Note:

" talk " - The characters are speaking in Japanese.

" talk " - The characters are speaking English.

' talk ' - The characters are thinking.

More notes at the end of the chapter.

This chapter is unedited. (5/27/20)

Eternal

Part Two: Thallo

Interlude II

Overture

The weather had been kind to them for the past few weeks on their travel. Day after day the sun would rise, not a cloud hindering its rays, and the breeze would treat them benevolently with light, airy gusts that kept them cool. The vividness of the forest that surrounded them, that colored the grass on their path and the leaves that were high up on their branches that would eventually fall and meet their feet, were inviting their eyes to the beauty that nature offered.

She smiled. Perhaps it was because of who she was with that made her feel tranquil, or the new era of peace that had ushered in the land that absolved her of her nerves when they had first departed the village.

After long years of tension between villages, between ninja, that had come to a climax at the Third Great Ninja War, things have quieted down, and the world had never had peace such as this in what may have been centuries. And just like how time had waited for the sweet feeling of weapons being put down and treaties being signed, Sakura's patience had paid off, as well.

She shifted her head to glance at the man walking beside her. His hair was longer, covering his now purple eye from view, and the profile of his sharp features did nothing to quell the sensation that the sight of him did to her heart. But he was more than what the eye can perceive. He had been through tremendous loss, and of the full extent of his trauma, she knew not entirely, but she was willing to wait some more for him to divulge the severity of his truths when he was ready.

He was no simple man in that regard, she supposed. In his taste, his lifestyle, yes he was. But apart from that, his story, his mind, was a cavern that she had yet to explore in its entirety. She never expected him to tell her everything the moment, he had asked her to come with him after the two years she had not seen him. In fact, it was almost a shock that he even talked about some of the things he went through during the years he had defected the village to join Orochimaru.

Sakura had begun to piece some information together, though, as their journey continued. It had left her chest feeling heavy at the thought of what he had gone through. She could only imagine how heavy the weight of his past was on his mind. But at the moment, all she could do was be there for him, and wait until he was ready.

The people around her were unsure of her decision to wait for so long. She could understand that. However, they did not know him like she and Naruto and Kakashi did. The four of them, though not entirely together for a number of years, had something special between them, a bond that tied them together so tightly that it would be impossible to try and sever, no matter how many times Sasuke had tried.

A soft laugh escaped her lips at the thought.

"What's funny?" Sasuke spoke, his eyes moved to her direction as they continued their walk.

She shook her head. "Nothing. I was just thinking about the old days."

He said nothing. Instead, he raised a brow for her to elaborate.

"You know, how we were all so different at the academy." Her eyes moved to her feet. "It's kind of embarrassing to think about how I acted, then."

"We were children, then."

"I never would have thought that we'd have to go through what we did, but at the end of the day, I'm glad we ended up where we are."

"What brought this on?"

She looked at him, a soft smile gracing her lips. It was a gentle look he was beginning to etch into his memory. He liked that smile.

"I'm just thinking about what we had to do to get here."

His mind went a little differently than hers did. A flash of guilt invaded his thoughts. She, as well as the rest of team seven, had to fight their way into getting him back in the right state of mind. Years of his personal struggles had also affected them. He knew he was not entirely to blame. His circumstances were marred with stains of manipulation and lies that led him diving into a storm that he was not proud of falling into.

He had his sins to atone for, the sins that had made him walk away from his village a second time, but unlike the first time, he left with a lighter heart.

The night he had first left the village, all he could remember was how he felt like he had to cage his emotions and other things he deemed distracting away from his mind. Package and seal them away, so it wouldn't make him hesitate. That was the same night she found him by the gates.

He had been angry, at first, at the sight of her. He wanted to leave without notice, and yet she stood there before him, somehow having figured out his intentions.

He knew she was intelligent, observant. It shouldn't have come as a shock, but he knew now that it wasn't a momentary feeling of surprise at the sight of her. It was anger. He didn't want to have her there and beg him to stay. He was too caught up in his desire for power that nothing would have made him stay. But as her tears rolled on and her voice grew more and more desperate, he felt his resolve chip slightly. That was why he had to stop her.

She confessed that night. Though, he knew of her feelings towards him, he didn't know how deep they had become and if her words were truly what her heart was saying and not her desperation. Back then, he knew she was important to him, but to what extent, he didn't think it was to the same level that she had of him.

But now, years later, as the two of them walk side by side with no set destination, he had begun to notice so much more about his pink-haired teammate. She had grown from an unsure young girl to a confident force to be reckoned with. He was proud of her. He never said it out loud, but he hoped she knew.

The day he left after the war, she was there, too. But instead of tears, he left her with hope. And he had come back to fulfill his promise.

When he decided to go on this journey, he meant it when he said she had no part in his sins. Thinking back, he could understand how she could have misconstrued what he meant. That first part of his journey was to help him absolve himself of the sins he made as a ninja, to walk and see the world for what it has become in all ways, instead of the bleak lenses that had covered his gaze.

But he made her a promise. "Next time," he said then. His first journey was for him to realize the gravity and extent of his actions. When he came back to fulfill his promise to her, it was just as much for him as it was for her. He had caused her great grief and sorrow. He did things he regretted, and he still wondered why she thought so highly of him.

It was an alleviating feeling, though, her warmth towards him. After everything he did, everything they had gone through, she still gave him the benefit of the doubt. She still waited for him. What he did to deserve that patience, he did not know. He found himself grateful for it, either way.

They have been travelling together for almost a month now, and they both felt a shift in their relationship. What started as comfortable, albeit at times awkward, companionship had morphed into steady and natural back and forths. When he needed her help, she knew when to pitch in, and when she would ask him questions, he found himself unhesitatingly answer.

Small brushes of their fingers as they set camp or the lingering gazes they shared did not go past him. Being with her had felt all the more right. Sometimes they would have conversations, and though Sakura always led them, he appreciated hearing the passion in her voice as she spoke about the clinics she had started for orphaned children and the work she was so proud of.

As she felt his fingers brush hers, she felt a rise in heat on her cheeks. A finger lingered on her hand and she felt herself open her palm, inviting his. His fingers slowly intertwined with hers, and all she could do was have the corners of her lips curve up at the newfound warmth of his palm meeting hers. The heat in her cheeks intensified and she couldn't help but look away, a mixture of giddiness and shyness.

He didn't say a word. He continued looking straight, but he noted how small her hand was compared to his own. Yet, those hands could do more damage than a majority of ninja ever could.

She was all sorts of contradictions. Where her fists could cause the ground beneath them to shake, her fingers were delicate, her touch soft, healing. Where she could be loud, her voice would soften and soothe and empower an audience. Where her eyes could divulge her secrets, she was a kunoichi capable of uncovering secrets that are not her own.

Aside from that, there was one thing, one word he thought of that encompassed her being. Vibrant.

Where his life had been dark, there had been sparks of light that had helped him. One of them was the bright pink light she radiated. Even then, he knew she had grown important to him. Now, she still was, but in a way he didn't know how to describe.

What he did know, though, was that in that moment, with her slim fingers intertwined his, he felt content.

It was late afternoon, and the two found themselves near a small village where the homes looked small and quaint. On their way to village in search of an inn to stay in, Sasuke having thought a night on a bed would be a welcome change, they feel a commotion hidden behind the trees.

With one shared look, the two steady themselves, preparing for what's to come. Swiftly and silently, they made their way to the source and see an elderly woman surrounded by a three men.

"Now, I don't know you're spouting all that crap around the village, but it better stop," one of them said, eyes slanted, a threat in them.

"I have no clue what you mean, young man," she said, her voice not showing a hint of fear. Instead, it showcased rebellion.

"You know those ninja only cause nothing but trouble. To defend them like that is just stupid to do in front of us."

Sakura's eyes narrowed, listening intently to what they were saying.

"Without those ninja, we would be living in hell on earth by now, young men. You must admit that."

"Without those ninja, hell on earth wouldn't have been a possibility!" Another exclaimed, hands raised looking to assault the older woman.

Quicker than anyone could see, Sasuke appeared in front of the woman, grabbing the man's wrist with his only hand, his one visible eye showing the irritation he felt.

"What the-"

"Is this how you treat your elders around here?" Sakura appeared from the shadows, arms folded.

"Ninja," one growled with loathing dripping in his tone. "Your kind is not welcome around here."

Sakura ignored this. "We're not leaving until you leave her alone."

Sasuke's grip on the man's wrist loosened as the three of them stared at each other, the looks on their faces in a complicated twist.

One of them harrumphed. "Whatever."

As the three men walked away, Sasuke and Sakura stared at their retreating forms. They had known once they saw the situation that it was more than likely it wouldn't escalate, but the words they had overheard stuck in their minds.

In the month that they had been travelling together, this was not the first instance of a negative reaction to their presence. It was mostly due to Sasuke's that scared some people off, but this was the first that them being ninjas had roused such a reaction.

Sakura knew that there were people that didn't approve of the ninja lifestyle, that thought that people so young shouldn't have to fight for their life, but since the war had ended, she'd not encountered anyone so against the existence of ninja all together.

She saw something in Sasuke's eyes that told her that perhaps he had encounters similar before. She wondered why she hadn't heard of something like this from Kakashi, then remembered that for the past two years, her focus had shifted elsewhere. From getting the necessary funding for the children's mental health clinic and her promotion at the hospital, the only few instances that she had gotten out of the village were for the expansion of the children mental health facilities to other villages or a few diplomatic missions. Well, there was the time with Kido a few weeks before Sasuke's return.

"Thank you," a quiet, worn voice took her out of her thoughts, and Sakura looked at the old woman standing by the trunk of a tree. "Those kids have been insistent on their message being heard."

"It was no problem." She paused, taking her words in. "This isn't the first time?"

The woman smiled, her lips tight. "You both look tired. Why don't you come with me for some tea?"

The woman, who they learned was named Chie, lead them both to a home just on the outskirts of the small village. Though small, it was too big for the woman alone. Once they had gotten close enough, a teenage girl ran out of the front door and wrapped her arms around Chie.

"Grandma! I was getting so worried," she said. "You didn't get into trouble, did you?"

"I'm fine, Eiko. Had a little help."

Eiko realized the two stranger's presence as she let go of her embrace. Her brown eyes studied them, their appearance interesting her. The woman had hair a color peculiar to her, never having seen the shade other than when spring would arrive and the cherry blossoms bloomed. Her smile was inviting, her eyes kind. The man, though, looked scarier to her. Though from the side of his face she could see, he was handsome, but his presence was more intimidating.

The four of them entered the home, and Eiko began preparing tea by her grandmother's request. Sitting by the table, Sasuke felt out of place. In his travels alone, he had rarely stepped foot into an inn, let alone someone's home. He had become used to the feel of the ground as his bed. If he had been alone, he wouldn't have suggested going into town in search for an inn, but he wanted her to feel comfortable.

"So, what brings you two to these parts?"

"We're just travelling. No set destination, actually."

The woman raised her brow. "You're not rogues, are you?"

Sakura shakes her head. "Oh, no. No, we have permission from our village."

"And it's just the two of you? Is this a new honeymoon trend? Travel around on foot?"

She felt her face turn red with heat. "We're," she stuttered. "We're not-"

"Dating, then?"

Sakura had no idea how to answer the question, and Sasuke chose to remain quiet, as he usually would. If Sakura had to be honest, she didn't know how to answer that question to begin with. The dynamic between the two had changed the moment they stepped foot out of the village gates. Maybe even the moment he had showed up in front of her door and told her that he was home.

Neither tried to label anything, in fear of what the other would think. In a mere month, their hands have gotten used to the warmth of the other. Sasuke had learned that her smile was a sight he had begun to cherish after their previous encounters had always kept her face solemn and filled with concern. Sakura relished in his company, hearing him open up bit by bit and slowly tell her what he's kept to himself.

Some would say they were on accelerated time, having not seen each other for a long time. But with the life they had lived and the complexity of their situation, it seemed that this journey was just the beginning of a destination that was inevitable to come after the longest period of uncertainty.

Eiko entered the room and placed the teapot and teacups on to the table from the tray she had carried. "Grandma, you can't just be prying like that. Some couples like to be private."

"Not since after the war. Have you seen all the babies popping out of these kids these past few years?"

"Grandma!"

Sasuke wondered if it was too late to just leave, and Sakura seemed to find the empty wall on her right a very interesting sight.

"Alright. I was just curious. You don't see ninjas around these parts a lot."

"Ninjas?" Eiko looked at them as she took her seat. She figured the man was one, but she wouldn't have guessed the woman was. She had never met a ninja before, but he fit the description of ninja people had told her more than she did. She was going to ask them about it before she realized what had kept her grandmother so long. "Grandma, were you being bothered again?"

Chie waved it off. "I'm fine. These two showed up just in time."

"'Again'?" Sakura parroted, her hands on the small teacup. "This isn't the first time?"

Sighing, Eiko took a sip of her tea before answering. "Ninjas aren't very popular around here. They weren't to begin with, but ever since the war, the village has pretty much hated them. Grandma here doesn't share the same opinion."

"I was born in Konoha, after all."

This was interesting to Sakura. "What made you leave?"

She nodded, sipping from her cup. "I met my husband, then moved down here. We both wanted a quieter life, and Konoha's not exactly a quiet village. But yes, this village isn't particularly fond of ninjas."

"That's putting it lightly," Eiko muttered. "I heard Hachi's basically started an anti-shinobi group or something."

Sasuke began to listen more intently. Though his travels were mostly for him, he had found it within himself to send Kakashi some updates on the what's been happening outside the village. An anti-shinobi group may be a concern for the future, though in Sasuke's perspective, he wasn't sure how severe. At the moment, it sounded juvenile to him.

"Hachi's still angry about what happened to Megumi."

"Who wouldn't be angry when a war kills an innocent." Eiko stands. "I'll get some more tea."

The teapot was still half full.

Chie put her cup down, her head down. "I apologize for that. Eiko isn't as extreme as the people in the village, but she hasn't had a positive encounter with a ninja."

Sakura wanted to ask, but Sasuke's look told her not to press on it.

"Anyway, thank you for earlier. You two are welcome to stay here for the night."

She gave her a smile. "Thank you for the offer, but we couldn't impose."

"It wouldn't be an imposition, dear. If not for the night, just humor an old woman and stay here at least until the moon's out."

Sasuke and Sakura found themselves on the front porch of Chie's home, watching the sun's slow descent into the horizon as it was the moon's turn to shed light.

"I knew there were people that didn't like ninja, but I never thought about just how much we were loathed in some places."

Sasuke silently nodded. He had experienced people voicing their distaste of him after the war. He had done a lot to raise suspicions of his presence and he knew it was going to take a lot more than what he did to help end the war to change people's minds about him. Though, he didn't particularly care for what other's thought of him. His travels were more for himself than to change the public's opinion on him. He knew just how unfruitful chasing after approval could be.

For years, he had yearned for the approval of the dead, to avenge their unlawful killings, but he knew now that that caused more bad than good, both for others and himself.

He couldn't take back what he did. All he could do now is experience life in a way he never thought he could in the past.

He felt her hand on his, the rough feeling of her palm yet the gentle way he touched her provided him comfort. "You okay?"

"Yeah." He turned his palm up, and she gave him a soft squeeze.

The hand holding was new for both of them, but neither of them ever verbally talked about it. It just seemed like the natural progression for them.

Thinking about how to start this possibly difficult conversation, Sakura bit her lip before speaking. "When you were alone, just walking with nowhere to go. Did you ever run into something...?"

Sasuke knew where she was going with with this conversation. "A lot of people may not know how I look like, but I have had run ins with people who didn't like my presence."

"It didn't get too bad, did it?" She was worried.

"Nothing I couldn't take."

"I hope you didn't take whatever they said too seriously."

At this, he shrugged. "Their anger is not misplaced."

"I understand that, but you were in a different place then."

"I used to be in their position. I would have done what some of them did."

"Sasuke-"

"It's fine, Sakura. It was never anything I couldn't handle."

She brought a hand onto his cheek, cradling his face with a gentle caress. "You don't have to feel like you have to be someone's punching bag to atone for what you did, Sasuke."

He said nothing, instead choosing to speak to her the way they did best. Wordlessly. And just like that, it had felt like they were alone in their own world, just existing as two beings that held a lot of history, a lot of unspoken experiences and thoughts conveyed only by the depth of their gaze.

"Am I interrupting something?"

They both stiffened. Sakura hastily dropped her hand and turned away, embarrassment evident in her face. Sasuke looked more composed than she did, though the tip of his ears gave away that he, too, felt seen.

"Aw, young love. I remember being your age," Chie walked out to the porch. "Are you two getting ready to head out?"

Sasuke nodded. "Yes. Thank you for the tea."

She waved him off. "It was no problem."

Sakura, then, remembered Chie had something to say. "Earlier, you said you wanted us to wait to leave until the moon was up. Why was that?"

"Eiko's an early sleeper. I needed to have a word with you without her hearing." She said, her head turning up to the darkening sky. "She's not as extreme as the others, but she's still doesn't have a positive opinion on ninja."

"If you don't mind me asking, why is that?"

"Aside from the war killing her parents? It would be the fact that the Land of Fire officials don't care about the smaller villages. Most funds go to the larger villages, especially Konoha, to fund for the ninja. The ninja academy, the cost to have ninja be hired, the damages to pay for. The scars the battles leave don't just affect those physically hurt." A longing, wistful look graced her features.

Sakura knew of this. It was why she advocated for her mental health clinics to be more widespread, and slowly, it was getting there. She knew Ino and Shizune were taking care of it on her leave, but a part of her had felt guilty.

"But I don't believe prejudice is going to get anyone anywhere," Chie continued. "The war killed my son and his wife, but if I never stopped being angry, I would die with regrets I don't want to hold. But that's not exactly the only reason why I asked you two to come with me here."

Chie looked at the two of them, both a contrast in their coloring and yet they matched in a way she could not describe. Perhaps it was because they contrasted that they fit. "Peace is a wonderful thing, but it doesn't exactly last, doesn't it?"

Her words caught Sakura off guard. She was right, though, but that was certainly not what she was expecting.

"My advice for you two? Keep that connection. Even if you're apart, you'll find each other, and that's when you'll reach a potential you wouldn't have known you could reach." She smiled at the two of them. "There's an old story my grandmother used to tell me. There were two people that had been separated by death, one sent to the realm of the dead, and the other fought his way through it to find her again. Unfortunately, she could not leave the realm, and he had searched for her throughout. He entered the realm and found her, but he didn't realize it was her. She was angry and forcefully made him leave. The two never met again, but the anger remained. He was angry at himself, she at everything around her."

She laughed, her presence feeling otherworldly for a second. Sasuke took note of this. "And to think, they were two halves of a whole the entire time. A pair, lost without each other only because they had chosen to be lost."

The night went on, and Sakura and Sasuke were camped a few miles away from the village. Sakura's back was to a large tree trunk, her mouth a thin line as the fire kept them warm. "Chie," She started. "Doesn't it feel like she was speaking in riddles?"

Sasuke nodded.

"And she felt a little... different towards the end, don't you think?" Sakura pursed her lips. "And on the guise of giving us relationship advice." She caught herself. "Not like I think that we-"

"Sakura," he stopped her.

She blinked. "What?"

Being on the opposite side of the fire, he walked to her side. He was only inches away from her, their faces a short distance away. Sakura had to tilt her head up to meet his eye. Nothing but silence between them and the moon bearing witness to the distance between them closing, their eyes closing, and their lips touching. A soft breeze had granted them cool air, their hair swaying, the moon congratulating them on the new point in their journey.

It was perhaps the moon's way of sighing, a breath of contentment. "Finally," it would say.

Hachi frowned at the unusually formed cave that he had discovered miles away from the village he lived, his brown eyes filled with confusion and wariness. He had been this way countless times, the area where the cave now stood was supposed to be a small hill.

Growing weary of its sudden appearance, he turned his back to it, deciding to take a different route back to the village, thinking it was safer to avoid it. Perhaps it was one of those pesky ninja again. He scowled.

Before he could walk away, something stopped him. A velvety voice, quiet, rich and smooth. She was singing. He did not understand the words, but it was captivating and familiar.

His heart skipped a beat. "Megumi," he whispered, his chest constricting at the memory of his dear wife.

The singing continued, and he turned around and took a step toward the cave.

"No!" He exclaimed, clutching his chest. But the voice continued, and despite his worries, he had found himself even closer to the cave.

Memories flashed in his mind. The day he met her, the day they were wed, the day she died. An avalanche of emotions invaded his being. The pain, the love, the warmth, the inexplicable cold. It was unbearable.

Just before the cave, he felt a sharp pain on the back of his neck and he fell onto the ground, consciousness slipping away. The last thing he saw was feet, bare but clean.

He would wake up in a few hours just a short walk away from the village, no recollection of how he got there.

He would never be the same.

Present

Ito Shimura stared at the papers in front of him, searching for anything he could use in a case against the woman he thought was the bane of his existence. With every curveball he sent her way, Tsunade Senju would always end up on top. He needed something new. He needed something to keep her away from the research site. He knew kicking her out of the study would not be enough. She was definitely hiding something.

He heard the curtain move, telling him someone had just entered the tent.

"This better be good," he said, eyes not straying away from the papers.

"We found the servers."

Eyes widening, he turned his attention from the papers to the man in front of him. He stood, hands slamming onto the wood. "Have you found anything in it?"

"We know its location; however, hacking into it has proved to be a problem."

Grumbling, Ito sat back down. "What's the use of hiring people that don't do their job?!" He exclaimed, annoyed. "Well, where the hell is this piece of shit?"

A smirk. "Uchiha Towers."

"What?" Ito looked at the man. "You can't be serious."

A nod.

A bubble of laughter exploded from his chest out of his lips. "Senju, that bitch," he sneered. "Call for a meeting tonight. I'll be back in Tokyo in a few hours."

He bowed and turned away, his gray eyes glinting with darkness. For a moment, it looked like the brown they used to be long ago.

"Oh, and Kaiju?" Ito said before he left the tent. "Before I forget."

"Yes, sir?"

"I need you to look into something else for me."

"And what would that be?"

"Figure out the name of someone who works with Senju that has pink hair."

His smirk fell, replaced with a glower. "Pink hair, you say."

What he had hoped would come easy had just become more difficult than he thought. The Uchihas were bad enough, but now...

He shook his head. This time, it would end in his favor.

Note:

Oooooohhhhh, things are happeningggggg-

This is just an interlude, so it's not as long as a regular chapter, but it's longer than I had anticipated it to be. Needed some ss after the genjutsu cliffhanger last chapterkdhkvjsdkv

Anyway, hope you enjoyed this. Your kind words on the reviews and Tumblr have really helped me through this quarantine. I hope yall are doing well. Stay healthy, and stay safe!

Tell me what your theories are, I'd love to read them!

Eternal, Part Two: Thallo, Chapter Ten: Doubt will be updated this Friday. I'm excited for y'all to read it, especially since I ended Genesis the way I did kukukuku