?" Sakura asked in a dry tone.
Sasori hummed in appreciation. "Now you look wild."
"I suppose you think that will make me useful next time we are attacked by monsters?" Sakura asked.
"Not nearly. We brought that one along for the monsters, didn't we?" Sasori asked, pointing to Gaara. "You're here to make me interested in living again."
"That all?"
"I wouldn't mind anything extra."
Gaara finally took a step forward, no longer concerned about staying humble in Sakura's presence. "That's enough, Sasori."
The older redhead sneered down at his cousin in a teasing way before holding up his hands in mock surrender. "Of course my king. It is as you say."
Sakura reached to wipe off the blood from her face, but paused before she could smear anything. It still tingled where Sasori had touched her. It was a nice sort of tingle.
"This blood isn't bad for your skin, is it?" Sakura asked, suddenly worried that the tingling was acid eating at her flesh.
Sasori laughed and smeared more blood around on his face before dragging his nails through it and shaking the blood free. "Not at all. If anything it should be a sooth for the skin. Keep it, the blood will protect you from the sun."
"She doesn't need that," Gaara muttered, cresting his sand like a wave over them to put Sakura in the shade.
"You'll get tired that way. Stop showing off every chance you get," Sasori responded, tone less light and jovial than before.
Sakura stared at Sasori covered in blood, wondering how he could be so smooth and at peace around her. He had been a little bit like this in the first kingdom, when she knew him as a greaser, but it was as the records stated, each actor was born anew for each world Sakura dreamed herself into. Just like Itachi was different in each world, so was Sasori. At least he didn't hate her in this one. The anger he had towards her in the Kingdom of Beasts nearly made her want to never see him again.
'But that's not true,' a voice spoke in her ear. 'Don't you remember at the end, when you touched his human heart?'
Sakura thought back to the last day in the Kingdom of Beasts, ignoring the gore and horror to focus on a detail she nearly forgot. Sasori had changed towards the end. When she touched the canister with his still human heart he seemed to melt for her. He had been almost kind in that moment. At the very least he didn't hate her.
"Sakura?"
She looked up, hearing Gaara call to her. Both boys were looking at her with differing amounts of worry in their eyes.
"I'm just thinking, don't mind me," Sakura chuckled, waving a hand in front of her face. "Are you both ready to move on? We have some ground to cover before we make camp, don't we?"
"Sure," Sasori easily replied, walking backwards with his hands fisted over his hips. He jumped backwards up onto the crust of a dead monster body and spun on his heel. The exoskeleton of the scorpion body cracked under the pressure and he leapt off.
"If you need a rest…" Gaara began, watching her slowly.
"Do I really look that bad" Sakura huffed, rubbing at her eyes. "I didn't even do anything."
"What about in the other world, how are you faring there?" he asked her, coming up alongside her and sticking close. Sasori was far enough ahead that he likely wouldn't be able to hear them if they whispered.
Sakura thought about what it was like to wake up and shivered. The world was odd. She had no work no class, and people she didn't know bowed to her sometimes in the hallway. She was pampered on cushions and made to read for hours the journals of other dreamers, or recount the details of her past adventures to Juugo. He had finished writing nearly everything down by now, thought Sakura purposefully left out parts where she and Madara were close. It felt odd to confess to her friend, a friend who had feelings for her, that she had nearly had sex with a dead actor in her dream world.
'Almost.'
It made her red just to think about how close she actually came. If her dreams weren't cursed worlds, would Sakura have dreamed about doing it with Madara? Her sexual health was abysmal considering the situation she was in. There was no way to pursue a relationship worth having with anyone while awake or asleep. She started to understand why so many of the dreamers in the past took quick lovers. Sakura couldn't make herself a wife to anything right now, few dreamers could.
"It's all so new and unsettling," Sakura finally admitted. "I miss how things used to be, but I know I wouldn't be doing as well as I am if those people didn't take me in and see to tending me. I mean…still sucks, but at least I don't need to worry about paying rent."
"And the assassins?" Gaara stressed, hands fisted at his sides.
"Nothing lately. I am trying not to think about it too much, if I'm being honest with you. I know there is stuff going on that I'm not being made aware of. Danzo is trying to protect me in his own way, I think. He doesn't want me to worry so he doesn't tell me about stuff."
They shuffled through the sand together, going around the fallen monster bodies while Sasori stepped up and over them all. He seemed fine with letting Sakura and Gaara talk together for a moment, but Sakura could see when he looked back at the pair every other minute, as if checking to make sure it was what she wanted.
Her heart hurt for him.
"You'll be safe here with me as long as I'm by your side, but don't forget that this world is only half the danger."
Sakura chuckled dryly. "No, I got that much. I know."
Gaara looked down at the sand, shifting and sparkling in a low sun's light as they traversed through another broken dune. "I wish I could be of more help."
Sakura caught herself on a laugh. "You're more helpful than you know, Gaara."
She shook her head and smiled as she thought back to other actors who hadn't been as kind. Gaara was terrifying in his own way, but Sakura felt there was a softness to him that was young and kind, but also hidden. She felt special to have found the kindness in him.
"I'm glad I have you on my side."
"I'll always be on your side," Gaara muttered, ears turning pink.
"Oh Sakura," Sasori teased, leaning over from the thorax of another fallen monster. "Don't tease the young king too terribly. He's as childish as they come when it comes to making a new friend." Sasori slid down and hopped over to Gaara, swinging an arm over the shorter boy's shoulders. "Isn't that right, dear cousin?"
Gaara growled, raising a sand wave behind him and bringing it down on the space where Sasori once stood. Sakura laughed as their teasing dance began again.
In the dream again Sakura sat with the boys beside a fire and stared up at an almost full moon.
"I feel like we've been walking forever," she confessed.
"Not nearly," Sasori laughed, passing a scrap of cooked food to her. She held out of hand to take it and he pulled it back out of reach, grin wicked and spreading. "You've not seen the ends of the desert as I have, you couldn't possibly think this is forever."
"It's long, okay?" Sakura asked, reaching forward to grab at the meat he kept out of reach.
Gaara glared across the fire but said nothing. He was tired, and while he didn't sleep, he did rest often. This looked like one of those times, since he would normally swallow his cousin in sand the first chance he got.
Sasori teased her until she got close enough to grab and slide down off the stone square into the sand beside him. He chucked, pulling her closer and waving the food again, only to press it to her lips and feed her. She grabbed it eagerly with her teeth and didn't miss the way he let his fingers linger a little longer than appropriate.
"Stop being gross," Sakura huffed, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand.
"I'm no such thing. I've never been called gross by a woman in my entire life."
"Then you don't know enough women," Sakura retorted.
"Maybe I don't. Would you like to get to know me better?" he teased, scooting closer.
The desert around her at night was a cool thing, making the fire necessary. Sasori moving in close to her spread the warmth of his body to where she could feel it. He wasn't cold and dead. He was warm and alive.
"I think I know you well enough to know what you're after," Sakura played along, doing her best to keep her cool around this new version of her one time lover.
"You think you know me so well that you can dismiss me so easily. Don't you want to ask a question or two? I'm sure there is something you're curious about."
She turned her face to the tire and wiggled her bare feet into the sand, feeling them warmed by the heated grains. "Somehow I doubt you would be entirely honest with me if I asked you questions about your life. No thanks."
"I promise to be truthful."
"About anything?"
She turned her face only enough to see him. In the firelight his hair was just as brilliant as the crackling flames, and his eyes were glowing embers in the light. Lounging in the sand his shirt front had slipped open and the copper curves of his body teased her. He was beautiful.
"Ask anything you like, doll. If I don't want to answer I'll simply refuse, but I won't lie to you. I'm terribly curious to ask you about yourself but I know that would be impolite without first offering my own history."
Sakura felt like she had found the Waldo in an I Spy game. "You're just being snoopy."
Sasori adjusted himself in the sand to recline more comfortably. "I am a snoop, but I also want you to know about me. I don't like how curious you're not. I thought you would be more…interested in me."
Sakura laughed, finding a bug in the sand she could pick up and trow away. "Now that's you ego talking. If we keep going I'm afraid how low my opinion of you can go. You're snoopy and full of yourself."
"And I'm desperate for the prettiest girl to talk to me. I'll admit these faults freely."
Sakura rolled her eyes, secretly enjoying the banter and the wit between them. He didn't know how much she wanted to cave in and hear all his stories and share a few of her own, but she had to remember this Sasori was a version she had just met a few weeks ago. Yes, they had been fighting and traveling together for a long time now, but the same was true for Gaara.
"Fine. Tonight you can ask me one question," she finally admitted. "Then I'll ask you a question, but you have to come up with something first because I'm too tired to think that well."
"That's perfectly acceptable. Let me start with something you might be more comfortable with answering. How did you get into my cousin's good graces? Women have been killing themselves for years to be half as close and dear to him as you are, so what was your secret?"
Of course his question would be one she couldn't easily answer without sharing her secret. Sakura decided she would shrug through the question and answer what she could of it.
"Get arrested? I mean, that's how we first met. I was with my friend and we were…we were looking at some things we shouldn't have been and I didn't know this but the place was forbidden and I was taken in chains to be judged. I actually met his brother in prison first and he was nice."
Sakura tried to think back to how it had all happened so long ago. She had been in this dream so long now it was starting to become difficult to remember all the parts and pieces.
"That can't be it."
"Hush, I'm trying to remember. Someone tried to assassinate him I think. I don't know how that really went down, but there was a bustle and Gaara was really cool, he used his sand to catch the guy. At the time I was more interested in running to greet my friend, Sai, who I had been separated from. Turns out Sai was friendly with Gaara and that's how I first met Gaara."
"This Sai characters…does he separate from you often?"
"Often enough." Sakura looked over and glared. "But that's a different question and you only were supposed to ask one."
"You can't be mad at me. You never really answered my question, which was how you got into Gaara's good graces. There are plenty of women who are friends of friends. I'm not satisfied with your answer."
Sakura huffed, grabbing a fist full of sand and throwing it at the redhead playfully. He rolled out of the way and batted her off, smiling at her playfulness.
"Don't be a moron and ask a question I couldn't answer. The only person who could tell you what you want to know would be Gaara himself, so ask him next time."
"He's not nearly as fun to talk with."
"Then if it's your turn, tell me why you and Gaara don't get along if you're cousins."
His eyes seemed to sparkle like the crackling embers at the base of the fire. "That's the easiest thing you could think of? Obviously he's jealous of my luck with women. Also, there is the matter that I was raised in the tomb keeper side of the family, only to escape at a young age and join up with bandits. He loved that. Never mind the bandits of the sand were just as cruel and I soon learned to make my own way in the world."
"Tomb keeper?" Sakura echoed.
"The families who are tasked with protecting the tombs of the latest resting pharaoh from within," Sasori explained, finding another bug in the sand that he tossed into the fire. He smirked when it burst into a tiny flame that hissed and popped before looking up at her. "Terribly popular profess. People are just dying to get into it."
She snorted, sitting up on her knees and hobbling over to where her bed roll had been set in the sand, closer to where Gaara rested. She pulled it open and saw the young pharaoh open a single eye to watch her before closing it again. "I'm going to sleep. Ask me whatever you want int he morning," she said with a yawn.
"That's it for the night?" he asked.
"There will be other nights," Sakura said, sounding tired.
And she was right. There were plenty other nights as one day in the desert turned into a handful more.
In the waking world Sakura saw herself in the mirror and hated the shape of herself. She was wrong in too many places. While she was in the dream world she could make her skin peachy and smooth with color. She could erase the bags, she could fill in her hips like before and smooth down the points where bones started to peek through.
Sakura touched her hips and frowned with how thin they were. Her ribs too. She saw the signs in her reflection but didn't know what to do about them. She was eating, when she could. Why did she look so much like a ghost?
"Are you decent?" a voice called through the door.
Sakura frowned and reached for the spring dress she could throw over her head and shimmy into. "Do you care?" Sakura called back, knowing Genma would laugh.
She heard the chuckle through the door and crossed the bathroom to open it up to him. Behind him Juugo was glaring from his spot at the desk. Her file was loaded and he was transcribing another part from the Gladiator Boneyard. He was nearly caught up. Soon he would be able to take her oral interviews about the Kingdom of Gods and put them to paper. She needed to thank him.
"He's being an ass again," Juugo grumbled.
"It's what I'm best at," Genma cackled, unusually jovial. "Guess who just got laid?"
Sakura made a face in disgust. "Ugh, why are you telling me."
"No, not me! I didn't say-ugh, I said guess. You have a dirty mind, Sakura babe."
"What do you expect after I hang out with you and have it filled with garbage?"
Genma rolled his eyes and stepped to the side to let her out. "No, I'm talking about Vermillion Houses. Netflix uploaded season two finally and my boy got it going on with the princess!"
Sakura couldn't help but grin. "Oh no, that's going to go terrible. Isn't her royal guard in love with her. If he found out he would kill the poet."
"You don't think he would bear it, knowing his princess is happy?"
Sakura thought about it, remembering what she knew of the characters from the period drama. Her guard was insanely devoted and hopelessly in love with a woman he had taken religious vows to protect in chastity and life. Throughout season one he had been Sakura's favorite character on account of how cute his love for the princess was. When she flirted with him he didn't know what to do with himself, but he never acted on those flirtations. He never even admitted to himself that he loved her.
"I don't think he would see it that way. I think there's going to be blood. And besides that, the poet? Everyone of her guards thinks he's a lush. They're going to think she's being taken advantage of and seduced."
Genma groaned, falling into step beside her. "Can't they tell she's lonely and struggling with a healthy sexual attraction. Girl needs to get some and they're putting her in a chastity belt. And what is with that tone, young lady? How dare you disrespect my precious son. Just because he's a slut doesn't mean he can't love."
"I feel so dirty just listening to you," Juugo groaned, glaring back over his shoulder at the older male.
Genma just grinned back in turn and wiggled his fingers. "Glad I could help make things more interesting around here. Sakura deserves a bit more vibrancy and joy. The rest of you lot are way too serious. It makes me want to don my mourning robes and throw salt over my shoulder."
"Why would you do that?" Juugo asked, expression aghast.
"Isn't that what you guys do when someone dies? No? Wrong culture. My bad!" He laughed and it sounded like a small dog snickering, a fact that made Sakura cough on a laugh herself. "There it is! I was wondering where you laugh went to. I haven't heard it in weeks."
Sakura ran a hand over her face and thanked the heavens that she was friends with an idiot like Genma. Genma the man slut who had also killed for her and could still smile and laugh at the world. He was strong and she felt silly for not realizing it sooner.
"Thanks, I feel lighter. Make me something to eat. I want something with bread."
She didn't notice it right away, but from where Juugo sat he had paused to smile at her, no longer irritated with Genma like before. He turned back to the computer with a happy sigh and continued to type.
"I can make pretzel, but can you tell me why you think her puppy dog guard boy is going to go blood hungry once he finds out someone made his princess happy with a quicky in the gardens?"
Sakura snickered at his language and shook her head. "Some loves are like that. Humans love selfishly."
The next night when Sakura dreamed she awoke on a floor of stone, cushioned by their traveling blankets. Sasori was beside her, separated by a small circle of stones that kept their fire from spreading.
She felt off.
"Did you feel that?" Gaara asked, wide awake and fully dressed.
Sakura turned around and climbed up to her feet, feeling the creaks of her dream body settle into place. "No, I just woke up. What's happening?" she asked.
Gaara swallowed and nodded to the entrance to the small, stone shrine ruins they had rested in. "I think we were closer than we first thought. There is something shifting beneath us."
"Another chimera?" Sakura asked, touching her face where the pain used to be. It was gone, of course.
Gaara shook his head, arms crossed stiffly over his chest. "No. It's far too large for that. I only know of one type of creature to swim through the world with such girth. We can't be many miles away from his temple."
Sakura brushed the dust off her knees and walked over to the edge of their ruins to look out. Even in the darkness there was a thick silver sheen to everything touched by moonlight. Sakura could see for miles but there were only ruins and broken histories in stone for as far as she could see. If they were close she should have been able to see it.
"This is the temple where you think they took Sai, right?" she asked, looking back over her shoulder at Gaara who was walking over to stand alongside her, leaving Sasori back further in.
"Most likely. I would imagine that if Sai was made to talk he would tell them of this temple. Do you think he would be stubborn for you and refuse to talk under torture?" he asked.
The thought made Sakura unsettled and the tingle in her hands was sharp, reminding her of the bone sword she wasn't holding. "He knows I'd kill them for it, but Sai's also smart. He…he believes in me. He might have held off for a bit, but I know he told them eventually because he believed I would find him and catch up with the kidnappers. More than anyone else, I know Sai believes in me. We've been through so much for him not to."
"You care for him quite deeply."
Sakura felt herself grin. "He hasn't given me much of a choice. What could I have possibly done with a person who believed in me as much as him other than devote myself to achieving all he thought I could." She paused a moment and made a face. "Also, there was the fact that I thought the world was trying to kill me every night. I didn't have much of a choice after I got sucked in, but aside from all that, Sai's belief in me was life changing."
"Even more so than falling in love?" Gaara asked, voice low as he watched her from the corner of his eye. Behind him Sasori slept on.
Sakura looked back over her shoulder at the last member of their party still asleep on the floor. He was always handsome, but asleep he was especially beautiful to stare at. She had to be careful not to stare too long or linger too deeply on his face while he was unaware. It hurt her heart too much.
"Falling in love is a different sort of matter. It gave me a different sort of strength, one that ended up exhausting me while pushing me to achieve the seemingly impossible. It's…different, not bad, just different."
Gaara hummed. "It almost sounds like you regret it."
"Isn't that why they call it falling in love? You can't help yourself when you fall."
"True." He watched her before turning his face back to the desert. "I almost want to wish you luck with your love, but I have my own feelings to consider and it's especially difficult to wish for something when the other half of you realizes that the object of your affections is so poorly undeserving." He shifted nervously before adding on. "And there is the matter of how I've come to feel for you, Sakura."
Sakura knew, but she nodded and waited for Gaara to say his peace and be honest. She knew what he wanted to say. She knew what he most likely felt and she thought him brave for confessing what he held in his heart.
When Gaara saw her watching him with attention undivided he swallowed and turned to face her head on. Even in the silver light she could see his face warm.
"I know your heart, but I want you to know mine," he said, voice soft. "I would have cared for you whoever you are, because I find companionship in so few people, yet you've made it here to me. No matter who you would have been I would have wanted to be your friend, even if we ended up killing each other. But I know you better, I see your heart and I am moved by your convictions. You are the sunlight in the tomb, after an eternity of darkness you are the balm to my soul. I never dreamed to know a dreamer so lovely and worthy of love. I understand what Sai sees in you, I understand why a man would believe in you. You care so well and the power of the heavens doesn't tempt you while the affections of a friend would inspire you to move mountains beyond heaven and earth. When you were hurt I thought the world stopped. It's not fair I knew you too late."
"Gaara…." She said, stepping closer only to stop when he shook his head.
"It's not fair I finally got to know what love felt like after all this time." He breathed deeply, smiling. When he exhaled the breath came out shaky and uneven, causing his grin to grow even as his eyes glistened. In the moonlight they were silver jade. "I love you Sakura."
She sees that Gaara is beautiful in his own way, soft and vulnerable for her in body and feelings. She reaches for him and he bows into the touch, knowing it is not the reciprocal embrace he wanted, but one he would never the less desire. He folded into her arms like he was meant for them and Sakura kiss the crown of his head, resting her lips in his copper curls for a moment longer than usual before pulling back.
"You are dear to me," she says, voice heavy.
He shivers in her arms and leans further in. "I don't ask for anything more, just don't go where I can't follow you."
"You've said that once before. I don't plan on leaving you behind," Sakura laughs, resting her cheek against his ear. He's bent into her, holding her close.
"Even though you're a dreamer-"
Gaara started to say only to have his words interrupted as the stone beneath them rubbled and sagged, tilting downwards in parts as a great mass moved out from underneath it.
Sakura grabbed Gaara and threw him backwards into the ruins where the ground was more stable. Sasori was already up and reaching for the space where he thought she would be when Gaara slid in. Sakura felt the stone under her fall away as she jumped, hands clawing at the edges of solid ground. Her nails strained and broke as her grip slipped and she spilled free over the side on a scream.
Someone else shouted and a hand of sand reached down to grab her around the torso and snap her back. Sakura felt a pain behind her head where her neck had whipped, but the whiplash was less dangerous than the swirling ground beneath her. She looked up and saw Gaara staring down at her over the edge of their ruin.
"You got me," she laughed, flashing him a thumb's up. Gaara only huffed in agitation before pulling her up and grabbing for her with his own two hands to drag her the rest of the way onto solid ground.
"Don't scare me like that," he hissed.
"Shit!" Sasori almost sounded delighted as his voice shook in fear. "We were closer than I thought."
Sakura looked down at the mass sinking back into the earth, tunneling again. She felt cold in her heart when she recognized the slithering arms and tentacles of a bastard god. It wasn't the same as the crawling chaos, but it was related beyond a shadow of doubt. One highlighted difference was the huge eyelid on its back that was filed with a hundred or so tiny eyeballs, all crammed in there together like fish eggs or pomegranate seeds at the pit of a fruit. All the different eyes were looking off with different colors and sizes.
"The Key and the Gate, he is the one who sees," Gaara breathed, watching as it slipped back under the earth and out of view. "We are close."
"That's not all," Sasori said. "Did you see the wounds on it?"
"What?" Sakura gasped, looking back at the older redhead. "It was hurt?"
He smiled at her and she thought the look was a bit more pained than usual. "Were you too distracted by it's beauty or that infection of eyes on his back? That's how he is able to see into the future, they say. He's the one who sees all and knows all, so I'm surprised someone could nick him."
"Sasuke and Sai," Sakura breathed, looking over at Gaara. "They made it here."
"At least we know the brat prince didn't get a pretty new tattoo for himself," Sasori sighed. "But I doubt this god killed them if it's still running around the desert looking for them. How much you want to bet that brat prince is hiding out in a ruin just like this one?"
Sakura felt her skin tingle. "Sai could be close by," she breathed, looking over at Gaara, eyes wide.
"We don't know that, we still have to be careful going forward. The god is restless and dangerous."
Sasori watched the two of them, taking a half step back and frowning before turning his face away. "Right, I have business with that Kazekage anyway. We'll be looking for the party together for a little longer. Dawn is soon, shall we set out?"
Gaara nodded before looking to Sakura. "Let me go out and scout first. I'll be back in a few minutes."
The sand rushed up and swallowed him in a fist that carried him off, high into the desert where he could see the world from a bird's point of view. Sakura held her arms to herself and bit her lip, prepared to wait until he came back to move, even though all she wanted to do was run through the desert shouting Sai's name.
"He'll be back soon," Sasori breathed, taking that half step back towards her. He paused, as if thinking better of it before turning his face away.
"Is something wrong?" Sakura asked, looking back at Sasori and noticing his lack of personality. This world's Sasori was a bit more flirty and smooth, enjoying the simple act of teasing his cousin and making her blush. Sasori seemed more demure now that Gaara had left.
The redhead looked back at her and Sakura saw his frown. "You have someone you love?"
Her heart hurt.
"Why would you ask that?" Sakura breathed, mouth dry.
"I wasn't asleep for all of it," he chuckled, voice deep and more detached. "Ah, but don't think I heard it all. Trust me, I was straining at times, especially when you never mentioned a name. My poor baby cousin, I never thought I'd hear him so heartbroken, but he endured it so gladly."
Sasori dropped his hands to his sides and crossed the distance between them, drawing up close enough that the fabric of his outfit rustled hers. "How did you manage to make him love you so well? What magic did you sow in his heart only to spurn him?" He lifted a hand to her face and she felt it shake when it touched her skin. "And when did you infect me with it, dreaded woman?"
"Sasori, I-" Her voice stopped when he laughed, dropping his hand and backing up.
"Oh how delightful. No, don't think I was serious just now," he laughed. "I've not know you enough or so long for a plague like love to take me. I only wished to tease you, Sakura. Don't think I'm like my cousin."
Sakura felt like her heart was bleeding. "Don't mock Gaara for what he feels. He is brave for it."
"I'm sure he is. Bravery lives in the heart of many fools. But he is the king of sands and pharaoh of an unruly people. He's not loved by anyone."
"Don't say that. There is more than just romantic love in this world. I may not…return the feelings he has for me, but I care for Gaara and wish to help him as a friend or family would."
"I'm his family and I have no such wish for him," Sasori said.
"I'm sorry for that. I may not have known him long, but I understand him enough to know that he's a good person with a lot of hurt inside of him."
Sasori actually laughed at her, louder and deeper than before. Sakura wanted to delight in the sound, but it just ended up making her skin crawl. Sasori was…off.
"Oh, he's really done it now, gone and fallen for a pure hearted maiden that couldn't possible love so selfishly." He smiled and it was rakish and in a moment he was the greaser in leather she knew and loved.
"I've loved selfishly," Sakura whispered. She wished she could say it louder, she wished you could tell him who he was to her. She wished she could hold his face and kiss his warm lips and forget how, once upon a time, she kissed them cold. She wished so badly it was no wonder her heart knew the feeling of hurt so well.
"Yes, that's what he said, didn't he?" Sasori tilted his head to the side and stepped that way, seeing her from a new angle. The moon was still bright and silver in the sky, but dawn wasn't far off. "But I've seen you blush for me, so how great must that guy be? He's not even here. He's not the boy the brat prince stole away, was it?"
"No. That man has long left this world. Sai is also my friend, but nothing romantic. Is that so hard for you to understand? I care for my friends. They're important to me. I won't abandon them when they need help."
Something on Sasori's face melted and his grin lost its hard edges. "You are a sweet thing, aren't you? Still in love with your dead lover is something only foolish girls are capable of. I think I can see why my cousin came to adore you so. But the world is not king to sweet things, my doll. You'll either loose that kindness or loose your life before long."
"I don't believe that," Sakura said with more convection that she though possible.
She thought of all the horrors, the trials, the blood, the loss, the humiliation, the betrayals. She thought of Tenten stabbing her in the back, the chains of slavery, the death of her friends, having to kill Sai, Kimimoro turning his back on her in the Kingdom of Beasts after believing in her just one world before. She thought of so many horrible things in her real life that dragged her down into a pit of darkness and depression. She thought of how the Obelisk work had wrecked her.
But then she thought of Sai and Gaara. She thought of Kisame and Zabuza teaching her how to fight with the sword. She thought of Tsunade. She through of Tenten at the end, of how Kiba remembered her even when words were lost to his mind. She thought of the warmth that filled her whenever someone believed in her and looked at her like she could do it. She even thought of Madara who valued her and was sweet to her in his own way. He treated her like a queen in a cage, but through that she knew she learned a lesson.
"You don't know what I've been through, what I've done. You don't know how…how this world has treated me. I am not kind because I am naive or stupid. I am what I am because I choose to be. I wake up and I decide for myself who I'm going to be. I choose it, not this world or anyone else in it." She felt her eyes harden as the fists at her side clenched tighter.
Sasori was caught by her, unable to move. "If you've seen the ugly underside of this world and still choose to be as sweet as you are, I don't see how you've made it this far."
"My kindness does not make me weak." Sakura felt herself realize the truth of her words as they were leaving her lips. "My kindness is my strength."
He was still stuck in her gaze, unable to move until he did so unconsciously. He stepped to her, grabbed her by the waist and pulled her face towards his to fit into a kiss of lips on lips.
She felt herself pulled up and into him and when his lips settled on hers, warm and needy, she didn't fight back because he was alive this time. He wasn't dying under her in a pool of his own blood. He was warm and soft and tender on her lips and it made her heart dance in joy.
Oh! She felt like she was melting.
He pulled her closer to him, pressing her body to his and bending down into the kiss, hungry for more of her as she rose to meet him, just as responsive, just as hungry, and just as starved.
When the need for air made him break, Sasori rested his face against hers, panting in the almost morning light. It made her skin shiver in attention.
"I don't care who he is, he's not here to stop be," he growled before hissing her neck hungrily. "You're mine."
"Don't leave me again," Sakura shuddered, feeling tears in her eyes. He was warm for her, so warm and soft. She had longed for this for years now, since their first kiss. It didn't even matter that he was a new Sasori in a new world. He was finally warm and alive for her.
"I'm not going anywhere," he chuckled in a voice made of velvet.
"Sasori."
She breathed his name and he grunted, barely retrained in that moment. It was like his name on her lips was the magic spell that undid all his false bravado and brave mockery. Deep in his throat he growled, pulling her close and drawing her back into the darker parts of the ruin, turning her back so it was to the new sun.
He pulled away, only enough to hold her face in two hands and look down at her. His thumb traced the shape of her temple. Dawn's first light was making his skin glow and his eyes shine like new gems.
"Know this," Sasori whispered, staring down at her. One of his hands moved away from her face and she tilted her head to lay in the palm of the one left behind. He leaned down a little, but lifted his eyes to the sunlight of the world outside. "Your kindness was not enough."
Heat ripped into her back from a shallow wound. She heard Gaara scream and then the sound of wood on wood. Sakura stumbled into Sasori, knees weak.
"No another step, cousin, or this dagger finishes it," Sasori drawled, sounding suddenly bored.
Sakura turned her head as much as she could and strained her eyes the rest of the way. Sasori was there, eyes wide and livid as the Third Kazekage stood beside him, iron sand swirling. Sakura blinked, recognizing the lines and joints on the Kazekage. They were the same as Sasori's back in the Kingdom of Beasts: a puppet.
"It was you," she breathed, suddenly realizing the truth of things. The Third Kazekage had the third tattoo from killing a bastard god, but he was only a puppet. That meant…Sasori was the third god killer. "You were behind the attack."
He chuckled, and it sounded strained. "I hadn't meant to show my hand so early, but you were fast moving and…and I realized I had reached my limit. It wouldn't have been possible to play pretend past this point, cousin."
"Let her go." Gaara's voice was ice.
Sasori chuckled once more and reached down to kiss the crown of Sakura's head. "Her? She doesn't love you. Isn't that sad? You'll give me your god tattoo for her when she was so ready to give herself to me like any other common imp from the sands. I almost pity you."
"Don't do this," Gaara warns.
Sasori shakes his head, glaring. "Your days of telling me what to do are over, cousin. I'll admit I hadn't planned for this to happen so soon. I was hoping to have your help killing the last god, but I'm confident I can achieve that on my own with your powers. When I get back, Deidara will have that woman's tattoo for himself. It all plays out nicely, doesn't it?"
"Why are you doing this to her? Sakura hasn't done anything to you to deserve this." Gaara make a step but the iron sand rises up and he stills, outmatched and weary of it. "Just…let her go."
Sasori shifts, one hand still holding Sakura's head. "Maybe I will, or maybe I'll keep her for myself. I've heard of others doing the same, I'll not loose respect for one mere woman. I can allow myself that much." He glanced down at her, a sloppy smirk in place. "You were willing to run away with me a moment ago, weren't you? I don't know how you managed to tempt me this far, but I'll admit I didn't dislike it."
The pain in her heart hurt more than the dagger in her back. The blade was one she would survive, but Sasori's betrayal…
Her hands were weak as she reached up to hold his face, thumbs tracing the smooth of his skin as she looked up, eyes wet with tears that spilled over, on hand sliding down. He should have been watching Gaara but he was caught in her again. He was still so warm for her.
"I love you, Sasori," Sakura breathed, stilling him. "I loved you in the beginning, when you died under my hands, asking for a kiss as a final gift. I loved you when you hated me, then when you were weak for me. I loved you when you didn't know me. I love you now as you betray me." She swallowed, feeling her throat close up. "Yes, I love you, even now, but know this…"
He began to lean into her as she parted her lips.
"It was not enough."
Her hand on his neck became full with the hilt of her bone sword, tearing into the flesh of him.
In one moment he was warm and loving for her. In the next, his severed head rolled to the floor, followed soon by his limp body.
"To live in fantasy is to break your heart."
-milktea-chan
AN:/I am so sorry. That ending was not supposed to happen so soon in the story. Other stuff was supposed to happen first and I thought there would be a big fight with the god that he could help with and I HAD IT ALL PLANNED OUT AND THEN THAT HAPPENED. A good author is slave to their story and that's what happened with me. I know someone is going to be pissed with me, so just hang on. Before the summer ends I want to wrap up the writing of Obelisk, but I might run out of time again. I love this story so much, guys. It'll be worth it. Just bear with me a little longer.
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.