Chapter 4: Grit and Grin

Summary:

Familiar faces and unfriendly strangers complicate things. Sakura finds that given the option, she might prefer the company of Crocodiles.

The Smiling Crocodile carried 30 some passengers, many of which lingered on the first deck to shout further farewells, others ogled the crew as they made swift work of their departure. Either way it was busy enough that Sakura had to weave one way and then another as she advanced her way across the deck. 'I do wonder about the naming of this vessel…' They'd well earned their moniker as maneaters, possessing a fierce nature reflected in Sobek and his many epithets. 'He who loves robbery, pointed of teeth. The Rager.' And those were the pleasant ones. [1]

Searching for a less populated view of her own, Sakura went to climb the staircase leading to the second landing when a cabin door flew open and a body barreled into her from the side. If not for the rail that she found herself tossed against she would've toppled over the side and into the water where the beasts she'd been unkindly contemplating a scant moment ago prowled. There probably weren't any crocodiles lurking below—at least not there and then. 'But probably is just a synonym for maybe.' and she didn't like those odds.

It might have felt as if she'd been stupidly staring over that rail for ages but it only took Sakura a handful of seconds to recover and go looking for the cause of her tumble, expecting an apology or acknowledgment of some sort. What she got was a view of their back, draped with some of the longest hair she'd seen in a while. The coarse, dark strands were tied with a violet bow well below their waist, and a tiny bell jingled as they went on, giving no thought to her at all. As if she were nothing.

That stung and while Sakura probably should have left it at that, she couldn't help but open her mouth. "Excuse me." Perhaps it was the mumbled way in which she spoke those two words-or maybe, as she later concluded, it was that she had the audacity to breathe that truly offended them.

Halfway up the stairwell, they turned about, hair lashing like a whip as they pinned their sharp, dark eyes on her. A woman dressed in a pair of bizarre Holstein-patterned pants looked Sakura up and down, lips twisting in a sneer. "Swine." She scoffed and turned, continuing up the rest of the way and out of sight. [2]

In that critical moment, Sakura's wit faltered leaving her scorched from something other than the sun. "Swine?" She repeated, hissing the word from behind the gate of her teeth. Miles and leagues away from the teasing banter volleyed between her and Ino, It'd been full of a contemptuous disdain she'd become familiar with at a young age. A few years ago she might have kicked up a fuss—and a literal one at that. 'But I'm not a child.' And grown women, especially professional ones couldn't go about launching into brawls all willy-nilly. So, she turned her head and muttered a handful of curses over the Nile, hoping to leave it at that.

Except that Sakura couldn't. It played over in her head, all the witty things she'd failed to say at the moment suddenly at the forefront of her mind. 'I didn't even do anything wrong.' She was absolutely faultless but her mood was ruined all the same. Abandoning all thoughts of sightseeing for the time being, Sakura took a turn and stomped a path up the starboard side, hellbent on reaching her room and simmering over the mistreatment in peace. Storming past cabins nine and seven, she searched for her room key, grumbling and jostling with her unwanted cargo along the way.

A door opened and Naruto, still barking and bickering with his roommate spilled out into the walkway. "Fine!" he shouted behind him. "Take the bed next to the window, I hope the sun blinds you every morning!"

"Sore loser." Kankuro accused, paces behind him. "You can have it on the way back."

"It won't be the same, dattebayo." By then Naruto would have seen plenty of the Nile and all the novelty would have worn off. "I'm a guest in your country, where is your hospitality?"

"Hospitality? You're the one who suggested we flip a coin and you lost 4 out of five!" Kankuro was really hitting all sixes lately. 'Even things that could have been minor disasters have turned out well.' He lost a vase and nearly had a house fall on him, but he'd walked out with a map to something that could be the biggest discovery of their age. 'And I got a puzzle box.' Which he'd successfully lobbied custody of. 'For the time being.' or so Sakura had declared.

Ignoring them and hoping to go unnoticed herself, Sakura unlocked her door and swung it open as quietly as she could. 'They'd better not carry on like that all through the night.' If she had to hear them whinging through the walls at all hours her foot was going to be somewhere other than over the threshold.

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto called, whipping his head to target her with his pleading, cerulean eyes and dashing her perceived anonymity to pieces. He didn't have some sort of unnatural sixth sense when it came to Sakura—she was simply hard to miss even when she desperately wished otherwise. "We're going up to the top deck." It had the best view and it was where the food and drinks were served. "Come with?" He visibly shriveled when she turned her face to him for the barest of seconds.

"No." Having said that, Sakura slammed the door shut behind her.

"What was that about?" It seemed to Naruto that someone other than him had ruffled her feathers. 'It could be anyone from her parents to some guy from Timbuktu.' It left him out in the cold, pouting all the same.

Kankuro shrugged, palms facing heavenward. "Sometimes it's better not to ask." He spoke as if having a sister had endowed him with some cache of hidden knowledge. "She'll be out before you know it." Although he wouldn't count on Sakura being any less ornery when she finally emerged. 'Just hungrier.' It wasn't a very big boat but Kankuro could always make himself scarce if the situation necessitated it, he might even go as far as to call the ability a specialty of his. "Now," He waggled the deck of cards he'd brought along enticingly. "Maybe your luck is in the cards, not coins."

Thumb pressing against his scarred cheek, Naruto considered his prospects. 'I can't lose every time...' And it would keep him occupied, for a while at least. "Alright, but let's leave money out of it for now." Gama-chan wasn't exactly bursting with clams and with the amount of traveling he did it took a whole lot of time for incoming revenue to catch up.

"That suits me just fine." For the most part, Kankuro had learned that friends and money didn't mix. 'Not if you plan to keep both.'

On the other side of the door Sakura found that in spite of her sour state, her room could still receive an admiring eye. Deep cherry walls with gilded trim and the hardwood floor had an oriental rug in the center, stretched beneath a pair of armchairs and the low table between them. To one wall was a dresser, beside it, pressed into the corner was a brass framed bed. The amenity that most enthused her was the tiny water closet enclosed along the wall that she shared with Naruto and Kankuro. 'Far better than having to share with the entire ship.' She almost dreaded the day of disembarkment. 'Aunt Tsunade would tell me to get comfortable with being uncomfortable.' And Sakura had every intention of doing so...with varying levels of enthusiasm.

In the process of unpacking the necessities that would see her through the week, Sakura buried the firearms at the bottom of a trunk, certain that she would have no need of them whatsoever. After placing her clothes and toiletries away, she sat to read, making it 42 pages deep into The Mysterious Affair at Styles when a particular passage leaped out and brought the previous humiliation to the forefront of her mind. She shut the book, pages snapping together. "Bah! I should have called her a two-bit imitation cow!" The book was abandoned with an offhand toss towards the bed. "It was probably the much younger husband anyways! It doesn't take a famous detective to see that." [3]

Murder mysteries might have been too much temptation in her current mood anyway so Sakura went back to rummaging through her luggage and the traveling library within. Comprised of fresh notebooks waiting to be filled with her words and observations whatever they might be, a smattering of fiction and poetry to round out her idle hours, it wouldn't surprise anyone who knew her that the academic literature eclipsed them all.

Long-winded titles such as: How To Observe In Archaeology; Suggestions for Travelers in the Near and Middle East. The Beginnings of Medicine: Medicine and Surgery in Ancient Egypt and The Tomb of Tutankhamun: Volume I — Search, Discovery and Clearance of the Antechamber would turn any casual reader cross-eyed. 'Naruto would sooner take his chances in the Nile than read a single page.' That thought spurred a tiny, mischievous smile.

There were battered Histories, Hieroglyph and hieratic dictionaries, grammar references, and a slightly out-of-place atlas. 'You never know when you'll need a map.' If one were to judge by quantity alone it would seem as if Sakura favored the Journal of Egyptian Archaeology best. Peer-reviewed and published bi-annually since 1914 it was a collection of scholarly articles, book reviews, field reports, and news of recent discoveries. 'Anyone who is anyone in Egyptology would be pleased to have their work included.' Despite their rejection of her paper Sakura still had the utmost respect for the publication. 'Hard work and a spectacular find is all it'll take.'

Cracking open the crisp pages of the latest volume her previous worries were cast aside as Sakura paid focus to the broken-down translations of Egyptian oracles and the theorized Secret Chambers of the Sanctuary of Toth—a notion that enthralled her almost as much as it had Cheops. 'Allegedly.' There was no proof such a thing had ever existed. 'I suppose inspiration from the god of knowledge would explain why The Great Pyramid of Giza was the first of the seven wonders to be built and remains the last one standing.' For those who put stock in myth and whimsy, that explanation might have sufficed but for Sakura, not so much. 'It's all down to good engineering, location, and coincidence.'

Midway through an article regarding Middle-Egyptian proverbs, the empty state of Sakura's stomach began to trouble her. "It is said that the hungry man must hunger." She found it to be a rather odd saying—more of a statement really and chalked it up to something being lost in translation. "Fortunately, I am no man." She stood, shook out the needling sensation creeping over her limbs, and gave her reflection a quick once over. 'Not a swine in sight.' Running into that woman again was inevitable but she went forth with confidence that words wouldn't fail her in their next encounter.

The breeze coming off the Nile and over the walkway was pleasant and with the walkway mostly deserted, Sakura finally spared a moment to admire the view. Elbows at the rail, cheek pressing into her palm, she looked out across the water. Sunset would shortly fall but the fishermen continued casting their nets, only pausing in their labor long enough to wave as the larger vessel passed them by. 'Some things haven't changed since the pharaohs sailed this river.' it would have seemed different to them in many ways but at the core it was the sustenance of the people and their land then as it was now.

Papyrus growing in the distant shallow bank were bent, swaying in the wind, and staring into the tangle of green, Sakura thought she glimpsed the head of a familiar, sickle-beaked bird peering through the stalks. 'Well, that can't be.' It was as if she blinked and it was gone, or rather it had never been there to begin with. 'The Sacred Ibis hasn't been spotted here since the late 1800s and the hippos didn't linger long after.' Still, she stood there, squinting into the thicket. 'It must have been my imagination or better—a case of mistaken identity. It could have been any bird...' She was an archeologist, not an ornithologist. 'Even if it looked like one, it couldn't be.' [4]

"You piece of shit!" The bellowing came from the upper floor, loud enough to cut through the steady chug of the engine and churning waterwheel.

Any bird that might have been would have taken wing, for the sound sent Sakura bolting up the steps. 'How long did I leave him alone for?' Unmistakably it was Naruto's shouting and the clamor didn't end there; scrapping wood, a heavy thud, and shattering glass followed in rapid succession. Up and around she went, breathlessly pushing through gawking attendants and passengers alike to reach the mayhem that had them all suspended.

Serving as a makeshift barricade, a table separated the two factions; Naruto on one side, straining against the arm Kankuro had thrown up to hold him at bay and on the other, Sakura spied a familiar face. 'Or two.' The woman from earlier was there, smirking among her cohorts. 'She's the type that looks for trouble.' With her an equally sneery man with beady eyes and bristly hair and a second, hunchbacked and wrapped from their head down in bandages. 'What a strange group.' For they must have been one given that they all sported the same ridiculous pattern in some fashion or another.

It was the sight of Sasuke, standing close at hand but not quite among them that put a stutter in her step. Cool and detached as the last time she'd seen him, Sakura's heart was caught up in a rebellious squeeze. 'Enough of that!' She chided herself and stepped across the playing cards and broken glass to lend Kankuro some support.

"You want a fight? I'll take any one of you on! Hell, I'll take all of you at once!" Naruto lunged against the arm that barred him.

"Not today." Sakura slipped herself in front of him. She wasn't tall enough to block his vision as she'd been when they were children but her presence was enough to arrest his attention. "The last thing we need is to get thrown off for being unruly ." She whispered, uncomfortably aware of all the attention directed their way.

Naruto's eyes flicked from her to his foes, torn between his anger and the unspoken command that he calm down before he got his ears boxed. "But Sakura-chan, you don't even know what they said!" He cried, pointing an accusatory finger across the way. 'Its not my fault, they started it!' First, they'd barged in, sat at their table, and all but invited themselves to their game. 'And then that prick walked in, pretending like he didn't even know me!' He hated to be ignored, never mind outright dismissed.

"It doesn't really matter—" Sakura tried to cut him off there, sure that whatever had been said was groundless nonsense. 'Even if it wasn't, he's likely overreacting.'

"They said we're a bunch of losers who'll die before we reach Akhet!" That word never failed to set Naruto off. 'It takes me right back to those days…' When he was lonely and unwanted, when the people around him pretended he was nothing more than a speck of dirt they couldn't scrub out.

Sakura's hands hitched against her hips as she scoffed. "Well, what do they know of it? You really shouldn't be reacting to such childish taunts at your age." If she'd been present she would have stopped him from mentioning the place at all. 'The minute anyone hears that there might be something, treasure hunters and tomb raiders are bound to show up—-not to mention other nosey archeologists.' Being off the beaten path only offered so much protection.

"That's the funny thing…" Kankuro muttered. "They do seem to know something of it." Neither he nor Naruto had called it by name, only vaguely mentioning, perhaps even bragging to Sasuke about their plans to uncover the ruins of some city out by the Libyan-Egyptian border when one of his tag-alongs had popped out the name of their destination and from there, things had gone sideways.

'If only words were all we threw around.' The Jester stared at him from the top of a tiered tower, stuck between the crustless cucumber and egg sandwiches, face contorted in permanent, euphoric mirth. Stately Kings and Queens had fallen to the floor, diamonds worthlessly scattered among them. Hearts unspared and carelessly thrown hither-to as the clubs and spades lost the war to gravity. "What a waste." Kankuro would have left them where they lay as a matter of pride, but Sakura had already crouched down to scoop up a handful and he felt compelled to help.

"Of course we know of it, we're going there." The snide woman spoke, foot grinding and twisting over what was likely an errant card.

Sakura's fingers froze against the Queen of Heart's rosy cheek. "Is that so?" The words were labored, hampered by her desire to remain civil and the deep breath she took. "How exactly did you come to know of Akhet?" Not a single one of them seemed like the scholarly type. 'And that goes for Sasuke too, he never had an interest in history that didn't include his family or militaristic feats of some sort.'

"I'd happily answer that if you would be so kind as to return the courtesy." The light of the dying sun cast a heavy glare across a pair of large, wire-rimmed glasses. Sitting at a table flush against the wall, he'd gone completely unnoticed and unruffled when the room had erupted around him earlier.

" !" Sakura hastily stuffed the cards she'd collected at Kankuro and stood. "You look…well." His hair had grown out in a manner that would bother most westerners and If it hadn't been for the slow lilt of its head, she would have thought the small white snake draped across his shoulders was a stole of sorts. 'It's certainly not my idea of accessorizing.'

"Wait, you know this guy?" Naruto had been convinced that the only people Sakura knew were people that he also knew. 'I don't like this at all.'

"In passing. He was a few years ahead of me at Oxford." She'd seen him around, spoken to him on occasion even. They shared a field of study in common and a similar heritage in a place where they were at best interesting and at worst out of place. It would be stranger if they hadn't met or at the least heard of one another. 'He was always polite and helpful to me…' The company Kabuto currently kept didn't suit the person she knew but then she didn't recall him being so eclectic as to tote around a snake either. "I thought you were more interested in Japanese history—Kofun and whatnot." On more than one occasion he'd been downright insistent on how under-studied the nation's history was. [5]

"It remains so, but you know how this business is; We all follow the whims of our benefactors..." Kabuto shrugged and adjusted his glasses. "Not that I can complain, my last excavation was very eventful." He smiled. "And yours?"

If the question struck her as a jab—and it did, Sakura brushed it off even when her smile felt overstretched. "Oh, the usual…" Her hand dithered in the air before flopping lamely. "But never mind about that, I'd prefer to focus on Akhet." Specifically how he'd heard about it all the way in Japan. 'As for sharing what we know…the less I say the better.' She certainly wouldn't be telling anyone about a map. 'Nothing personal but I need every edge I can get.'

"If she's leading their little expedition, they're going to get lost and die."

They didn't bother with whispering or hiding their snickers and the agitation Naruto had been forcing himself to swallow erupted once again. "We're not going to get lost, we have a map and Sakura-chan is a whiz at whatever she does, dattebayo!" No one was allowed to speak badly of her, not where he could hear it unless they wanted to risk going fisticuffs with him. 'But why is she looking at me like that?' Sakura wasn't staring at him with gratitude but with absolute ire blazing behind her eyes. Gulping, Naruto shuffled behind Kankuro. "What did I do this time?" He whined, teeth against his nails. 'At least they stopped laughing…'

Just the way that they looked at her felt intrusive. 'Sharp and pointy.' Sakura's skin prickled in the stretching silence.

"A map? Hell of a find, would you mind giving me a peek?" In contrast to open hostility and Sasuke's ongoing imitation of a stone, Kabuto remained as mild-mannered as he ever was.

"I don't have it with me." Half a lie. Naturally, Sakura wasn't carrying the original but she found herself just as unwilling to share the copy she'd created. "Besides, the quality was so poor it's a wonder that I could interpret anything..." She found it strange to hear herself lie so easily and not quite know the reason why.

"With that level of confidence, no one should be surprised if you wander off the edge of a cliff, hm." It sounded less like worry and more like anticipation as the man raked his dark eyes over her.

The jangling bell and obnoxious, twittering laugh sent a painful throb through Sakura's head. 'It's spite.' And that was reason enough to share nothing. 'If I saw her about to step into a gaping black pit, I'd stop just to watch.' And her friend could join her down in that abyss for all she cared.

"It'll be an interesting example of the dumb leading the dumber, won't it?"

A vein in Sakura's temple began to pulse unpleasantly. 'And now they've become a chorus.' she wondered what it was about herself that attracted such ill will.

"Kin, Zaku!" There wasn't near enough force behind Kabuto's admonishment to cow either of them.

Despite her chiding Naruto a short while ago, Sakura had sustained more than enough damage to break her limit and couldn't hold it in any longer. Or maybe she simply didn't care to. Her hands slammed against the table's surface, rattling glasses and silverware in the wake of her force. "We'll get there before you!" The laughter was merely fuel. "Winner gets first dibs on whatever there is." Be it a pile of stones and mounds of sand or otherwise, she'd gloat over it all the same. They would never take her seriously without tasting defeat and Sakura would make them a feast of it.

Kin eyes slid from left to right before she spoke. "Don't go crying when you lose." Blood pleased her more than tears. From the obnoxiously odd color of the girl's hair to her oh-so-proper way of dressing, she considered everything she saw to be an eyesore. 'As for being clever? Ha.' She didn't believe it no matter how loud her beau yapped. 'Zaku's an idiot and even he agrees.'

"Oh, I won't." The hand that Sakura stuck across the table seeking to seal their agreement was left to hang, regarded as if it were covered in scum or swarming with bees. "Have your feet gone cold already?" The syrupy taunt hit target and Sakura knew If Kin ever had the chance to grasp her it would have been with crushing force. Instead, it was Kabuto who intervened and seized the offered hand.

"It's a deal." Ignorant or indifferent to the outraged noises Naruto was sputtering, Kabuto leaned near enough that the blue-black tongue of his pet threatened to graze her. "I find them just as unpleasant," Only Sakura and the snake at his neck were near enough to hear the quiet confession. "But even they can serve a purpose." With the jounce of his wrist,their business concluded and he eased away. "I'll retire for the night. Dosu, try to keep them in line." Other than that he paid his companions little consideration in his departure.

Zaku, somehow lacking even less self-control than Kin found the exchange offensive and reeking of needless submission on their part. "I don't see why we're indulging this b—." The bandaged fingers digging into his shoulder had him falling short of the one word that would have started an all-out blitz.

"Enough." There would be a time and place for them to act on their frustrations, petty as Dosu found them.

They might have been on a leash but Naruto wasn't and even if Sakura looked at him as if he were the one barking mad, he wasn't going to let their newest slight go unanswered. "That's right, heel for your masters, dog ."

Bristling, Zaku jerked his arm away. "You're going to regret that." But it was hard to be menacing when his head was being pressed into a humiliating bow by Dosu.

"Have a pleasant evening." With a commanding hand Dosu guided Zaku from the room and Kin, sensing the unspoken demand fell in close behind. Both possessed the air of being marched out for a dressing down and there was no ambiguity on their faces about who they blamed for it.

At their exit the staff that had been standing frozen at the margins of the room in expectation of a scuffle gave a communal exhale and returned to their various duties. Their business was hospitality and there were guests to attend.

"What a bunch of rattlecaps." Sakura stepped to the side, making way for the waiter who had come along to clear the mess that had been left behind. "Which begs the question," she said, finally addressing the elephant that lurked in the corner. "What are you doing with them?" There were plenty of other things that she wanted to ask but her belief that he'd answer any of them was already below dirt. [6]

From where he stood leaning against the rail Sasuke barely glanced at her. "Idiots." He left his post, shoulder-bumping Naruto as he went. "Go back the first chance you get." Having given his unsolicited advice he disappeared, following in the steps of those who went before him.

"You first! I wasn't even done talking to you, dattebayo…" In their usual fashion, no matter how loudly Naruto yelled after him Sasuke never turned back. 'Well, it's not like he can get away from me this time…unless he decides to jump ship and swim to shore.' But with the water and the land so dark they had begun to blend into one another he knew that was unlikely and relaxed. 'We're all going the same way so there's plenty of time to convince him that going home is the best thing to do.' Failing that, violence was always an option.

Feeling more than a little slighted, Sakura's cheeks began to puff up into a pout. "I don't know why I bothered." The day she didn't care a speck where Sasuke was or what he was doing inched ever closer.

Kankuro's brows had hitched at the bet but he'd bit his tongue until they'd gone as a show of unity. "Are you sure it was a good idea to make that wager?" He was leagues better at reading people than he was at games of chance and what he sensed set off all his alarm bells. 'They're off the track—real rattlecaps, just as she said.' They took being challenged so badly he didn't have to use much imagination on what their reaction would be if they lost.

Somewhat sheepishly, Sakura rolled her shoulders. "One way or another there was going to be an issue over who had the rights to the site…as long as we win—And we will , we get to have our pick of it." A simple solution as far as she was concerned.

"Only if they honor it." Kankuro had a striking hunch that honor wouldn't be a virtue found among their qualities and despite Sakura's confidence he wasn't exactly sold on their prospects. "Remind me again, how well would you say you ride a horse?" He seemed to recall her using the word rusty.

"Decently," She was by no means an expert but Sakura knew her way around the reins even if it'd been a while since she held them. "And I'll only get better along the way." She puffed indignantly. "If beating them takes going to bed after the sun sets and getting up before it rises that's what I'll do. I don't care If I have to sleep in the damn saddle, skip meals or drag myself over jagged rocks to make it to Akhet before them, I will." And if the two of them knew what was good for them they'd follow her example.

"Same here!" Naruto thumped his fist against his chest. 'He's the same as he's always been—pretending he's some kind of big shot.' And it had always been his prerogative to prove Sasuke wrong. 'And the rest of them can get humbled right along with him.'

Neither fortune nor fame awaited second place and whether Kankuro felt confident or not he was nothing if not committed to doing his best. A lot of personal effort had gone into making their arrangements, a little more wasn't going to kill him. 'A house had to fall on me to find that map.' Gone but not forgotten was his pot, a sad casualty of discovery. 'Meanwhile, it's like someone dropped a whisper in their ears…' That bothered him but then, everything about them seemed to set him on edge. "Nothing ventured, nothing gained." That statement might as well become his mantra.

"That's the spirit!" Clapping her hands together in the briefest of praise, Sakura switched her focus to flagging down a waiter and ending her hunger with something easy to carry off. 'I think I've socialized enough for one day.'

Kankuro continued, trying to talk himself into matching their vigor. "Besides, races are less about luck and more about skill and tenacity." That last ingredient was the one Kankuro had no doubts about. 'If nothing else we're replete with gumption.'

"You should relax a little, how hard could it be?" Naruto had ridden horses in plenty of places; the frigid edges of Russia and the cold, dry grasslands of Mongolia. 'Good ol'soggy England…' He was of the mind that dry and warm were improvements compared to most of the places he'd been. 'There is nothing worse than being cold and wet.'

There was a difference between confidence and hubris but as Sakura opened her mouth to make the distinction clear she saw her exasperation mirrored in the slow shake of Kankuro's head. Within a glance, they came to a silent agreement that the hard way was the only way Naruto seemed to learn anything and left him to his blissful ignorance—that or they were each waiting for the other to rain on his parade and the moment simply never came.

Ultimately, what should have been a peaceful voyage from Cairo to Luxor was utterly spoiled by the company they found themselves confined to a boat with. They remained exactly where they'd left off; at the edge of a boil. Sakura and Kankuro would have kept mostly to their quarters if not for Naruto. He wouldn't stand to be cooped up, nor could he be left to his own devices. He was too brash and bullheaded to worry about the adders he might rile in a vain effort to catch Sasuke's ear and so they found themselves wrangling him away from trouble day after day.

Their cruise only lasted a week but by the end, there was nothing Sakura looked forward to more than putting Kin and all the rest behind them. 'And yet, it doesn't seem as though we've made much headway in that.' They'd left Luxor as quickly as they could, heading west on horseback with several laborers and enough camels to outnumber them all in tow. If one day she thought they had overtaken Kabuto and his group the next she might spot them through the haze of heat rising over the parched earth, traveling parallel to their own path. 'Never so far or long from sight that I feel confident in our pace.' And it was a brutal one.

Baki's face had gone to stone when he'd learned of the race they'd thrust upon him—like a statue from some faraway island Sakura had once seen in a periodical. As I have the most experience in this terrain, I shall take point, and unless you want to make corpses of these fine horses and yourselves, heed me. Any lingering worries she might've had about him stymying them out of spite or concern were trampled.

Every day Baki saw that they were packed and on their way before the sun had fully peeked over the horizon, their breaks were so short and centered on caring for the beasts Sakura hardly considered them a reprieve. 'His version of chastisement is to give us exactly what we asked for.' And since the blame for that laid with her, she only whispered her complaints between the ears of Oma—the docile Arabian she'd been assigned. Given a less forgiving horse, the aches and pains that came with her return to riding would have been the least of Sakura's worries. 'Although it certainly feels like I've been run through a mangle more than once.' Sleeping on the ground couldn't be helping. [7 ]

At night when they finally made camp it was a barebones affair. A fire or two where they quickly prepared and consumed a meal consisting of rice or porridge with bits of dried meat and fruit. All through the day the sun had blistered above them but in absence of it, the nights turned frigid even with their bedrolls cloistered around the fire. Under normal circumstances Sakura would never have slept next to a bunch of men; it was scandalous, a fact that neither her conscious nor the fussing of their hirelings failed to remind her of. 'My mother would have kittens if she found out.' She conveniently neglected to tell of it in her letters.

Setting up a tent only to break it down hours later was an inexcusable waste as far as Sakura was concerned. 'If I wanted to be comfortable I would have stayed home.' So she slept next to Kankuro whom she deemed safe and Naruto who she knew would never do anything unsavory. Watches were kept in shifts out of concern for snakes and scorpions crawling under their covers, though the way the other, distant campfires drew their eye conjured darker concerns to mind. Sakura didn't spare much thought for it, encumbered by exhaustion so great that even the chaotic sleepers next to her could not hinder her.

In the morning they woke and did it over again in a mostly uneventful pattern. Small wells and hidden caches along the way kept their water supply topped up until they reached an oasis, first Kharga and then Dakhla, where upon departing civilization would be far behind them. Each a delight to behold, the oases were lush and green in a landscape dominated by shades of brown and red. Beneath the shade of palm and date trees they'd resupply and rest in beds—a feeling she'd begun to forget altogether. Her letters would be sent out and perhaps best of all there would be baths. No more wiping down to conserve water, she'd sink bonelessly into a whole tub of water. 'What I wouldn't give for one now.' The wind had picked up further drying her cracked lips.

"How much further could it possibly be?" It was sweltering and Naruto could only be amazed that he had any sweat left to give. "We've been out here for months, dattebayo… " Since they'd left the last oasis everything had gone back to looking exactly the same. Rocks, sometimes big, often small. Sand, dirt and not much else. "The last interesting thing I saw was a pile of old, shattered pots and some weird cave paintings." They weren't even all that great but Sakura had ooh'd and ahh'd over them so much she forgot their militant pace. 'For all of a few hours.' But that had been days ago.

Kankuro squinted up at the sky. "I've seen better." Plain earthenware couldn't compare to what he'd lost but he had a more pressing thought on his mind. "Our shadows have been out of sight for a while now." There was a ridge of cragged, red stone to one side of them and open desert to the other. 'They could be far behind us.' Or just on the other side.

"Whenever this," Barely looking up from the book she had tucked between herself and the saddlehorn, Sakura gestured at the wall of red rock at her side."Ends, we should be around the location I triangulated…As for the others, I do hope nothing too awful befell them." But a broken leg, sunstroke, or stomach sickness from camel spit would have been fine by her. "Let me remind you; that pottery and the cave markings might be the most significant thing we find out here." She still doubted there was some grand ruin waiting for them like the two of them had set their hearts upon. 'But that does give some credence to there being a dried-up water source out this way.'

"You are such a doubting Thomas." Kankuro groaned. "Missing cities are not unheard of; Troy, Hy-brasil, El Dorado, Shambala, Iram of the Pillars—Zerzura!" Which according to legend was somewhere out in the desert they currently wandered. "Where's your sense of adventure and mystery or do you only experience that through someone else's words?" [8]

Sakura lifted her eyes once more, this time in a full-fledged roll before shutting the book, her rereading of The Scarlet Pimpernel suspended for the time being. "I'm here, aren't I? And only one of those has any tangible evidence—The first one." As for the rest, Sakura found them to be varying degrees of preposterous. "Zerzura, The city white as a dove, guarded by giants and full of treasure." She teased, having heard it all before. "I bet you believe in Atlantis too." She longed for the ocean. 'I just want to be in it.' Any body of water would do. 'I wouldn't care if it were infested with piranha, crocodiles, or teeming with mosquitos.'

From where he had been leading them, Baki came to a sudden stop—head craned to look westward.

"Isn't every legend based on a little truth?" Curious, Naruto sought what had arrested his attention with his own eyes. "Ah, shit."

"There is a difference between history, legend, and outright myth." Sakura would admit that they sometimes intersected. "And what are you looking at…" she trailed off at the sight of the red mass coalescing above them. The ridge they'd been traveling along had broken most of the oncoming wind, delaying their notice of it but soon the fall out of a sandstorm would be upon them.

"Put yourselves to the hill!" Baki ordered and dismounted, muttering about Khamaseen as he guided his horse to the embankment. [9]

Sakura did not delay in following him with Oma's reins fisted in her hand. Her first experience with a sandstorm had been an unpleasant one and she didn't want to repeat the feeling of suffocating on dust. 'I imagine it's as close to being buried alive as I will ever get.' Or so she hoped. The wind picked up and even as they used the rocky outcropping for cover, if her hat hadn't been tied on it surely would have been lost to the gales. Wrapping a shawl over her lower face to keep the sand from her mouth and nose, she hunkered down to wait their current tribulation out. When the horse at her side whinnied, Sakura offered up one of the precious sugar cubes she'd stowed away in her pocket.

"Bribery!" Naruto grumbled. He'd tried that once but his horse still bit him. 'Ornery bastard.'

"Wasteful." Baki corrected. The horse didn't need sugar, it would perform just as well without it. Still, Sakura's ration was hers to do with as she pleased.

Ignoring their commentary Sakura shut her eyes and made herself as comfortable. Within a few hours, the storm passed and they shook what dirt and grime they could from their garments, sparing enough water to wash their faces before continuing. 'I finally understand my mother's enmity for this stuff.' She felt gritty, not to mention grimy, and her longing for a submersion had only grown.

As they traveled the sun began to sit lower on the horizon, the ridge at their side shrinking until it was just a few intermittent stones through which the other side could be seen, and what Kankuro saw he disliked. "I had a feeling they were there." He hated to be right about it but since he doubted that there were any other heavily bandaged men wandering the desert, it had to be Dosu and ahead of him; Kabuto.

"Looks like they took the brunt of the storm." They'd been on the other side completely unprotected from the raging wind and all it carried. A small consolation but it pleased Sakura nonetheless. 'I could only be happier if Kin fell into a bottomless dune.' They all looked worse for wear and she was no exception. 'At least I have my congeniality.' That was something Kin would find herself forever lacking.

There was distance between them still but their paths inevitably converged, hastened by the gallop Naruto threw his horse into. "Well, well, well." He tsked. "Doesn't seem like you're a shoe in for victory after all..." There was nothing that could be considered a prize as of yet, but he never missed an opportunity to drag the other man's ego down a peg. 'He'll combust if he gets too full of himself.' He did it in service to the greater good.

"Didn't I tell you to go home?" Sasuke scowled, having no more to say than that. He would have ridden away but there was currently nowhere he could go that Naruto could not follow. Trying was turning out to be an exercise in futility.

Thick as London fog, dust lingering in the air obscured the land ahead. 'If there is anything to be found, it should be hereabouts.' There was no need to reconsider the map, Sakura had looked at it so often she could picture it clearly in her mind's eye; no exact location to be gleaned from it. 'I'd be better off getting a shovel and digging down a few feet...' She stopped examining the ground for anomalies, glanced towards the sinking sun, and saw something like water shimmer through the haze. 'A mirage?' The longer that she looked the sharper the image became within the settling sand. Silhouetted by the descending sun, a towering obelisk and split, crumbling mudbrick ramparts took shape. "Kankuro…" She trailed off, wondering if it were merely her eyes playing tricks on her.

"I see it." Struck by the sight, Kankuro stilled his horse beside her. "And you thought I was a fool." He couldn't keep the magnificent grin off his face.

"Oh, I still think that but for other reasons entirely." There was no way the monument had gone unnoticed by the rest either, even Kabuto had come to a standstill not far off from them, the upturned head of his ever-present pet poised beneath his ear like a conspirator. "I hope you remember our bet." The sly thing to do would have been to say nothing and charge towards the ruins but Sakura wanted to win soundly. 'I won't give them anything to censure us over.' There would be nothing for them to blame other than themselves. 'The same will be true of me.' She fisted the reins until the leather rasped in her hands.

Light glinting off his glasses cast the expression on Kabuto's face into the realm of obscurity. The snake's head butted against his cheek, the coil of muscle around his neck flexed and then, perhaps for the sake of amusement or the fetters of his own integrity, he spoke. "Certainly. Arrange for a starter."

It was at Kankuro's behest that Baki was elected and he rode out a ways, pistol pointed towards the sand while he waited for them to neatly align themselves.

Kin purposefully maneuvered herself into place at Sakura's side. Her long hair was tangled and chalky thanks to the elements surrounding them in abundance. "I'm going to make paste of you."

"If you ride as well as you look I won't have much to worry about." At that, Sakura faced forward. 'She's up to something ratty but I can bear it. Only one of us has to make it in first.' As she waited for the moment to come, a tiny glinting scorpion marched unseen up Oma's hock and over the curve of her rump. Before the cracking of the firearm ever came its stinger stabbed forward just as Baki's finger closed over the trigger.

Oma gave an awful squeal and shot forward, the outkicking of her back hooves startled the other horses near her and delayed their pursuit by precious seconds.

The pounding of her heart and the sense of having no control threatened to drive all thought from Sakura's head but Kin flashed at the edge of her vision; driving up her flank with her teeth bared and fingers outstretched—close enough to graze the cloth of her shirt. The two of them were lighter and smaller than the men, lessening the burden on their horses and boosting their speed. 'This won't do.' It was no mystery what Kin intended for her. 'I'll be kissing the ground and she'll ride right over me for fun!' Bowing herself over her horse's back Sakura urged Oma on with her heel and the promise of sweets.

The horse's frantic pace ate at the distance, every hoof beat carrying them closer to the gap until they'd surpassed the breach. From afar Sakura could hear the sound of Naruto's boasts and cheers mixed among curses but she found herself occupied by the horrific realization that neither action nor words could bring the horse to heel; Oma refused to be led.

Clouds gathered beneath their gallop as the horse ran madly through streets no one had walked in ages. Mudbrick dwellings passed in a blur and the thought of throwing herself off the horse's back came and went as the structures grew taller and grander. Through a wide-spanning gate and past rows of sphinxes with nondescript faces they went, over mounds of sand and half-buried steps Oma clambered on and up, heart thundering against Sakura's calves so hard the woman feared it might burst from the exertion. The steps were narrow and they were high enough that a fall from either side would be just as disastrous as being pinned under a collapsing horse.

"Would you just stop already!?" Sakura shouted, clinging to the beast so tightly her cheek was planted firm against its neck. Slowly, the rhythm of hooves striking the ground began to change; softer, slower until they came to a stutter and stopped. Eagerly she scrambled to dismount, legs and limbs shaking as she went. "You! you…" Finger poised in the air she trailed off, immediately distracted by the columns she'd been whisked off to.

Oma heaved a sigh and the heavy gust of breath made waves in the sand drifts. Whatever megrim possessed her had passed leaving only exhaustion in its wake. The weary horse might have laid down then and there but even the effort of that seemed too great.

"Some of these still have paint on them!" And unlike the Great Hypostyle Hall, the massive temple before her still had Its roof. Enamored, Sakura drew nearer to the forest of pillars—pausing just before she stepped in between their shadows to look over her shoulder and out over the city. From the elevated terrace, she could see the others scattered below, made small by distance as they moved through the city's arteries. Compared to the pace she'd traveled at they seemed to crawl, likely taking things in as they went. 'A luxury I didn't have.' Her eyes narrowed, lingering on her horse in silent criticism before looking on.

In the courtyard below her there were auxiliary buildings on either side of the steps, the westernmost still half buried under a mound of silt. From where she stood Sakura could even see out over the walls, the pool of water she'd glimpsed at the start of their race glistened, spilled out over the earth like a dark patch of wine. 'Its as if the wind swept this place clean after hiding it for so long.' It was a silly thought, yet it was the only way she could justify the undiscovery. 'If they're taking the time to look around so should I.'

Over the threshold Sakura went, wandering down the shady corridor. 'Kankuro will have to photograph all of this.' She hoped he had enough film. 'Pity they'll only be in black and white.' The columns which had once been meticulously painted were scuffed and patchy. In basic design each one matched the next; vibrant shades of green and yellow at the top, mimicking lush foliage with bands of rich blue and earthen red beneath. Carvings of uraei and the feather of Maat followed in repetition. 'It will take an age to study and translate all these figures and hieroglyphs!' Sakura hummed happily to herself.

Further in she found an aperture leading into another chamber. 'This place just keeps giving.' Sakura had neither seen nor heard of anything quite like it. 'Some temples are devoted to a composite deity, specific couples or familial units…' But what she was seeing went far beyond that. There were twenty statues in total each one nearly as tall as the pillars that held the roof aloft, filling the room as if holding some grand counsel. Ra, the first to be seen when entering from the front, and his descendants following in order. All of Egypt's biggest hits were in attendance. [10]

At the center of the room, there were three black caskets and light lashing through the slats of the clerestoried roof fell upon the largest sarcophagi in the center of the room, emblazoning the single scorpion hewn into the lid. "Oh." Sakura gasped. "I think I found my pharaoh."

Serqet, move maker, horse-juicer, out there doing half the work.

Look! Sasori is finally here!

...As a corpse in a box, which honestly is sooooo fitting for him! No worries, next chapter for SURE we will have his old bones ambling around causing trouble. Might be sooner than I anticipated, we'll see.

Anyway, I'm off to try and write other things with my sleep-deprived brain. Lol forgot to post this to even tho its been up on ao3 for like a day already. Sorry.

To the Guest who left a review; I am feeling better (for the time being.) and since The Mummy came out when I was NINE I feel you on being scared as a kid. Still, it really was a classic, an all-rounder. Adventure, horror and romance all in one.

Notes:

[1] The pseudonym that Sakura leaves unsaid is "He who eats while mating." which is just a nicer way of saying "He who eats while fucking." And boy does he have a lot of Epithets regarding violence and sex…Also according to some legends, the reason Sobek is missing his tongue is because after Set threw all of Osiris' parts into the Nile, and feeling a little hungry—Sobek ate the penis. (Because Ancient Egypt's gotta get all weird.) So as punishment, his tongue got yoinked.

[2] I am well aware that Kin and the others are Supposed to be wearing snake patterns but it has and never will look like snake pattern to my eyes. Don't blame me, blame Kishimoto for failing to depict it convincingly. So what you get is cow print like they're a bunch of janky, wanna-be farmhands.

[3] The Mysterious Affair at Styles By Agatha Christie was published in 1921, it was her first book to feature Hercule Poirot. Sorry if I spoiled the culprit for you. Agatha traveled around Egypt and also wrote Death on The Nile, featuring a steamboat murder mystery.

[4] While they no longer live in Egpyt, The Sacred Ibis remains in other parts of Africa, along with the Hippos.

[5] Kofun are Ancient Japanese burial mounds.

[6] Rattlecap, is old slang for a violent, unsteady person.

[7] A mangle was what they used to use to squeeze the access water out of laundry. It killed a few (Typically young kids) and injured even more because they'd get their little fingers caught between the rollers.

[8] Doubting Thomas, as in the apostle who was all "I refuse to believe in the resurrection until I can stick my fingies in Jesus' crucifixion holes!"

[9] The Khamaseen is a seasonal wind that comes over Egypt and the Levant during spring bringing sandstorms with it.

[10] There are far more than 20 Egyptian gods, I simply chose 20 of the most important because it was a nice round number and I figured I could get all of the popular ones in that way.