Chapter 27.: Every shield has a weak point

Sakura didn't know what to do first. She wasn't sure if she should scream her frustration to the world or smash the nearest thing in her path to pieces.

After all, her journey to the Land of Clouds was pointless. It took a lot of time and energy. Her magic was so depleted that she felt the very bottom of her strength that she thought she would never reach.

But as much as she didn't want to admit it, it was true. Naruto didn't want to go back.

And what was probably worse as she walked in the blue sneakers that Naruto had helped her pick out a while ago was the realization that she didn't just feel frustrated and angry. In addition to all this, thoughts were flying through her mind, ending with a small wooden and round thing that she hid in the back pocket of her pants. She fiddled lightly with her fingers with this item she had received from her mother just before she left. Unfortunately for her, she didn't find out what the stupid thing was for.

After finally reaching the gate that separated the garden around the house from the street, she frowned. Her mind registered a strange, cold, and hostile feeling.

Green eyes flickered warily from side to side, searching for a potential enemy. When she turned around, the only thing her eyes met were two dark and deep obsidians.

"Sasuke,"

The pink-haired girl shook her head to force the thought into her alarming mind that he was not the one to be afraid of. However, she couldn't overlook the dangerous aura that radiated from the young Uchiha.

She turned to go into the house but stopped in mid-action after a moment. She turned to Sasuke and narrowed her eyes slightly to get a better look at him.

Ever since his tall figure entered her field of vision, the bitter, cold expression on his face had not changed. He towered majestically in front of her, wordlessly continuing to burn through her with his intense gaze. It wasn't until she focused on his person as a whole and not just the individual parts, that she realized his body was covered by his black traveling cloak.

Realizing that Sasuke, like her, was coming and heading back to his mansion right now, she raised an eyebrow.

"Where were you?"

Despite saying her question, Sakura didn't expect to get an answer. To be honest, she expected him to snap or snort something. She knew very well that the witcher hated having someone pry into his privacy. It was no secret that Sasuke hated having anyone probe his mysterious steps. Proof of that statement was the warning glances he gave to anyone who found the courage to utter a question with a similar tone to the one Sakura had uttered only a moment ago.

Unsurprisingly, Sasuke didn't answer her question. He walked around the pink-haired girl and continued on his way.

The frown on Sakura's face deepened as she watched his receding as he walked leisurely across the garden to his house.

As much as he hated annoying questions, Haruno Sakura hated unanswered questions.

She hastily stepped forward to catch up with him and held out her hand to stop him. Sasuke deftly dodged her touch and turned sharply towards her, causing Sakura to take a step back under the onslaught of the radiating hostile wave she seemed to crash into.

Despite his calm appearance, Sakura could sense the tension that came from his attitude.

"What's going on Sasuke?"

Looking at his face, which showed no sign of emotion, it was almost impossible to tell what was going through his mind. His hostile aura made Sakura feel uncomfortable as if the man she had given her heart to was not standing before her. That feeling whispered that this situation looked exactly as it was—a demigoddess standing face-to-face with a cold-blooded witcher.

Sakura reached out to touch his cheek and caress it. The tips of her fingers almost touched his face; almost touching his pale skin.

"If something's wrong, you can tell me," she told him in a soft voice, smiling weakly. "Together..."

Her emerald eyes widened in surprise as she felt a firm grip on her wrist.

Sasuke caught her arm and didn't let her go any further.

Sakura shivered slightly at his dismissive gesture. She pulled her hand back and held it to her chest; she silenced the last word of her sentence. After a short moment, she looked up again to try to find a possible explanation for his behavior, but to no avail. She looked away and bit her lower lip, which began to tremble.

"I see," she whispered in a disappointed and sad voice.

She turned and reached for the doorknob, but then stopped once more, hoping Sasuke would stop her. However, after a short moment, she understood that it was useless. With a soft sigh, she stepped inside, hearing Sasuke's footsteps behind her as he followed her. After continuing into the living room Sakura was surprised to find their paths split as Sasuke shot up the stairs.

Exhausted, she let her body fall into the chair. She ran her hands over her face several times.

She had no idea how or where to continue her search. The determination with which she went to her home in the Clouds faded along with the hope of finding the missing boy again.

The uncomfortable pressure in the back pocket of her pants made her squirm uncomfortably. She leaned to the side to retrieve an object from her pocket; then she took him in both hands and placed them in her lap. Her attention was completely focused on the small, wooden box.

She opened it and raised her eyebrows in confusion as she realized she was looking at some kind of strange, very old-looking compass. She looked at him curiously from different angles. When she found that—obviously, given its poor condition—it wasn't working, she snapped it shut again.

Sakura sighed softly. She clutched the compass in her right hand and threw it against the opposite wall.

Despite expectations, the sound of the thing crashing, breaking, and hitting the ground never came.

She looked up only to find that the wooden compass had been deftly caught in flight by the older Uchiha.

"Where did you get that?" Itachi asked with a slightly hostile undertone.

Itachi eyed her suspiciously. Subsequently, his attention returned to the compass, which he playfully tossed in the air several times. He took long strides across the room to reach the girl and held out the arm holding the compass in front of her face.

Sakura reluctantly took it.

"Mother says it could help me," she muttered irritably; she held up the compass to point at him. "I don't see how this old thing can help me find Naruto. It doesn't work,"

Itachi smirked. "Of course, it works,"

Sakura raised an eyebrow and opened the compass again to examine it. But again, she didn't notice anything interesting or unusual; like every other, this one pointed north.

The elder Uchiha said: "It's no ordinary compass," he motioned for her to hand it to him again, before continuing, "It shows what you desire most."

The jade eyes widened in curiosity and surprise as Sakura noticed the compass in Itachi's hands begin to respond. The arrow in the middle spun uncontrollably in a circle until it stopped in one place, showing a clear direction.

The girl jumped to her feet and bent down towards the object in Itachi's hands. She blinked, then followed the designated direction with her gaze. She made her way to the shelf that had been designated; she flicked her eyes from side to side trying to find anything that would catch her attention. And then she stopped for a moment and her heart sank in realization as she found herself standing in front of a shelf that held a framed photo of a small black-haired girl in Itachi's arms smiling happily into the camera.

"Use it wisely,"

Sakura, still dazed, just nodded at his advice.

The gazes of both present followed the sound that came from somewhere in the corridor. Just a moment later, Sasuke appeared in his black cloak, apparently preparing to leave. Without giving them a single glance, he opened the front door and disappeared with a slam.

"Go with him," Itachi advised. "He is stubborn. But he needs you."

She also gave a short nod to his second piece of advice and immediately took off to catch up with Sasuke. After opening the door wide, she was surprised to find that there was no need to summon the Byakugou at all because Sasuke was casually leaning against the wooden post that supported the roof structure above the outdoor terrace.

The Onyx irises looked up from the ground to give her a brief look. Sasuke straightened up, straightening the collar of his cloak, and strode forward after turning his back on Sakura.

The pink-haired girl shook her head to shake herself from the surprise and took a few quick steps to catch up with him to get to his level.

"Where are we going?" she asked.

"To usuratonkachi's house,"

"Why?"

"If there's an answer to where it is, it'll be there."

*.*.*.*

Sakura rubbed her nose, which was sore from the hard impact.

She didn't understand why Sasuke suddenly stopped while she continued walking. Just a moment later, her face collided with an invisible barrier.

The impact was so violent that she stumbled slightly. Sasuke moved forward to catch her impending fall, and she felt the support of a firm chest behind her.

She turned her head to the side to look at him. They exchanged a brief look that seemed to take forever for Sakura. Strong arms grabbed her shoulders and helped her regain her lost balance. Then Sasuke took a step aside, his attention once again returning to the house behind the barrier.

The pink-haired girl was surprised to find that the barrier was still working despite the absence of the blond and the shaman.

"How come the barrier is active?" she asked irritably.

Sasuke frowned and made his way to the back of the house with Sakura growling and following him in the direction he chose. He stopped somewhere behind the house by the only tree in the area; then he looked up to gaze at its blossoming crown.

"Jiraiya is a powerful shaman,"

She raised an eyebrow. "So what?"

Instead of answering, Sasuke crouched and jumped into the treetop. Sakura frowned, tilting her head back to meet the beautifully blossoming tree of the same name. Just a moment later she caught a glimpse of him standing on a branch and motioning for her to follow him. It wasn't until she landed next to him that she realized they had a perfect view of Naruto's room from this position.

"How do we get in?"

Sasuke smirked mysteriously.

"Every shield has a weak point," he said, leaning down to her and pointing a finger somewhere in the area where the window to the room was. "There."

Sakura narrowed her eyes to focus on the spot Sasuke was pointing at. And indeed, as she focused better, she saw how that shield of the Uzumaki's mansion was undulating and twisting almost imperceptibly at one particular point.

Sasuke was the first to bounce off the branch they were standing on. Clinging nimbly to the windowsill, he stretched out his arm to open the locked window and climb through it into the interior.

Sakura decided to replicate his actions, though to be honest she inevitably lacked the dexterity to perform this elegant gesture. After climbing in through the window, as soon as the toe of her shoe met the floor, she staggered and lost her balance. She felt awkward as the black-haired man held out his arm to help her again.

"Thank you," she whispered awkwardly in his arms.

The black-haired man nodded and started digging through the mess that was his best friend's refuge. He made his way to one part of the room while the pink-haired girl made her way to the opposite end. All too quickly, frowns began to appear on the faces of both present as they found nothing but clutter, trash, odd things that probably belonged to a white-haired shaman and perverted books.

The pink-haired demigoddess sat down on the bed that was in the room. Her thoughts wandered to the memories of the first time she entered here when she had no idea that the hyperactive and cheerful blond belonged in her world. When she still had no idea that she was not alone in the world and that she had sibling.

She sighed sadly. She looked up to look at Sasuke who was tirelessly rummaging through another closet. With a disgusted expression, he pulled out a bright orange t-shirt, which he sniffed, restrained his gag reflex, and with a roll of his eyes, tossed it onto a pile of other nastiness. She pulled out a wooden box from under her cloak, opened it, and stared at the idle shooter in the middle.

On the other hand, the thoughts of the young witcher were beginning to sink into a despair that he did not want to surrender to. It wasn't hard for him to get around the almost bulletproof barrier - he'd spent so many days and nights guarding the blond in that tree, on that one particular branch, that there wasn't a millimeter on the floor of this house that his Sharingan hadn't explored. He stopped midway through his activity when his subconscious caught sight of Sakura, who had been sitting idly on the bed just a moment ago, moved behind him, making her way to the only window in the room with quiet footsteps followed by the creaking of the old floor. Out of the corner of his eye, he watched the young demigoddess, her jade eyes looking sadly into the distance, clutching some sort of object in her hands.

Sasuke narrowed his eyes, which flashed dangerously.

He walked over to her and saw her body visibly tense as she sensed his presence behind her. He took another step forward until he was within range of her citrus scent assaulting his alert senses.

"I so wish he would come back," she whispered without turning to him. "Itachi said that this…," she held up the compass, its interior illuminated by the sun's rays. "...it shows what you desire the most," she explained, still staring into the unknown. "But the damn thing doesn't work,"

Sakura closed the wooden box, which she placed on the windowsill, and then braced herself against it with her fists clenched and her head bowed.

Sasuke moved a little closer and Sakura shuddered at the closeness as his spicy scent intoxicated her. He reached out and placed his hand on her shoulder, which he then slid down the length of her arm in a gentle motion. He then grabbed the wooden object and opened it again.

Sasuke smirked as he looked at the arrow that began to tremble in his hands.

"Of course, it works,"

The pinkette turned to look at him, she saw him holding a compass in the palm of his left hand, its wooden opening preventing her from peering into its interior. She frowned uncomfortably and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Then teach me, Great Omniscient," she retorted sarcastically.

The smirk lingered on his face.

"It doesn't work like you make a wish and he makes it happen, like a Genie."

His face grew serious, he moved closer to her until their bodies were only separated by a few almost imperceptible millimeters represented by their clothing.

"It's a little more complicated than that,"

He motioned for her to turn again and look out the window. The Uchiha pressed against the back of the pinkette, slightly bent down to her face level, raised his arm, with a gentle wave of his hand, a dark energy began to flow from his long fingers, which climbed like smoke through the space of the open window, climbed the walls to the green lawn of the garden in the back part of the house.

The pink-haired girl's eyes widened as she realized that the place didn't look the same as it did when she first found herself there. The garden was in a terrible state, the pond was dirty, the lawn unmown; the place was not at all as magical as she remembered it.

A dark shadow enveloped the entire area of the garden in darkness, creating the same scene as that evening. The ravaged garden was a thing of the past, replaced by an image she recognized - one that enchanted her.

Surprised, Sakura opened her mouth slightly to speak, but the words failed to leave her throat and lips.

"You have to want it," he whispered huskily in one ear, then moved to the other, his breath brushing against her skin. "Desire it,"

With a glow reflecting in her jade eyes, the pinkette turned to the black-haired man, her face still showing surprise at the realization he had just given her.

"That was you?" she asked, her voice shaking, though she already knew the answer.

The jade eyes sparkled as they caught a glimpse of tenderness in the two deep and dark onyxes.

The young witcher looked at the compass in his left hand, turning it so the girl could look inside it this time. He watched as the jade eyes blinked in amazement, surprise, and confusion before she looked up to look at him again as the thought of the compass needle in his hand turning to point directly at her settled in her mind.

She took the compass from his hands into her own, but the needle began to spin uncontrollably, unable to find direction. Suddenly, the object's hatch closed until it closed completely with a loud snap. Frowning, Sakura looked up to look at Sasuke, who was the one who caused her to lose sight of the dart inside.

And then it clicked for her. The compass did indeed work, but only in the hands of one who knew exactly what his heart most desired. Exactly the way he reacted to Itachi or Sasuke's touch.

The witcher approached her and took the wooden compass from her hands. Sakura was forced to take a step back until her butt hit the window sill. As their gazes locked, she was only peripherally aware of a muffled sound as Sasuke placed the wooden object behind her. He leaned down to her face and she instinctively raised her arm, caressing his cheek lovingly to which he closed his eyes and his tense stance relaxed a little at her gentle touch.

They looked into each other's eyes, searching for answers to the insecurities that plagued them while also connecting their souls. The witcher connected his lips to the pink-haired demigoddess in a desperate and lustful kiss. The girl in his arms gasped in surprise, but quickly adjusted to his relentless pace and kissed him back. It was as if they complemented each other, it was as if where one ended the other began. Sasuke grabbed her around the slender waist as she wrapped her arms around his neck to pull him even closer if at all possible. She nearly yelped as his firm hands lifted her off the ground, but she didn't have enough of a chance as she was soon placed on the windowsill and her mouth silenced by another fiery kiss. The pleasure she was experiencing under his hands made her tilt her head back. Sasuke took advantage of this situation and latched onto the soft pearly skin of her neck, which he decided to explore millimeter by millimeter.

His hands roamed her body, her waist, her thighs, coming back up again, he cupped her face in his hands. He gently pulled her even closer and explored her mouth with his tongue. She couldn't resist the daze he was putting her into. She could only let herself be swept away by the pleasure that surged through her veins, throbbing, and tingling everywhere his hands touched her.

She ran her fingers through his jet-black hair and tugged at it.

"Sasuke…"

The raven-haired man wrapped his arms around her waist and lifted her into the air, causing her to instinctively wrap her legs around his firm hips. With a few quick steps, he moved them to the bed. Gently, like the finest porcelain that could shatter into pieces with a sudden movement, he placed the girl on the bed, and without wasting another second that he would have to be separated from her, he connected their lips again.

They didn't need words to express their feelings. They didn't even need words to say everything they felt for the other. The need for words was lost in the pinkette's gasps that bounced off the walls in the room. It vanished along with the gore, callousness, and coldness of the witcher, whose attention was not on revenge, but on the frail body of the beautiful woman beneath him, eagerly awaiting and yearning for his next kiss and touch. They needed each other as much as they needed the magic in their veins.

The witcher made his way of kisses from her neck, across her chest and breasts to her belly. He kept a watchful eye on her face out of the corner of his eye. This time, however, his vigilance was not directed toward the imminent danger he had to face; no, this time the only threat to this girl was himself. Because he knew that if he lost control, even for a small moment, he could hurt her.

They kissed almost desperately, like two souls who found their peace in each other's arms after centuries.

He was a witcher, but deep down, deep inside, he still felt that certain part of his humanity that he could never kill. The two feelings that still existed within him were hate and love, the former receding into the background whenever he looked into the jade eyes of his chosen one - the one with whom his fate had been forever linked.

The cursed seal pulsed on his neck. He realized that he should stop, step back, and calm all his senses; put on a cool mask and put up all the defensive walls around him that he had been building for years. But the look in her glowing eyes, her hot skin, burned him; they were burning his cursed soul to ashes.

"I love you," she whispered, her voice overflowing with tenderness.

The seal on his neck reacted at the sound of her voice and began to retract. Her velvety voice held the tinge of promise the witcher needed to heal his broken soul again. Every shield has a weak point.

And then the witcher knew; for the first time in his long life, he finally had no doubts that he had made the right choice. He was able to feel that what he desired— whom he desired—wasn't bad.

Caressing her slightly red cheeks, he realized that the compass truly was never wrong. And also that he wasn't wrong when his arrow pointed the little boy to the heavens for the first time.

The catch was that once, when he was much younger, he didn't understand the saying, "Every shield has a weak point".

But now, as he touched her, he found that the golden compass showed him not only what his soul most desired, but also where his weak point was.