Ch: 26 Friends in Odd Places

Tsunade

"Shizune!"

In came the patter of her assistant's sandals, steps filled with leaps and bounds of energy. "Y-yes, Hokage-sama!"

"You're jumpy today," Tsunade grumbled, rubbing her eyes. She glazed over the pile of paperwork that had accumulated on her desk over the past few hours. It was just too early in the morning to do any of it, which meant she needed sake. "Any word from Team 7?"

Her assistant shook her head.

"Damn it! I sent that message three days ago. What's taking Sakura so goddamn long? Is she on her way back or not?"

"Would you like me to send another?"

"No, that would raise flags. And if the chain of communication has been compromised, sending more will prove just as ineffective."

"I understand, Tsunade-sama. It is not uncommon for messages to take two days, even with the fastest hawks. Perhaps the reply will arrive tomorrow."

It would take four days — two for the message to be delivered, and two for a reply to arrive. But Tsunade hadn't heard news for longer than that, not from either Sakura or Jiraiya. It left her restless that all she could do was sit in an office and do paperwork. Sometimes the hardest part about her job was the waiting. And usually, the only thing that made waiting bearable to Tsunade was sake. And the biggest obstacle to sake was standing right in front of her holding a clipboard — at least until Tsunade could figure out a way to get some alone time. "Fetch me that report from Lab 17, will you?" she asked Shizune. "I want to look at it again."

"Which one? D-1086 or E-8?"

Tsunade waved a hand. "Whichever one, both."

Shizune licked her thumb and tabbed through a stack of papers on her clipboard. "Here they are."

Tsunade set the reports down on the desk without bothering to look at them. Then, she sat back and rubbed her temples. "What about that special case from yesterday? Have you checked on them at all today?"

"Already taken care of. Patient was discharged earlier this morning."

"Good work," Tsunade replied, though now she was running out of ideas. "I have a favor to ask. I forgot to take my pills this morning. Will you grab them?"

"Is it the 5-MTHF you take every other morning, or the daily complex? Actually—it's the fifth day of the week, third week of the month and you're wearing your extra small kimono, which means you didn't take the kudzu root."

"Do I even want to know why you know that?"

"Of course not. I'll fetch it right away."

Tsunade looked at the ground to her left, to where a certain animal was eyeing her suspiciously. Clearing her throat she said, "Shizune, Tonton wants to be held. Take her with you."

Tonton looked from Tsunade to the door where Shizune was standing. "Oink?"

"You want to be held by me?" Shizune asked Tonton.

"When has she ever wanted to be held by me?! Get going!"

"Y-yes Tsunade-sama!"

Tonton wasn't given any option except to be whisked away in Shizune's arms, carried like a limp doll. Tsunade heard one last oink from down the hall, and when it seemed she was alone at last, she breathed a sigh of relief. She opened her bottom desk drawer, to the last hidden stash of sake that Shizune hadn't yet discovered. Because now that she had gotten rid of the only person standing in her way, it was just her and her sweet, sweet sake. Except what she found at the bottom of the drawer was very much unlike the smooth contours of a glass bottle. Instead, her fingers laid siege to a single folded piece of paper:

Tsunade-sama,

By the time you have found this note, Tonton and I would have been able to get away. This is for your own good. I refilled the ink in your pen so you can get straight to work. Don't be too angry, please!

- Shizune and Tonton

"Shit! Shizune! Get back here!" Tsunade crumpled the note and hurled it at the wall. She sprung up from her chair and ran into the hall, but any trace of her assistant and pet pig was long gone. That Shizune is too damn good at her job, she thought bitterly. I should fire her. She contemplated for a minute if she could make a trip to her personal quarters, where she was certain she could find some sake before anyone would be the wiser. But she sensed the familiar chakra of someone arriving, which stopped her dead in her tracks. It was her eagle-masked ANBU.

"What is it?"

"We found this," he replied, handing Tsunade a flier. "It was posted in Tanzaku Quarters. There's no telling who printed it, or how widespread it is."

She took one look at it and felt sick to her stomach. She couldn't tell who printed it, but she knew exactly who's directive it was to have it printed.

"What is your order?" the eagle-masked ANBU member asked.

"Burn it! Burn all the copies that you find. Our first priority is containment, or else we'll have a political catastrophe at our hands. That is if I don't start a civil war myself," she added under her breath. There was only one person manipulative and devious enough to get exactly what he wanted, and everyone in the entire council knew it. He was a stinking old raisin with nothing better to do than meddle in everyone's business, and he had crossed the line this time. Tsunade had half a mind to burn him at the stake. "And where is that bastard anyway?"

"We have a team searching for Danzo."

"Search faster. And when you find him, bring him to me."

"And what will you do about Uchiha Sasuke, Hokage-sama?"

With Team 7 still in the dark, there wasn't much that Tsunade could do. If Sasuke's face was on wanted posters everywhere, they likely had multiple targets on their back now. "That depends on if he survives what's coming next," she replied darkly.

Sakura

There had been signs Kurotsuchi was mentally ill long before the incident occurred, like that store clerk's comment when Sakura purchased a sweater with Kurotsuchi's face on it. She even unintentionally witnessed some of the illness the night she overheard Kurotsuchi acting belligerent or paranoid in her room as if there was someone around her only she could see, and the maids shook their heads as if they were watching a sloppy drunk. These indicated her mental illness was widely accepted already, but with Kurotsuchi hidden away, she was out of sight and out of mind. Seeing her in the flesh, it seemed, shocked everyone to their very core. It left the party haunted.

In an effort to return the party to normalcy, Jun returned to the dining hall minutes after escorting Kurotsuchi to her room. Sakura was still apprehensive about his invitation, but she couldn't exactly decline considering who — and how important — he was. And if Sasuke was right, he did steal Team 7's scroll, so going out with him might've been the only way to find out why.

Sakura and Jun slipped out of the dining hall just when Asuka fortuitously began another one of his stories and strolled all the way to the now-familiar busy downtown Iwa area.

"Here's the spot," Jun said, motioning to a small izakaya wedged between two storefronts. "This place is easy to miss. You could pass by it every day and not even realize it's there."

"Absolutely," Sakura replied, eyeing Jun. "Funny how different things look in the dark."

"Irasshaimase! Anywhere's fine!" shouted a waitress as she shimmied from one table to the next.

They settled on a small round table towards the back of the cramped bar, and Sakura fidgeted with the fabric near her thigh as she sat. Being seen with Jun was one thing, but being seen dining next to him alone, in a bar, at night, in a dress, might send the wrong message. And this was most definitely not a date.

"Here." Jun handed her a menu.

"Thanks."

But what if it was a date? Isn't that what her brooding asshole of a teammate wanted anyway? 'Date her', she echoed, mimicking his stupidly stoic voice. She and Sasuke had shared a few good moments recently, but like an elastic band that had been stretched beyond tolerance, it seemed they'd snapped back to what was normal for them: not getting along. Sakura was glad that Jun couldn't see under the table, where she continued to release nervous energy with her antsy fingers.

"What can I get ya?" The well-rehearsed words rolled off the waitress's tongue like butter. "O-oh, hello, Captain Yashin. We are most honored to serve you today. Anything pique your interest?"

"Indeed." Jun's handsome face had been fixated on the menu for quite some time, too preoccupied with reading the items to notice the waitress's fluster. "How hungry are you?"

Sakura was slow to catch that the question was directed at her, as he hadn't once looked at her since they'd been out. "I could eat," she admitted, knowing she had more alcohol in her stomach than anything else and was starving.

"We'll take one of everything. To share."

"Yes, sir, right away sir." The waitress collected their menus, bowed, and then scurried off with her notepad in her apron. She was trying not to let her excitement show, like the way people remained 'calm' around famous people. Sakura could understand. She, too, understood Jun's star-like quality.

"So where were we?" he asked, looking up to address Sakura for the first time since they sat. "I think I've got the gist of how your teammates have been adjusting. But have you had a chance to explore the town?"

"I haven't. Of course, I went shopping for basics, but other than that, it's been too busy for much else."

"As you know, I recently returned from Konoha myself." Jun poured both of them a cup of steaming tea.

"That's right, I almost forgot," Sakura lied. The truth was, ever since Sasuke accused Jun of stealing their scroll, she'd been equal parts hesitant and eager. Hesitant to believe it because she wanted to like Jun, and eager, because wouldn't it be satisfying to prove Sasuke wrong for once?

"I have to say, your land is beautiful. There was so much life in the forest. I couldn't help but feel like the rustling branches of trees were whispers as I passed."

"You mean icy, rocky terrain doesn't do that?" Sakura waited for Jun to reply with a witty remark, but he did not seem as amused as she. She cleared her throat and shifted in her seat, putting her hands under her to restrict them from fidgeting. "How was your visit?"

"We were received well by Hokage-sama and the advisement council," Jun continued. "They were incredibly gracious and hospitable."

Sakura almost snorted. "You sure you saw 'Hokage-sama'? No way she could tolerate being in a room with those geezers, let alone be gracious in their presence."

"Unless she has a twin."

"She doesn't. But I would've paid money to see that." Perhaps that was why Princess Tsunade didn't mention Iwa would be visiting.

The look in Jun's eyes hardened. He was trying to be serious, it seemed, and her childish remarks were not helping.

"Anyway, how endearing it was to see Hokage-sama holding her pet pig, Tonton. Considering she is the only kage with an unofficial assistant, she and Shizune must be close.

Uneasiness within Sakura swelled at these words, but it was a vague feeling, diluted with the uncertainty of why she felt so.

"The best I can hope for is that your stay in Iwa be equally pleasurable. Has it been to your liking so far?"

"It has."

The waitress came by again, setting an assortment of appetizers across the table for the two of them to share. Sakura noticed a slight shake in her fingertips.

"Please, Sakura," Jun gestured to food while handing her a pair of chopsticks. "Eat to your heart's content."

'Sakura?' Didn't he always refer to her as 'Haruno'? It finally clicked; Jun had been speaking in a distant, alien-like way ever since they left the dining hall. Why was he purposefully disjointing from her, making their dynamic detached, formal, and nothing like the chemistry she'd felt before? Or was that all a lie? Maybe Jun was, like her, trying to fish for information. A good Jonin would remain close and take her out like this, to try to learn what Team 7 had learned about Iwa during their stay.

But that didn't make sense, either. Jun was certainly capable of charming the information out of someone, but whatever he was doing was quite the opposite of charming. And which version of Jun was true? The version she remembered and the person in front of her were almost like two separate individuals. Was she really having dinner with Jun at all?

The rest of the dinner was quiet as they made occasional small talk that was just as awkward as it was superficial. The clock on the far side of the room read 9:38pm, and Sakura could've sworn it had been that way for the past hour. Eventually, they finished, and despite Sakura's protests, Jun insisted on paying for the whole thing.

"I do hope you enjoyed yourself," he said once they were outside.

"I did," Sakura insisted, as the muscles on her face cramped into a smile. "The food was delicious." But she knew she'd failed. She didn't get closer to Jun or find out anything useful — like if Jun really had taken the scroll.

"I should walk you back to your room now, I suppose."

"That would be nice."

Sakura began to turn in the direction of the Tsuchikage castle, but when she looked back to Jun, he was staring at her intently. His expression said he wanted to tell her something. "You know what?" he said, suddenly. "Let's make a pitstop before I take you back. Come on, it'll be quick."

"I don't think I—" Before she could finish, her wrist had been taken and she was being led in the opposite direction. "Where are we going?" she asked, her breath picking up as they began a run.

"You'll see," he replied, a slight grin on his face. "Close your eyes."

"What? Why?"

"Just do it, Haruno."

And there it was. A hint of the Jun she knew. "Fine, but this better be worth it." She felt excitement build within her as they dashed away from the main street and entered a quiet neighborhood. They ran all the way until the sound of her heel hitting the ground was replaced by a sensation like she was padding on soft, moist soil. She opened an eye to sneak a glance.

"Are you peeking, Haruno?"

Sakura closed her eye, but knew he'd already seen her. "I just had to make sure you were still there."

"You know I'm touching you, right?"

"You could've been replaced by a log. I wouldn't have known the difference."

"Alright, just know that you brought this upon yourself."

The cold wind suddenly disappeared, and she could feel his body in front of her. Not able to help herself, she opened her eyes again. She saw his chin, with a faint shadow of stubble teasing the lower half of his face. She saw him flash a grin before her vision went dark, and a soft, velvet fabric tickled her head. "You're blindfolding me?"

"Insurance. Just until we get to the top."

"The top?"

"Here," Jun said, taking off his jacket and placing it atop her shoulders.

The scent of his jacket resembled hinoki wood, a rare and otherworldly pink-colored cypress that only sprouted leaves once every few years. The deep earthly and citrus scents fueled the anticipation that blazed into excitement within her.

She was led up an incline where the brisk air began to nip with greater intensity. She had her excellent chakra control to thank as the terrain transitioned from soft dirt to rocky, until she was hopping from boulder to boulder with only his hand around her wrist to guide her. A few minutes later, she smelled salt in the air. It was soon accompanied by the sounds of powerful waves crashing against the land and a wild wind that sent her hair charging.

The hold around her wrist lessened. "You can take the blindfold off now."

As soon as she did, Sakura looked at her feet. She stood just inches away from the edge of a cliff, which toppled over a vast and endless sea that rolled into the abyss of the darkness of the night. She began to take notice of tiny specks of glimmering moonlight, almost reflecting from the sand as if touching millions of tiny prisms. She was pierced through the heart with awe. She felt on top of the world.

"Race you to the water!"

"That's not fair! I'm in a dress!" But Sakura's competitive nature struck, and she quickly followed suit, using a burst of concentrated chakra in her heel to zoom forward. They reached the shore at the same time, and both collapsed onto their backs with their chests rising and falling.

"It's beautiful," Sakura said. "I can't remember the last time I visited the beach. There aren't many opportunities to visit the coast where I'm from." Sakura felt grateful for being shown sights of Iwa that probably no outsider had ever seen before. She also felt a sense of liberation. For the first time in weeks, she wasn't thinking about anything except what was directly in front of her. Jun was able to give that to her.

"Yeah. It's my favorite view," Jun replied, propping himself up on one elbow. The illumination of the overheard stars danced against his skin, seizing her attention and pulling her into a trance. To everyone else, he was charming as the formal, stringent captain, but this was the side of him that she liked. He was gut-wrenchingly handsome like this, almost child-like in a playful, innocent way. It was the side of him that bewitched her whenever it made an appearance. She decided that this must be the version of Jun that was true. Her only question was, why wasn't he like this earlier?

"Haruno. Can I tell you something? It's about your teammate, Sasuke."

Hearing the name sent a zap to the back of her head, jolting her awake. "What does Sasuke have to do with anything?"

"I shouldn't even be saying this…" Jun began, his expression now dark with the threat of bad news.

"Saying what?" She knew Sasuke could do without Jun, but had something happened to make the feeling mutual? "Has he gotten into some kind of trouble?"

Jun shook his head. "I don't agree with his coarse demeanor, but he was right about the scroll."

"You actually took it?" Her mind was taken back to the sight of Sasuke standing in front of her, his eyes boring into hers almost accusingly as if she had been the one to take it. 'Don't tell me you like the guy', she heard Sasuke say in her head. At the time, she felt defensive of Jun because it seemed out of character for him to steal it. Now, she just felt like a sucker, for falling for Jun's act the first time, and then again just moments earlier.

Jun kept his gaze to the sky, his silence an admission of guilt.

"Why?"

"Tsuchikage's orders."

"That's stupid," Sakura replied, getting up to her feet. "We were already on the way over to you. You would've had the scroll if you waited hours, not days."

"I know," Jun sighed. "He didn't want to take chances. Medical information especially makes him paranoid."

"And how do you think it's going to go when I write in my report that Iwa, the nation we're supposed to be forming an alliance with, stole from Konoha?" She didn't know when she began to wave her arms, but she had begun gesturing angrily. Her voice was also raised, disturbing the tranquility around them. But she didn't care. Her, Naruto, and Sasuke had gone through hell and back in Yukkao, all because Iwa wanted a scroll a couple of days earlier.

"It's up to you," Jun said quietly, "if you want to include it at all."

"Are you serious?" Sakura glared. "Is that why you've been so nice to me?" Her rage now threatened to escape her balled fists that could take the shape of a crater deep enough to form a second ocean. "You thought I'd be so easy, to omit something like this from my report because you, what? Gave me a nice room to stay in and bought me dinner?"

"That's unrelated."

"This wouldn't be the first time Iwa's done something questionable for the sake of serving themselves," she said. "Your village hasn't changed one last bit in the last twenty years."

"You're preaching to the choir, Haruno," Jun said. "But what if things changed? Things could be different, you know. Under new leadership."

"Ha," Sakura replied darkly, almost mocking him. She didn't know what he meant by that, but something 'different' in the shinobi world was Akatsuki's whole agenda, and look where that had gotten her.

"You know what? I shouldn't have said anything," Jun muttered.

"Then why the hell did you?"

"Because," Jun said, "if Iwa and Konoha are going to be in an alliance, isn't it better with no secrets between us?"

Sakura paused. Secrets. Like the communication scroll she had in her backpack, something that would forever wreck Sasuke's trust in her if he found out about it. Or the sealed artifact Itachi had given her that night in Yukkao, something that was designed by Leader to hurt Naruto in some way. These secrets were a painful reminder that despite her changed heart, it was wrong to be close to either of her teammates. Because if she got too close, everybody would get burned.

"Secrets hurt relationships, don't they?" she said quietly.

"I wasn't planning to tell you at first. I've been fighting myself this whole night. You're perceptive, so you might've noticed something was off."

While every part of Sakura wanted to disclose Jun's confession to her teammates right away, a part of her also wanted to stay just long enough to know why. "Yeah, so what changed?" Why now, would Jun tell her this, if he could've gotten away with it?

"I just told you. Our alliance. I thought about it, and decided it wouldn't serve either of us to start one with secrets between us."

"But why now? Why risk negotiations?"

"My feelings."

"What feelings?"

"You ask a lot of questions, Haruno."

"Don't you think I deserve to?"

Jun sighed. "Well, for starters, I'd say I didn't like the feeling of having distance between us."

"Why does that matter?"

"Because it's you, alright?"

"I—" Sakura felt a tug of excitement that unraveled the knot in the pit of her stomach, indicating to her that maybe this was the answer she wanted to hear all along.

"Keeping it from you was getting harder by the minute. You're different. You're important to me."

"I am?"

"You are."

Sakura's arms fell to her sides as if she was disarmed.

"And I figured it would make it easier for you to forgive me if you knew you had this over my head. Obviously, whether you choose to report it is your choice. You do what you need to do Haruno, got it?"

Sakura did have to admit, by revealing all his cards, Jun had given her the upper hand. He was right; it did make it easier to forgive him.

"Thought I lost you to your senses there," Jun said, hitting her on the arm playfully.

"Ow—rude!" Sakura was still peeved that Team 7 was sent on a wild goose chase over the missing scroll, but there was little Jun could do to avoid a direct order from a senile Tsuchikage. So instead of running off like she'd planned to do, she sat beside him with a huff. "I still have to report this, you know. But Sasuke was right about another thing. While this may hurt Iwa's negotiation power, it seems inconsequential to the alliance."

"Probably." Jun smirked. "By the way, the scroll you did give us kinda sucked."

Sakura rolled her eyes. "I did what I had to, alright?"

"I just hope your medical chops are better than your origami."

"Oh I'm sorry," Sakura shot back, "is this you begging for forgiveness?"

"No, but I'll find some way to make it up to you."

Whether voluntarily or not, Sakura was nowhere near as pissed as she was a few moments ago. She averted her gaze to the ocean ahead and used the sounds of the waves to quelch the remaining resentment within her. Eventually, a comfortable silence passed over them, and Sakura allowed herself to be hypnotized by the cyclical waves approaching and receding. The white noise from the wind, almost as if scraping against the surface of the water like a knife, left little need for an exchange of words.

Jun glanced over and noticed her skin showed goosebumps despite the fact that she was wearing his jacket. He made a few hand seals, and a quarter-dome rose from the sand, shielding their sides and backs from the wind but leaving an opening so they could still enjoy the view.

"Thanks," Sakura said, giving him a faint smile.

"I found this place by accident," Jun said. "Not a lot of roads were paved when I was a kid. So it was easy to get lost, which happened often."

"Must've given your parents quite the scare."

"Nah."

"Nah?"

"I grew up in the orphanage," he explained, "and the lady who ran it died when I was six, just a few months after I got there. I spent a lot of time by myself."

Sakura noticed he said these words plainly and devoid of any emotion.

"So you came from a civilian family then?"

Jun nodded. "I don't really remember my parents, but they didn't want me anyway. Makes it easy to not care."

Over the next few minutes, Sakura learned how Jun worked his way to become one of the most successful and well-respected shinobi in Iwa, coming from practically nothing. The feelings of uncertainty and apprehension that she started the evening with, which briefly meandered into anger and resentment, had now settled on fondness. He was like her, and that made her appreciate him. Once again, excitement and anticipation came zinging.

"So before all that," she asked Jun, "how did you first come to know the shinobi world?"

"It started here actually." He nodded to the ocean. "After I discovered this view, I came here often. Turns out I wasn't the only one. This is where I first met Kurotsuchi."

"Kurotsuchi, as in… the Tsuchikage's Kurotsuchi?"

"That's the one. She became my best friend, and her family pretty much adopted me. They got me into school, and the rest was history. But it's late. I should take you back before your teammates worry."

"Oh, okay," Sakura said, surprised at the abrupt cut-off. Maybe Jun didn't want to talk about Kurotsuchi. She allowed him to pull her upwards and lead her in the same direction they came, back up the cliff and through the woods. It was easier going back now that she wasn't blindfolded.

"Something back there?" Jun asked her.

"No."

"You keep glancing behind us like you expect someone to be following us."

"I could've sworn—" Sakura turned her head once again. Almost as if the tiny hairs on the back of her neck were responding to a call, she couldn't escape the familiar sensation that somebody was there. "Nevermind, it's probably nothing," she lied.

"Want to check it out?"

"No." The last thing she needed was for Jun to be roped into whatever had been following her around since Yukkao. Her biggest worry was that it was something Akatsuki-related, and everyone would see that she was just as much a liar as she was a traitor. "Let's just keep walking."

They arrived at the bustling downtown center for the second time that night. Most of the people were civilians, and they glazed over her and Jun without a second thought. The sea of eyes had morphed into a hazy blur, and Sakura relaxed again.

The night markets were booming, with villagers and excited children chattering loudly as they weaved in and out of stores. Torches were staked along the streets between road lamps, lighting a path that had the spirit of Iwa celebrating a festive mood.

"Step right up, step right up!" shouted a voice through a megaphone.

Sakura searched the crowd and spotted a merchant entertaining a crowd with a game he was running.

"Lady in pink! Aren't you a sight for sore eyes? What's your name?"

"Sakura," she replied loudly so that her voice cut through the roar of the audience.

"Okay, cherry blossom! Somethin' on my wall catch your eye?"

There were rows and rows of stuffed animals, toys, and trinkets displayed prominently behind the merchant. At the very bottom row, she spotted a small watch with a cartoon slug on it, one that was white with blue stripes. "That one," she pointed, smiling.

"Win and the prize is yours!" The merchant was holding what appeared to be a makeshift fishing pole, except on the end of his string was a plastic ring. On the ground, five glass bottles were propped sideways. "Use the ring to lift one bottle right-side up; that's all you have to do! Just 70 Ryo to play!"

Sakura knew there was some kind of trick to make it appear easy when in reality the merchant was probably making hundreds of Ryo each night from this game alone.

"There is no trick! It is as easy as it looks!" And to prove it, the merchant picked up one of his fishing poles and dangled the ring above one of the glass bottles. "Steady your ring, and… lean!" As he tilted his torso forward and shot out his arm, the ring from his line looped around the neck of a bottle and lifted it right side up. The crowd cheered. The merchant then turned to Jun suddenly. "Whaddya say friend," he shouted so loudly through the megaphone that nobody in the entire village of Iwa would not hear. "Will you try to win your lady her new trinket?"

Jun pulled out a few bills from his pocket.

"Oh, you don't have to—"

Sakura began to stop him, but it was too late, because the merchant had too eagerly taken the money already, leaving Jun with a fishing pole in his hands. Jun winked at her as if to tell her not to worry.

"Alright, alright!" the merchant shouted. "Gather 'round everyone! We got a taker and he's one handsome fella!"

The crowd became enamored with Jun, who had just become the street's main attraction. He kept his focus entirely on the ring dangling from his pole, as coolly and calmly as if he was in the privacy of his own room all by himself.

"You saw how it works, right?" the merchant whispered to him, with a supportive hand on his shoulder. "The key is the lean. You lean, and you'll get your bottle to go straight up. Most people can't get the bottle because they use their arm, not their whole body. Get ready." Jun's ring swung unpredictably on the end of the line on his fishing pole. The crowd was hanging onto every word. Once the ring became steady, the merchant shot his arm out. "And LEAN!"

Jun did as he was told, bending over with the full engagement of his body. He brought the ring to the neck of the glass bottle. Sakura held her breath as the bottle went upwards, righting itself, but then tumbled out of the ring. Glass hit the rocky floor and the crowd sighed with disappointment.

"Better luck next time!" the merchant said. As parts of the crowd began to dwindle away, new people came to fill the space. "Step right up, step right up! Anyone who uprights a bottle takes home any prize on the wall!"

"Tch. Let's get out of here," Jun muttered. The scowl remained firmly planted on his face all the way until they reached the castle.

Sakura tried to make him feel better once they were outside the entrance. "I'm glad I came out with you tonight," she told him. "Thanks."

Jun's shoulders visibly relaxed, and his expression was instantly replaced by that easy, relaxed smile that Sakura loved on him. "Me too."

It was dead quiet inside. The two of them scurried through the hallways practically on their tip-toes, only stopping when they reached Sakura's door. She ushered Jun inside so they could speak normally.

"It feels like we're kids," Sakura said, giggling. "Last time I had to sneak around like that was when I still lived with my parents. But I didn't have any nin skills back then, so I got caught. Worth it, though."

"Why's that?"

As Jun shut the door, Sakura felt the onset of light-headedness and sat down on her bed. "Oh, stupid teenage girl stuff," she explained. "I had an enemy because we… liked the same guy. Her hair was blonde but I set a green powder explosive to go off by her window. It got her two days before picture day." Sakura left out the part that it was Sasuke, the guy sleeping down the hall, that she did it for.

Jun smirked and folded his arms against his chest as he leaned against her door. "How'd you get caught?"

"I took longer than I thought, and my parents were already up when I got back. They heard me come in through the window. They were pissed, but when the school sent home a letter, they became livid. I don't think I'd ever seen them so mad." As she spoke, Sakura began to rub her temples. The feeling of light-headedness, she realized, was akin to a severe case of deja vu and brain fog.

"Your parents probably don't remember as much about the incident as you do," Jun said. "Things usually feel like a bigger deal when you're a kid."

"My parents died. They—" Sakura paused. For whatever reason, her first instinct was to say that they had gotten sick and died of natural causes. But that was false. The image of her parent's real death, one that haunted her thanks to the poison she was exposed to on their way to Iwa, had become murky. It was like it was fading from view. "They died in battle," she finally said. Her head now began to hurt.

"You didn't mention any of this earlier."

"I was more interested in hearing your story," Sakura replied. And it was a topic that she wanted to avoid, as it made clear how incompetent and careless Konoha was with their shinobi, and it was what pushed her to join Akatsuki.

"I guess we're pretty similar then," Jun said. "You know, I've never done this before."

"Done what?"

"Tell people about my life. Show them my favorite spot. Reveal top-secret information about Iwa."

Sakura dropped her hands from her temple, as now whatever sensations she was feeling had passed as soon as they changed topics. "I must be special."

"I don't know, Haruno. Will you be special to me?"

Sakura expected Jun to reply with something sarcastic, so when he didn't, she felt put on the spot and blood began to rush to her face. "Well, I…" She didn't know how to respond, only becoming aware of their current predicament: it was late, they were alone in her room, and she was sitting on a bed with a thin dress that Jun could probably undo with just one hand—

Jun was looking at her with a gleeful and mischievous twinkle in his eye.

The heat behind her cheeks burst into flames, but she cleared her throat when she realized a panicked reaction was probably exactly what Jun intended to elicit. "Nice try."

"It's beyond late at this point," Jun said, now that he had enough fun tormenting her. "I'll let you catch up on some rest."

"That's probably a good idea."

Jun reached an arm behind his back to open the door and prepare his exit.

"Oh, and Jun?"

"Yes?"

"Thanks for tonight."

"Don't mention it, Haruno. In fact, we'll do it again."

Sasuke

He heard them in the hallway. Heck, half the castle probably heard them. Sakura and Jun were so-called elite shinobi for christ's sake, but any half-wit clod could've done better to sneak past people's rooms without being heard. The most infuriating part was they probably thought they were being sneaky, but how could they, with all that flirting and giggling?

Sasuke tried to tell himself that they were the problem, and not him. That the problem was them being loud, and not he who had laid in bed restlessly, staring at the ceiling and waiting and listening for their return. Because for that to be true, Sasuke would have to actually give a shit. He didn't.

And how much fucking time do you need to say goodbye? Sasuke thought bitterly of Jun, who should have been most unwelcome in Sakura's room. It had been six and a half minutes and he was still there. Just leave, already.

A faint thump sounded from down the hall, followed by an opening and closing of a door, then footsteps. The footsteps got louder, and Sasuke distinguished the signature sound of heavy combat boots clicking on the stone floors heading towards him. Jun would have to pass by Sasuke's room on the way out. Sasuke waited for the annoyance to pass patiently. It didn't. It stopped right outside of his room.

Sasuke sat up in bed. There was intent in the chakra outside his door, and while it wasn't a violent or dangerous threat, it was unsettling. Sasuke activated his Sharingan, and sure enough, Jun would have been facing Sasuke if there wasn't a stone wall between them. He stood there, unmoving. It was like he was waiting, and there was something almost predatory about it.

Sasuke narrowed his eyes. He anticipated that Jun would knock. But a moment passed, and the clicking of boots resumed, echoing as they faded and disappeared altogether. He stared at the door some more, as if Jun would change his mind and come back to be irksome. But only silence stared back. When Sasuke was convinced that it would remain a closed door, he allowed himself to collapse onto his back to ruminate.

Where had Sakura and Jun gone earlier that night? Of course, Sasuke was only asking because it was pragmatic to figure out if she'd managed to learn anything useful. That's why they were in Iwa. But did she have to go dressed like that?

Sharingan still active, Sasuke found himself mentally replaying images. Specifically, images of Sakura that happened to be taken while she was unaware they were being taken. He was brought back earlier that night, when the two of them waited outside the dining hall for Naruto to arrive. The clouds collected into a storm that brought a fortuitous rain, a rain that brought them physically closer for just a few minutes. Sasuke replayed the image of her drenched hair, and how it clung to her neck in the same way her dress clung to her skin. How the fabric clung to every contour of her body.

He wondered if Sakura was still wearing the dress. Or if, in the comfort and privacy of her room, she wasn't. He wondered if, at that very moment, Sakura might've been changing out of it. And as she stood there changing out of it, he wondered if she might've hooked her thumbs under the spaghetti straps of her dress, releasing their hold on her shoulders so that the fabric could fall freely. And while it did that, he wondered if it would get caught around her breasts or hips on the way down, and if she tugged to release it until it fell around her feet. He wondered if once the dress was at her feet, she was naked.

That was too far. Sasuke sprang up from his bed and walked over to his desk and chair, to where he'd laid out his bath towel.

A cold shower would do him wonders.

To be continued…