Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, or any of its characters.
A loud thud broke the silence the two shinobi had been traveling in for three days. Sakura's pack hit the ground as she began doing her customary scan of the area. Sasuke did nothing to aide her, merely sitting at the base of a large tree. She was used to this by now. Ever since the confrontation at the river, he had been a silent shadow of a companion. The only noises he made were grunts when the medic-nin threw the food pills at him.
Sasuke's health seemed to be improving at a rapid rate. The doubled food pill ratio had started to fill out his skeletal body - Sakura's sharp eyes could see the healthy weight slowly coming back on. She doubted anyone but a medic-nin would be able to notice it. Though his weight was improving, his attitude didn't seem to be. Sure, the dark-haired rogue hadn't tried to off her yet, or run away - but he hadn't offered any assistance ever since the tower. Sakura repressed a sigh of exasperation. Honestly, it was like traveling with a pouty girl. 'Men are such babies.' She thought to herself as she pulled out the halfway finished shirt. Sakura had been working diligently on it at night, for the mind-numbing work helped her to sleep.
"Why bother?" Sasuke's low voice broke her concentration. Sakura looked up from where she was sitting, raising a slim eyebrow in question. He gestured to the shirt she was holding in her hands. "By the time you finish, we'll be back into the Hidden Leaf Village. Why bother mending it at all?"
Sakura paused before answering, anger flashing behind her eyes. "I'm mending it because these clothes on your back are all you have. I'm mending this shirt because I pity you. When we get back to Konoha, you will have nobody. You will have nothing." She finished venomously, beginning to mend the shirt again.
Sasuke never took his dark eyes off of her. Her contempt for him was something the avenger was completely taken aback by. The rogue shinobi had never given much thought as to how different Sakura would be when he returned. Sasuke didn't quite know how to react to her disdain, and so he reacted the same as he did with everyone else - with cutting comments. Sasuke had spent the last few days mulling about his predicament. If this is what it was like with Sakura, what awaited him in Konoha?
Not that it would matter to him. The first chapter of Sasuke's life was over as far as he was concerned, and now it was time to begin the second part. 'Nothing ever comes easy.' His thoughts were interrupted by rustling.
"Take your pills." Sakura told him in a soft voice. She regretted speaking so bluntly, but everything she had said was the truth. Perhaps her raw honesty hadn't been the best decision though. The pink-haired kunoichi tossed him the two pills, taking her own out when he caught his. Sakura then began making a small campfire, to ward off the darkness and chilly air.
"Thanks." Sasuke said gruffly, crunching the two pills between his teeth. The pills that Sakura had were different than the customary food pills shinobi were sent on missions with. Normally food pills were meant to enhance chakra, or fighting prowess. These pills had an entirely different function. Sasuke imagined that they were primarily used for higher-ranked missions, in order to lighten the load a shinobi carried. Sakura had been right when she told him they did nothing to increase chakra. They did do something that no other food pill did. These ones completely satiated his appetite, as well as make his body feel completely rested and pumped full of nutrients. He wondered what sort of work went into them, for such a feat had never been achieved before.
"They make you miss real food." Sakura said absently, her jade eyes fixed on the shirt in front of her. Surprised that she was talking to him, Sasuke focused on the kunoichi. "I haven't had food, real food in awhile." Sasuke replied, making his makeshift bed with a few thick blankets.
Sakura looked up at him, continuing to stoke the fire without focusing on the flames. "That would explain a lot." She said slowly. "Then what have you been subsisting on?"
Sasuke felt uneasiness ripple through him. This was what he had been dreading. The dark-haired rogue had been so out of touch with other people all these years that simply carrying on a conversation, revealing information about himself made him decisively uncomfortable. "Food pills. A type that I created."
"Wait, what?" Sakura asked, dropping the stick she had been using. Her startled wide eyes were trained on the sitting man. "Do you have any idea what kind of -"
Sakura's words were cut off abruptly by a flying shuriken. It headed straight for the ANBU operative, but with the slightest movement of her head, Sakura dodged it. The shuriken hit the trunk behind her with a dull thunk, burying itself deeply in the wood. In a flash, Sakura was on her feet with a sharp kunai held in her hand. Her sharp eyes narrowed, seeking out the perpetrator. "Show yourself!" She growled, glaring into the darkness.
"Hehe, such a spitfire." A voice simpered from above them. "Relying on your little girlfriend to protect you?" A heavyset man stepped into lighter shadows, smirking at the pair from above. The campfire flickering below made light dance on his face, making the man look even odder than what he would have. Dark purple whorls of paint decorated his pockmarked skin. A bulbous nose bulged underneath two thick eyebrows, and eerie violet eyes leered at them. He grinned, showing yellow teeth. "Tsk tsk. You could at least let me see your face before I kill you."
Sasuke's dark eyes darted to Sakura, noting that somehow she had managed to put her mask on to conceal her identity from the enemy while dodging a weapon. Somehow during all this time he had failed to notice that she was wearing the full uniform of the ANBU.
"Who are you and what do you want?" Sakura demanded. She was poised and ready to dispatch the threat, but her medic training held her back. Jumping headlong into a battle with an unknown entity with unknown skills would be foolish at best.
The man's grin slowly faded into a frown. "All business, are you?" His voice was high-pitched and girlish, completely at odds with his appearance. "You're no fun. Fine fine, if you insist." With a more serious air, he pulled out a vial filled to the brim with all different types of pills. He rattled them, a menacing gleam in his eyes. "I am the notorious Ikura Uni. Food pills are my specialty. I have been after the ones that he," Ikura pointed to Sasuke's sitting form, "developed! The way they increase power, stamina, chakra.. My mouth waters just thinking about it!"
Sakura's eyebrow twitched behind her mask. Was this guy really serious? His name fit him, if that was the case.
"Sorry, they're specially designed for my body." Sasuke quipped, acting as though the man was an annoying fly. "They'd be useless for you." He remained sitting, not even looking at the threat. Sakura wanted to pummel him for acting so nonchalant.
"EH? Well if you were able to create such a feat then surely you can duplicate it!" Ikura put his beefy hands on his hips. "I'll just take out this little wench and then recruit you, little man. I'm sure you can be.. Persuaded to make a batch for me." Ikura grinned, swallowing three different pills and stowing his vial away. "Come now girl, let's have us a good time."
The masked kunoichi felt her temper roar into a maelstrom inside of her. This shinobi had absolutely no idea who he was up against. It made her even more infuriated that Sasuke just sat there, not even looking in their direction, as if he didn't care about the outcome. Typical. Out of habit, Sakura flexed her gloved fingers while assessing her opponent. Clearly this Ikura did not consider her a worthy match, but she still had no idea what sort of skills he had. It was too bad she was trying to remain covert, because nothing would please Sakura more than knocking him out of that tree.
"Too shy to make the first move? Don't worry, I'll go easy on you." Suddenly, his eyes began to glow a fiercer violet, completely taking over the pupil in each eye. His voice changed in pitch, going from a high-pitched girlish voice to a deeper baritone. Ikura raised each of his hands. His palms were emitting a lilac chakra that was becoming stronger by the second. With a powerful blast he obliterated the space that Sakura had been standing in just before.
Sakura moved with lightning quick speed away from his blasts. There was nothing suble about his attacks, just forceful blasts of chakra. She wondered about the strange coloring of it, deciding to do everything in her power not to be touched by it.
Sasuke remained where he was sitting, watching the scene with his sharingan. The burly man was all brute force; there was no grace or thought to his movements. He focused his sharingan on Sakura. She dodged everything skillfully, seemingly at ease. It was almost as if she were dancing instead of battling.
Pulling out two kunai, Sakura quickly wrapped a paper bomb around the handle of each one. She threw them each in a different direction. One thudded into the thick wood behind Ikura, and the other embedded itself into the ground below the tree. Ikura ceased his chakra blasts, beginning to double over in laughter. "This is why girls belong at home, making babies and food. You missed me little bitch!"
Behind her mask, Sakura smirked. She had no idea how this man had ever become a shinobi, but this would be intensely satisfying. Making a Snake hand seal, she detonated the paper bomb at the base of the tree. With a huge explosion, the tree's base was destroyed. The large tree began to collapse, the enemy going down with it. She made the seal once more, setting off the one behind his head. A cloud of smoke enveloped the area, as Sakura waited to see the destruction.
Wood pieces showered the area; Sasuke's sharingan had detected the substitution jutsu, and before he could warn Sakura, smoke from the paper bomb shrouded the area.
"Not bad, not bad. You're smarter than you look. Take off that silly mask already and face me down!" Ikura roared. He was on the other side of the clearing, once more standing atop a thick branch. The chakra coming from his palms was still strong, but this time there weren't large blasts. They were concentrated into thin, elongated blasts. Sakura's eyes widened. He was making them into senbon showers, which most likely meant they were poisonous.
She dodged the showers with a back flip, shouting a warning to Sasuke. "Don't let any of his blasts touch you, they're poisonous!" Another barrage of chakra senbon needles came flying her way. Sakura jumped backwards, dodging the attack.
"Such an agile body, it's really too bad that I have to destroy you." Ikura remarked idly, baring yellowed teeth in a grin. "You're done now wench. You've fallen straight into my trap."
Sasuke slowly turned his gaze from thick ninja to Sakura. Her small body was completely rigid, as if warding off some sort of attack. His sharingan could detect a rivulet of sweat sliding down the side of her face, just outside the cover of her mask. The dark haired shinobi was briefly puzzled before he realized where she was. While dodging the poison attacks, Sakura had been driven to stand in the center of where Ikura had first blasted. Ikura had played the fool all along to trap her.
With gritted teeth, Sakura struggled to move her body. The poison had managed to enter her bloodstream already, most likely when she had jumped backwards. A small part of her skin must have brushed the ground. She had never seen it before, but this Ikura Uni's chakra was something akin to a poison dust. Sakura's hands shook as she forced her limbs to move. She had to move quickly before the paralyzing agent reached her lungs, heart, or brain. Sakura's chakra surged within her body, combating the poison and healing herself. Her gloved hands slowly reached the small pouch on her hip. With shaking hands, she withdrew a vial.
"I wonder where the poison will reach first," Ikura said loudly to himself. He turned his violet eyes to Sasuke's still form. "Such a bad boyfriend. So willing to let your girl die, without even attempting to lift a finger to help. Ah, only makes my task easier, though it's a shame. You have the right idea though, being alone is better than all this teamwork nonsense."
Sasuke stood slowly, turning to face in the enemy's direction. He focused his sharingan on the man, narrowing his eyes. "You talk a lot.. You're annoying, and wrong."
"Sharingan eh? I take it that you're the lone survivor of the Uchiha. Interesting." Ikura said, "Too bad that I need you, it's so much fun watching my victims succumb to poison." With that said, Ikura turned to look at where Sakura was. "WHAT?!"
"Looking for me?" Sakura asked innocently. She stood at the base of the tree, having snuck over while Sasuke distracted the shinobi. "Your poison would have disabled a less experienced shinobi, but unfortunately for you I'm one of the top medical ninjas." Sakura balled her gloved hand into a fist, punching through the tree he was in. The tree came crashing down, Ikura tangled in its thick branches. Jumping into the air, Sakura came down with a powerful kick that smashed his head in like an overripe melon.
"Messy." Sasuke commented, walking in her direction. When he reached the corpse of Ikura, he looked at Sakura's masked face. She chuckled behind the mask, "You're one to talk."
Sasuke deactivated his sharingan. The scent of blood in the air was strong, and before deactivating his sharingan he had observed a small spot of blood darkening the front of Sakura's black pants. "How did you get out of the poison trap?"
"I had to draw out the poison." Sakura stated quietly, kneeling beside the body. Her gloved hands searched the dead man's form, until she came away with the vial hidden in his cloak. "I made a small incision on my thigh to get it out - it's messy, but it did the trick. My skin must have brushed the ground at some point. The poison affected my legs first, then my arms. It was strange to go for limbs first, instead of going right for the internal organs."
"He did say he liked to watch his enemies suffer." Sasuke said. "What do we do with the body?"
Sakura was so wrapped up in assessing the corpse that she almost missed what he said. She had been surprised earlier when Sasuke had diverted Ikura's attention away from her movements. If it hadn't been for that, chances are that Ikura would have caught what was going on much earlier. The pink-haired kunoichi was uncertain what Sasuke's motives were. She didn't know how to react to him actually aiding her, or taking interest in a sudden partnership.
"We're too far away to summon for the Medical Corps. I want to bring his body back, but being three days away is just too far. I'm going to draw some of his blood, as well as extract some tissue from his palms. Hopefully that will be enough to get an idea of what was going on. We'll burn the body afterwards."
Sasuke watched as Sakura pulled out the necessary medical tools. She was in her element here, leaving him useless. It was not an easy feeling. Her slim hands withdrew blood from the body, storing five full tubes within the confines of her pack. Next, Sakura carefully disinfected the palms of the body. She stripped the skin off of the palms, paying close attention to the very center of them. Once everything was safely stored, the masked kunoichi rose.
"Could you take care of him for me, please?" She requested, heading to one of the blasted chakra sites. Sasuke watched the ANBU operative carefully inspect each of the chakra sites before turning to the corpse of Ikaru. Making a Tiger hand seal, the dark-haired shinobi used his Fireball jutsu to engulf the body in flames. The smell of burning flesh filled the air around him, sending a huge smoke column into the air. 'It's more than probable that the Leaf Village will send out scouts to see what this is.' Sasuke thought to himself as he walked away from the burning corpse. 'I'll likely be hauled into custody.'
Meanwhile, Sakura was scraping the affected areas of earth into bottles with a piece of metal. She took a sample of each one, coming away with seven containers. She paid no attention to the watching Sasuke as she was intent on her task. Sakura had plenty of experience with poisons and their antidotes. All poisons could be cured, and the medic-nin wanted to purify these blast sites lest an unwary traveler happen upon them.
"Try water." Sasuke's deep voice interrupted her train of thought. She was sitting between two of the blast sites on a narrow strip of unaffected land. Sasuke stood a few yards away, watching her with unreadable eyes. He pulled out his water bag, opening the top and pouring a stream of water onto the poisoned ground. A white steam rose up from the area.
"Water?" She asked increduously, getting up. "That's so simple though!"
"Exactly." Sasuke said, sprinkling water on another spot. "Orochimaru exposed me to a variety of poisons; some require complex antidotes. Others, such as poison gas or dust are easily dispelled with natural resources. It depends on what strain they are developed from."
Sakura began sprinkling water over the nearest poisoned site. It made sense in a way, as Ikaru must have waited until they were far from any water source. She wished she had the equipment that was necessary to analyze the ingredients of the poison, that way she could find out exactly why water purified it. The two shinobi went about ridding the poison from the land, until the last of the water they had was completely gone. All the sites were normal earth and stone now, and the flames had burned the corpse into a pile of ashes. The sun was rising; the fight and tending to the land had taken all night.
"We'll have to replenish our water." Sakura told Sasuke. They had started away from the battle ground, traveling through the thick forest instead of following the well-worn trail.
The dark-haired avenger was wearing his half-mended shirt. Sakura had used the blankets to cushion the many vials and containers within her pack. He had no idea how she could fit it all within such a small space. "Won't scouts be coming out?" His voice interrupted the silence of their traveling.
"No." Sakura replied curtly. "The Hokage wouldn't investigate a fire. It would mean sending shinobi out constantly. Besides, there are always shinobi in the field. Even if there is never an investigation conducted, someone always manages to report in." She bowed her head in thought. They walked alongside each other for a time in silence before Sakura asked, "Did you mean what you said back there?" Sasuke glanced at the kunoichi. Her jade eyes met his, and Sakura repeated the question. "Ikura being wrong about teamwork and better off being alone?"
Onyx eyes slanted off to the side. It was so much easier being alone, without people constantly asking and analyzing about everything. Sasuke knew that human interaction wasn't his strong point - hadn't been ever since the night that changed everything. He had always viewed everything as an obstacle to get past, a boost for his training. His life had been cold and clinical, removed from such human emotions. 'The irony..' Sasuke thought to himself. The avenger knew that the rest of his life would require exactly what he had spent so long avoiding. Distancing himself wasn't an option anymore.
"Yeah, sure. Don't make such a fuss about it." Sasuke answered gruffly, sticking his hands in his pockets. "Why do you still have the mask on?"
Sakura looked at him in astonishment. "You should know that. When on a mission, ANBU operatives are supposed to keep masked the entire time. I shouldn't have ever taken it off in the first place." Sakura finished quietly. She didn't tell him that she had taken it off so that he wouldn't run away like a spooked deer. When she had first stumbled upon him in that room, Sasuke had reminded her of a mentally unstable lunatic, ready to bolt at the first sign of danger. It seemed proper nutrition and rest had cured him of that though. It was a little frightening at how cooperative he was being, but Sakura still wasn't putting her guard down. Sasuke had a lot to make up for, and it would take more than distracting an opponent for her in battle to earn her trust back.
Author's Note: Another chapter up! I just got into Naruto Shippuden (the anime) and it is amazing! I hope you enjoyed this chapter, I'm trying to get them out as quickly as possible. Please tell me what you think, I love hearing back from my readers. I'll try to have the next chapter posted within another week, thank you for sticking by!