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Approaching Sun (37)

CW/Important Note, PLEASE READ: There are two versions of this chapter. This is the edited, non-explicit version. This version is a more poetic, fade-to-black version that adheres to site rules and guidelines. I also wanted to respect readers on these platforms who have not been following me under the impression that this is mature fic, because its original rating is not M. With that being said, there are still implied parts in this chapter that may be sensitive to some readers, so skip ahead, if that is you.

If you would like to read the full, unedited, absolutely unhinged-in-how-filthy-it-is version, visit my linktree (https://linktr.ee/anerdinallherglory) to find the fic on AO3, where appropriate tags will be used. After reading the tags, you may have decided not to pursue reading that M version. Some may ask why I decided to write an alternate version, and I’m going to say that writing from Sasuke’s, a male’s perspective, seemed a little less delicate than Sakura’s, and after reading it several times, I decided that this version only belonged on AO3 where readers could read the tags and then choose which one to read. The only part that is different is how detailed the descriptions go. I do believe that many would prefer this edited version, but I could be completely wrong for some.

As always, thank you for reading. Happy early Valentine’s Day. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Here is a visual for the chapter.

Pairing: SasuSaku

Previous Chapters: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36

Chapter 37: Stars and Orbits

The location that Sasuke sought was something he had stumbled upon once on his mission between villages, concealed by pools of shallow water at the base. Now, in the darkness, the cave was near impossible for anyone to locate. Once inside the dense cover of forest, Sasuke had led them directly toward one of the many tree-covered mountains, the one with the fracture in the side that hid behind dense foliage. The falling rain had created flood waters and the shallow brook that Sasuke remembered was now rapidly flowing into the mouth of the cave, disappearing completely, and only Sasuke knew where it came out on the other side.

The darkness around them had faded infinitesimally, just enough that Sasuke realized night would soon give way to the faded in-between of dusk and dawn. But Sasuke was determined to have both he and his teammate safely tucked away into the mountain’s embrace before any sort of light could reveal them to any potential followers; Sasuke was fairly confident that there weren’t any left in the near vicinity that he hadn’t already dealt with, but he wasn’t going to take the chance anyway—not with both he and Sakura’s depleted chakra levels. And so, he jumped into the rushing waters that had turned into a lapping stream, a tongue snaking out from the sideways mouth of the cave.

“What are you doing?” Sakura whispered loudly over the roaring sounds of the water and Sasuke could sense her reluctance to follow his lead, most likely not wanting to subject herself to any further waterlogging.

“It’s a cave,” he informed her, digging his feet deeply into the rocky bed beneath his feet, stretching his arm up to offer her assistance, which she immediately denied to Sasuke’s extreme annoyance. Fine, he thought to himself. He was fine with her indignation because he was just as pissed off as she was. “We are going to have to swim through the entrance to get inside, so there’s no point to waste chakra trying to walk on it just yet.”

As Sakura slid into the black water, tightening her eyes at the shock of cold, the stream swelled up to her chest, pushing her tired body toward him in a jerk before her feet finally reached the bottom. “A cave? Won’t it be flooded?”

“No,” he answered. “Not dangerously so, at least.” He offered no further explanation before allowing the pull of the water to guide him the rest of the way to the entrance. Just before committing himself to the dark fissure in the mountain’s side, the open grin of the cave, Sasuke turned and grabbed Sakura’s uninjured hand and lifted her arm straight up above her head. “The ceiling will lower. Keep your arm extended so you know when you must go all the way under water. I’ll be in front of you, so stay close.”

Sakura’s eyes widened at this revelation before frowning at his command, and when Sasuke realized his teammate’s unbending anger towards him was going to prevent her from asking him any questions, Sasuke pushed forward into the all-consuming blackness.

The rumble of the water draining into the crevices of the cave was deafening and almost more distracting than the coolness of the water itself, and Sasuke took a minute to be grateful that they were in the dregs of late summer, otherwise they would be wading in critically low temperatures. The narrow entrance scuffed against Sasuke’s single palm as he dragged it along the side of the craggy tunnel. He could hear Sakura’s quick breathing behind him as she followed him, staying close enough where their bodies still brushed one another occasionally.

When his fingers brushed against the ceiling, Sasuke turned back to Sakura who had been following him in silence for the last fifteen minutes. They bumped together in the dark and Sakura brushed his side with her hand. It was terrifying and disorienting, how unreliable it felt to be this cut off from light. And yet, not even the darkness could dim her presence to Sasuke, that hyperawareness he had for her wherever she was in a room even if he didn’t know she would be there. His eyes would find her, his body would move in her direction, his soul would reach out as if hers were doing the same. He didn’t need the daylight to see her.

“This is the narrowest part,” he told her emotionlessly, preparing her for the dive that was to come. “It opens back up in about ten meters. Just hold your breath and keep swimming.”

She didn’t respond, only continued to breath raggedly in exhaustion. Even though he was angry, so damn angry with her, that he too, only wanted to give her a stony silence in return, his concern for her in this situation overrode all of that. “Did you hear me?” he hissed in frustrated urgency and Sakura’s echoing, emotionless “yes,” was the only confirmation he needed before he inhaled sharply, filling his lungs to capacity, and diving.

The vacuum of the current was stronger than Sasuke had anticipated as he felt forward with his arm. Water relentlessly pushed him forward and his knee met a sharp rock, and he grunted underwater as he pushed off of it, hoping Sakura’s smaller frame would avoid her any collisions. His lungs began to burn just when his fingers grasped for the ceiling and found it open. He took a huge gulp of air as he met the surface and immediately ducked back under, waiting and waiting in nervous anticipation before Sakura’s outstretched hand collided with him and he pulled her up with him. Her gasp of air, evidence of her safety, was just as relieving as Sasuke’s own inhaled breath. His body needed it just as much to keep going.

“There’s a drop,” Sasuke spoke quickly, the water still relentlessly tugging their bodies forward toward the cliff-like edge he remembered standing at once before as he looked down at the chasm below with a fireball sailing down to meet the bottom. Now, he only had memory and darkness to rely on in order to spare his chakra. Sasuke held Sakura’s body to him as they drifted. His stubborn pink-haired partner resisted his hold initially until his words registered, and he felt her arms cling tightly in response to his shoulders. With the standstill between them, Sasuke only had a second to hold her before they were freefalling.

Sasuke fell back-first over the drop, tucking Sakura tight against him, before spinning the both of them until his feet hit the surface of the lake below. He landed lightly despite the force of gravity from such a height, his weight distributing easily across the water as he pushed against it with his waning chakra. “Can you sta—” he began to ask Sakura, but she pulled away from him as soon as they landed, finding her own chakra-enhanced footing.

“I can take care of myself,” she reminded him, walking forward in the darkness as if she were the one who knew where to go. Her words carried the weight of their impending argument, the temporary peace between them coming to a swift and immediate end.

“I know you can,” Sasuke hissed as he pursued her footsteps in the dark. “You can stop trying to prove it to me, now.”

She spun to him and Sasuke felt her body accidentally crash with his and repel from him all within a millisecond, like two colliding ninja in battle. “Then why did you follow me? You didn’t think I could handle this on my own?”

Sasuke ground his teeth, because that just wasn’t it. It wasn’t that he doubted her abilities. She had proven herself more than capable—multiple times, in fact, in the last two months. During her most recent encounter with the anti-peace members in the desert after Mako had kidnapped her, Sasuke had arrived post-battle, the pieces of Sakura’s aftermath scattered among the sand like inconsequential annoyances. And tonight, when Sasuke had finally reached her after deposing of an obscure number of pursuers, he had stood on the edge of the clearing, watching her engage in hand-to-hand combat, the black dye of her hair running down her skin like the war paint of the Anbu Black Ops. Seeing her in combat, Sasuke had held himself back with all the willpower belonging to his being contrary to his instincts to act. He hadn’t wanted to intervene, hadn’t wanted to interrupt Sakura’s process because he knew she could easily handle the three ninja who fought with her. He had every intention to watch and let her handle them her way. That was until that last bastard trailed a blade up her stomach and used his own fingers to trace swirls into her skin with the red of her own blood. Not even the most controlled of men would have sat by and watched such an offense against their loved one—watch their woman be violated in any way—and Sasuke… he was not a controlled man. He was the opposite of that. He was an Uchiha who loved.

“Your silence speaks what you won’t say to my face,” Sakura whispered, disappointment replacing her ire in a moment of transparency.

Sasuke brushed past her, fisting her arm in the dark and guiding her over to the precipice of land that jutted out of the lake like a domed table. When Sakura’s feet met the rock-strewn beach, she stumbled in the dark and Sasuke held her more firmly as he, too, struggled to find even footing. Jumping to the top of the table-like plateau, Sasuke reached down and grabbed Sakura’s hand to pull her up behind him, but her hand was slick with the blood of her injury, and she threw her other hand up to grab his wrist to accommodate. Exhausted, the both of them fell back on their backsides and scooted away from the edge.

Feeling the stickiness of blood against his palm, Sasuke frowned. “Why aren’t you healing yourself?” he asked irritably, his carefully concealed anger similarly bleeding out in his tone.

Sakura’s own annoyance was evident in her response, an edged stillness that might have cut Sasuke as deep as any wound might had she meant to do damage with her words. “I have to reserve my chakra. I’m channeling to Katsuyu.”

Sasuke almost told her how annoying she was when she neglected herself, but he refrained, knowing that it would open the floodgate between them. Instead, Sasuke found himself reaching until he found her injured hand. He pulled at Sakura’s resisting palm until he held it out between them, a restorative green globe beginning to radiate from his own hand. They both squinted at the sudden flare of light, a speck in the immense blackness around them, and their dilated pupils suddenly constricted at the emerald glow. The circumference of light was no larger than that of a candle and the roaring cave swallowed the light hungrily beyond their bodies.

Sakura fisted her hand and looked away from him. “Leave it. Save what little chakra you have left.”

Sasuke ignored the command and his irritation momentarily faltered at the redness in her eyes that he could see over the dome of light between them, the tears she held back there. She was desperately trying not to cry at the misunderstanding of Sasuke not having faith in her regardless of his previous reassurances.

“It has nothing to do with doubting you,” he whispered, answering her question from moments ago. He tried his best to conceal his anger with her, but every word still came out sounding clipped, sounding cross. “You can tell me to stay away. You can trick me and leave me without chakra. You can leave me a damn goodbye letter telling me you love me in case you die.” Sakura sucked in a breath as her skin slowly knitted back together, sewn with the needle of Sasuke’s chakra. “You could be the strongest ninja in the shinobi world, but I am still going to go after you, Sakura.”

“But you have your own mission—The Otsusuki Race—” she began as Sasuke’s hand released her palm, moving down along her arm until he was pulling the fabric of her shirt up and away from the assaulting crooked line of the cut to her flesh. She sucked in a breath when he did so, reacting more so to his touch than the pain of it. She leaned back on to her arms as he hovered his glowing chakra across her abdomen.

Sasuke’s white-hot anger returned just looking at the damage, and he took a steadying breath as he passed his glowing palm along the gash. When his chakra met her injury, Sakura stopped speaking altogether as she inhaled a sharp gasp of pain.

“—can wait their turn,” Sasuke finished for her. “I still have time to hunt them down. Your enemies are also mine. Just like I told you back in the Sand Village, I can help you take care of these guys first.” The words were edged, punishing, even though he knew that he had absolutely no right to emphasize those words after years of rejecting her offer to help him with his goals. But he was trying, wasn’t he? Sasuke had let her come with him. He had let her help him just as she had wanted. But she didn’t want it to go both ways?! Or was it that Sakura didn’t believe that Sasuke wanted it to go both ways? What would they be able to accomplish as a unified force if they stopped this tug of war between each other of whose enemies were whose and what missions were hers or his?

Sakura’s eyes found his in the dimming light and she finally pushed his hand away. He knew that she was probably thinking along the same lines, and this was confirmed for him when she whispered. “How does it feel? To be left behind?” Her voice was thick with emotion. If it weren’t so dark, he might have seen tears prick her eyes.

He internally winced, but leveled a scowl at her, a flame she could no longer see returning to his eyes. He bit back the various answers that came to his mouth unbidden: Torturous. Like the hell I deserve. Like I couldn’t fucking breath every second we were separated. Like the relentless stomach-turning fire of panic, vengeance, and loss all at once. Either because those words would make Sakura’s own past feelings painfully corporeal, because none of them were the apology she deserved, or simply because he was a stubborn, prideful Uchiha who couldn’t admit that she had such power over him, he refrained from voicing them. Sasuke stopped those words on his tongue and bit back the confession.

Standing, the Uchiha jumped down off the giant stone jutting from the side of the cave and retreated back down the bank and onto the lake’s surface. “I’ll be back in a moment,” he announced to her “Stay here.”

She exhaled silently to the air around her, but Sasuke heard it regardless, no amount of riotous rushing of the waterfall behind them flooding out the sadness in her sigh. He should have told her his truth. He shouldn’t have held it back regardless of the reasons.

As Sakura waited for Sasuke on the bank, her eyes began to make out just the tiniest pinpricks of light coming somewhere very high above her. Her first thought was that it must be the night sky she was seeing, and as the time passed, it bled into a larger crack across the ceiling, beams of morning light reaching fingers down into the serrated ridge of the clamshell’s mouth, but not able to reach Sakura where she sat looking up at it. She was the pearl at the bottom of the shell that the sun just couldn’t reach no matter how desperately it clawed for her. Even though she couldn’t make out any of the details around her, Sakura was able to follow the jagged edge of the mountain’s opening for what she believed to be about a half-mile sideways before it disappeared into a rocky enclosure. She estimated that the distance between the two halves of the opening were just enough that a very small person might be able to scale down between the walls to find this place. But even if someone had managed to squeeze themselves through the ceiling, Sakura could now see that they would be dangling about thirty-five or more meters before they reached the surface below. It honestly astonished her that Sasuke knew this place so well, but she also understood him to be an individual who traveled to places and dimensions where no other human feet could ever touch.

After about thirty minutes of shivering in the same spot and tapping her feet in frustration at Sasuke’s absence, the annoyance turning to fear as the time lengthened, Sakura stood and began to strip her clothing. Firstly, she removed her headband, the water-saturated, black coat, and pants until she was in her water slicked shirt that hung off her and hit her thighs. Even if the cave was roughly about seventy degrees inside, her drenched clothing was lowering her temperature quickly.

As if sensing her predicament, the universe aligned so that Sasuke arrived at that specific moment, shuffling the rocks behind her announcing his arrival. She immediately sought to cover herself before she realized that he wouldn’t be able to see her anyway in this endless depth.

“Where did you go,” she asked incredulously, continuing to wring and shake out her ditched garments in the peace of blackness.

“Firewood,” he announced emotionlessly seconds before he directed a trivial fire release of flame at his newly assembled pile. Before Sakura could even ask where on earth he managed to find wood down here, light and heat branded the air around them and Sakura gasped at the suddenness of it. The fireball instantly caught the tiny pyre aflame despite how wet the wood must have been, creating a circumference of contrasting brightness in the black.

“What the hell are you doing?” Sasuke seethed after catching sight of her and immediately turned his back on her state of undress. Sakura blushed privately to herself as she turned her back to him.

“You can still get hypothermia in the summer,” she defended as she glanced back over her shoulder at his own drenched body. “I suggest you do the same.” That was the last thing she said before dropping the oversized shirt at her feet. After arranging the clothes to dry out on the ground next to the flames, Sakura settled before the fire, hiding her body behind her knees as she crouched.

She watched as Sasuke’s entire posture grew rigid at her nearness, his spine replacing itself with a rod of steel, and even with his back to her, Sakura recognized the curved shoulder and bowed head mannerisms that revealed he was pinching the bridge of his nose. Sighing, the Uchiha yanked a scroll from his jacket and knelt on one knee as he activated the summoning seals along the parchment, revealing two sets of clothing that materialized instead of the weapons she was expecting. The clothing was thrown forcefully in her direction, and they hit her body in a way that his words weren’t needed to communicate the command.

She was wet and cold and didn’t hesitate. She pulled one of Sasuke’s gray long-sleeve shirts over her shivering frame, never so grateful for a piece of fabric in her life. Trying not to get even the slightest bit elated over the fact that she was wearing one of his shirts like the teenage version of herself might, Sakura stripped herself of her still-wet undergarments before yanking on a loose-fitting pair of his clean black pants.

She watched as Sasuke released a defeated sigh from the other side of the fire and begin to pull his own clothes off, replacing them with his own set of dry clothes. Sakura did her best not to delight in the show, turning her beat red face away to give him some privacy. She mentally berated herself for her perversity. She wasn’t Naruto, Kakashi—or even worse, Jaariya, was she?!

She cleared her throat. “Where did you manage to get firewood?” she asked, desperate to fill the awkwardness.

He sighed as he shuffled on his own pair of pants. “There’s a back entrance. Even more discreet than the way we came in.”

“Won’t the smoke give us away if it’s daylight?”

“No. The fire is small and it’s a long way to the top. The ceiling opens up which will prevent the cavern from filling with smoke, but it’s a long way to the top. It will disperse before it exits.”

“How did you find this place?”

“I’ve looked in every corner of the Land of Fire for any trace of Kaguya or her white Zetsu army. It was the very first thing I did.”

Sakura’s heart panged, knowing he had been so close, sleeping nightly in the Land of Fire during that first year away from home after the War when she longed for him the most, when they had just gotten him back.

When Sasuke turned and walked over to lay out his clothes next to hers, Sakura felt the shift in his mood again. It was remarkable how her body knew his without even an exchange of words or a shared look between each other; Sakura could read every line of him, sometimes written in cursive roundness and sometimes written in sharp jagged, hidden scripts. She had always known every motion that made up Sasuke, even when they were younger. She had known when Sasuke wasn’t fairing well after Orohimaru’s cursemark, Sakura had known when he was in pain, when he was changing and no one else could tell; she had even known him well enough to intercept him as he left Konoha after he had decided on his path of revenge. But more recently, Sakura didn’t realize until now that she had spent the last several months learning and coaxing out new, infrequently used symbols she had never seen until now. Sakura guessed that Sasuke was currently struggling to sort out emotions he wasn’t used to feeling and after what had happened a mere few hours ago, she didn’t know if that was all entirely a good thing.

Sakura’s eyes flicked over to where he stretched out his black cloak with jerky, angry movements, snapping it loudly after wringing the literal life from it. His jaw was tight and Sakura crossed her arms as she scowled, trying to decipher what had him so vexed. Wasn’t she supposed to be the angry one? Hadn’t he interfered in her plans?

“Did Kakashi know?” came Sasuke’s question after he decided to join her by sitting across from her, the small fire offering no protective emotional barrier between them. Sakura frowned more from Sasuke’s question than she did the diminishing fire as it burned, his anger feeling suddenly hotter than any fire ever could.

She leveled him with her own scowl, feeling defensive at the abrupt question, not quite sure what he was inquiring about. “What are you asking—”

He averted his eyes for a moment, before locking them firmly with her own, deciding he didn’t want to miss a fraction of her reaction to his clarifying question. “Did Kakashi know you would be using your body in a brothel for your covert mission?”

Sakura’s mouth fell open. That’s what this is about?! He thought she had gone through with it, being completely committed to her undercover persona as a prostitute in order to gain information. Sakura could certainly see how he, or anyone else for that matter, might connect the dots and make that assumption, but the forthrightness of his interrogation shocked her. She was always so accustomed to his silent brooding.

“Sasuke—” she began, and she leaned forward, trying to immediately assuage his concerns, but he wasn’t going to give her the opportunity. He must have thought she was deflecting, changing the course with an explanation, because his next words cut her off.

“Did he?” he bit out, breathing the words out lowly and urgently. “Answer my question.”

Feeling rushed for an answer, she admitted quickly. “Of course he knew…some of it. He’s the Hokage. I told him what I was planning.”

Sasuke’s face turned white, and he closed his eyes as he inhaled deeply. “I’m going to kill him. I’m going to kill him for letting you run off and do such a thing for the sake of the Leaf Village—or for yourself—it doesn’t matter! You’re one of us. He’s supposed to—”

“It’s not what you’re thinking it is,” she tried, but his questions kept coming.

“How often? How often have you done this type of thing for a mission?”

“You’re misunderstanding—”

He leveled her with his challenging stare again. “Am I? I saw you. I saw you in the memories of that girl. In the lap of that ninja with his hands in your hair.”

Sakura gasped at his confession, not because she was distressed that Sasuke had seen her with Rugo, but knowing that he had actually tracked her to the bathhouse and searched for her in the girls’ memories of her just as she feared he might. It explained how he knew what location she had been planning to go, but Sakura dreaded knowing what else he must have seen in those memories of the brothel she had used as her stage for Act 1 of her plan.

Sakura could see his misinterpretation of her reaction settling into the shadows under his brow line. It darkened his eyes and he raised his chin as he mentally braced himself. He thought her gasp confirmation of all his worst fears.

“What you saw—it wasn’t what you’re thinking—”

“Did you sleep with him?” he breathed the question, not wanting to ask it but needing the truth all the same, desperately. “The man whose clothes you’re wearing.” The words were cold.

“Sasuke!” she shouted, aghast at his bluntness.

“Did you?!” he snapped, the same type of emotion he used when arguing with Naruto now flooding his voice.

“No!” she finally managed to get past him. “I didn’t have to. I have never had to sleep with anyone, nor would I. Not even for a mission.”

His face went into his hands and she felt his audible sigh as Sasuke focused on regaining his emotions, trying so desperately to shove them behind the black wall of granite where he kept them once more. She watched his entire body slacken in relief, surrendering to the exhaustion of chakra-depletion. Had it been his fury that had kept him going until now?

“What you saw was just an unexpected occurrence during the mission,” she bit out, using his temporary silence to get out what she had been trying to say for the last few minutes. “Rugo, the man you saw me with, recognized me, and I had no choice but to play along not to blow my own cover. Choosing that route, I knew I would have to take some calculated risks.”

He was silent, but Sakura sensed the war with himself to say more, ask more, but exactly what she wasn’t sure. She waited. But he bit his lip and looked away.

“I’m a woman. There are always going to be men who try to take advantage of me in that way.”

She saw his jaw set, his teeth clench. She knew he was holding back whatever it was he wanted to say. She saw his eyes land on her stomach, searching for the concealed wound there, and she knew he was recalling the man who had dared to touch her. Self-conscious, Sakura covered the freshly healed scar with a hand over the fabric as if he might be able to see through it.

“Then I will make you untouchable,” came his final reply. Sakura’s skin prickled at the acerbic promise.

“I am already untouchable. I have made myself untouchable. Every predatory touch on my person was calculated, allowed. But nothing will happen that I do not allow.”

Sasuke scoffed, but it was the type of scoff that admitted he could not win the argument. The type of scoff that eased the tension between them.

Sakura stood and stepped around the fire, coming to kneel before him, his glare doing nothing to hold her back. “You’re going to have to trust me. Trust my abilities and trust my decisions,” she said to the Uchiha as she turned to sit down beside him, using her proximity to soften the harshness further. “I can handle myself.”

He sighed in irritation, leaning his head back against a low, darkness-concealed boulder that Sakura hadn’t realized he was perched against until she had come to join him. Again, Sakura was reading him, could tell that his anger with her was being pushed back and categorized in his brain to handle on his own. “Annoying,” he exhaled, and Sakura recognized it as the full-stop he used to end a conversation, to end the argument and concede to her points.

“My turn,” she announced after a moment of de-escalating silence, and Sasuke’s eyes narrowed suspiciously as he rolled his head to the right to look at her.

She plucked up his hesitant right hand and entwined her fingers with his to help with what she was going to say next. He didn’t pull away.

She was recalling his episode in the clearing, the torturous screams of the man who had been ignited with the flames of the Amaterasu. She spoke for him and others like him now, even if he didn’t deserve her representation. But it wasn’t on their behalf that she chose to do so. She recalled his words to her in Konoha after he discovered her collaborative plan with Gaara to be used as bait: ‘If something happened to you, I don’t know who I would become again.’ She loved Sasuke. Cared about Sasuke. She needed to say this for his sake more than anyone’s. She wouldn’t be the person responsible for his moral deterioration.

“I don’t want to become a detriment to you, Sasuke. I don’t want to be what breaks you. Earlier—” she stumbled, casting her eyes down at the narrow space of fire-lit ground between them. “It was all too familiar.”

“I know.” He responded quickly, unwilling to let her give voice to his actions any further. Sakura realized it was an attempt to keep his sins within his own personal head so that neither of them had to bear witness to them a second time. “It’s a part of me. No matter how hard I try to eradicate it, there’s a monster in here.” He brought her hand to his chest. “And we both know what he’s capable of. Even now, I don’t feel regret when I should. I have absolutely no desire to apologize for my actions tonight. But that look on your face is the same expression you looked at me all the times I’ve been lost. I don’t want to see that anymore.”

“You’re not a monster,” she stated as a fact, her focus hung upon that derogatory word. “Naruto and I will not let you be a monster. Even if you were to fall again, we would force you up. We will not let you become lost again.”

“I know,” he breathed, suddenly going very still and gazing at her as if the truth of her words were the only thing allowing him to cling to sanity. “It’s why I can choose you and the world will not pay for it.”

Using their conjoined hands, Sasuke tugged her toward him slowly, his fingers releasing her to find the back of her neck. His fingers were calloused but warm, hooking into the vertebrae of her spine like his fingertips were just another part of her—like they belonged there just as much as her spinal cord or her skin or her hair. She would let him permanently bond them there if only he never stopped touching her.

“Three days ago, you told me you weren’t going anywhere. But you left anyway.” His words were a shared breath between them, so close that Sakura could taste the abandoned shapes of them.

Sakura recalled the moment Sasuke talked about, a broken promise she had given him in their shared sleeping quarters in Sunagakure. A promise she had stamped with a peck on his lips and a promise he had accepted with a rare smile and the decision to brand the promise into her lips more fully.

“I know. I’m sorry,” she whispered, feeling ashamed despite all her reasoning.

“Can I remind you why you said it?” It was a question. And Sakura instantly recalled her reasoning back then: ‘I can finally do this.’ But Sasuke wasn’t going to push her without her consent, and Sakura realized his request was an attempt to give her voice back the power so many women didn’t have, the power that other men would have tried to take from her if she had stayed in that brothel.

Sakura held her breath and nodded, and then his mouth met hers, slowly, carefully, parting them with his own. Sakura didn’t need to be fluent in the script of Sasuke Uchiha—nobody who bore witness to this moment would—in order to grasp the intensity of how he truly felt about her.

When their kissing had evolved, Sasuke had stilled the desperate hand that had slid across his cheek and into his hair. It had been so difficult to once again be the one to halt something that he had started, but Sasuke had to stop. He wouldn’t be able to bring himself to do anything more. Not after what he’d seen tonight. Not after he had watched Sakura in that vision, pirouetted in front of ravenous men like she could be any of theirs to handle, to claim, to devour.

Sasuke couldn’t touch Sakura in the ways he desperately wanted to in this moment, because he couldn’t distinguish the color of his wants from the various shades of cravings of those men. He couldn’t see the difference between himself and them in this instant, because Sasuke had begun to desire her just as feverishly, just as frenziedly. His eyes had lingered over the planes of her body just as theirs had. Sasuke couldn’t erase the words from his mind that were whispered to her as she was being bloodily fondled before his very eyes: “But he won’t mind if I have my fun with you first before he gets here.” And the rage returned at the thought of it and that type of rage would disappoint Sakura. It disappointed himself. He didn’t want to be with her in this way right now feeling how he did. He didn’t want to be able to still feel those emotions as he attempted to smother them with his own desires of her. It would be the same as tangling threads together: a blue cord of worry, a black fiber of icy wrath, the blaring red string of his love for her, the violet twine of possessiveness, a white piercing strand that Sasuke couldn’t identify as need, hunger, or desire… He wouldn’t be able to sort them out in time and touching her with a greedy hand would stamp all those interwoven emotions into his memory forever, and Sasuke didn’t want his memory of such actions with Sakura tainted in his mind.

“What’s wrong,” she asked when he broke their contact just before it had really started, his forehead falling against hers. She misunderstood his labored breathing, hand moving to his forehead. “Are you okay? Is it your Rinnegan?”

The question reminded Sasuke of his weariness. Both of their current states and exhaustions. He always seemed to forget how tired he was when his lips would meet hers. Her breath gave him life. He brought her against him until her chin rested on his right shoulder like a bird returning to its nest, as if her chin belonged to that very spot, and Sasuke buried his face into her neck just to inhale her in. They both smelled damp, like mud and rainwater, but there wasn’t a man alive that had worshiped a scent like Sasuke did now. Because it meant that she was alive, here with him in a cave he had once refuged, not knowing then that he would return to this very spot and hold another person urgently as if the very purpose of his existence was so that he would end up here again, with her.

“Sasuke?” he heard Sakura whisper when he became lost in his silent reverence of her.

“Hn,” he responded in the crook of her neck, not ready to pull back and face her. He was afraid he’d get lost in her liquified green eyes and lose his resolve.

Her delicate fingers came up his neck to touch the black, feathered tips of his hair. “Maybe you should try to get some sleep. I’ll take first watch—”

But Sasuke was already pulling her to the ground next to him, the small fire warm against their skin. He turned Sakura so that she was closer to the heat and Sasuke curled her into himself, trapping her back to his chest. “Only if you sleep, too,” came his response. “No one will be able to find us here.”

Even with her back to him, Sasuke could feel the smile spreading across her face as they lay together, tangled and sleeping, for the very first time. Sasuke felt lucky to be doing so. And as he dozed off beside her, he tried not to think of her in the ways of despicable men, despite how tempting it was to do so with her in this proximity, wearing his clothes as if it were already the after. He buried his nose into her half-dyed hair, frowning at the dulled shade of it. He found her neck instead and inhaled until sleep found him.

. . .

When Sasuke roused sometime later, the lack of her body against his was almost painful despite the novelty of it. As if their bodies where they had lain touching had been sewn together while they slept, and Sakura had risen at some point, unknowingly cleaving the delicately fabricated web between them. Sasuke sucked in a panicked breath, the fire now extinguished and leaving nothing but a consuming blackness that Sasuke desperately tried to adjust his eyes to.

“Sakura,” he rasped, his throat dry from disuse. How long exactly had he been sleeping? Hours? Days? He had no sense of knowing in this submerged world of black that left you feeling as if your soul simply floated in an abyss somewhere free of time and space. Thankfully, his eyes adjusted, and he could make out a few isolated stars puncturing through the craig above. By the lack of the deafening sound of collapsing water, Sasuke assumed that the waterfall had lessened, most of the floodwaters now pooling in the cave and flowing to the exit. Asleep for the day, then, Sasuke concluded.

“Over here,” Sakura calls out, somewhere across the cavern, her voice skipping across the water like a thrown stone. Sasuke couldn’t help but focus more on the distance than the direction. It was much farther than Sasuke would have ever liked it. His panic gave way to a small irritation as her tone seemed absolutely confident and unharmed. Sasuke recalled his irrational fear the last time she had snuck off on her own while they had slept in the forest between Konoha and Suna. And then again in Kaguya’s tower. Sasuke was starting to realize this was an annoying habit of hers. He huffed to himself as he rose to his feet, adorning his now-dry cloak.

“There’s a glow,” she spoke again and Sasuke traced her echo across the river. Some of his chakra had returned and when Sasuke’s feet met the edge of water, he summoned his energy to the bottoms of his feet to walk across the surface to where she stood. “Just over there. Do you see it?”

When Sasuke neared her, the glow she claimed to see began to register in his vision. A distant sphere of blue light somewhere farther down a tunnel. And then Sasuke was remembering the sight he beheld the first and only time he had come here to hunt Kaguya. He had forgotten about it, since he had learned that the natural phenomenon bore no connection to the Otsusuki race.

Reaching out to search for his hand, Sakura asked, “What do you think it is? A jutsu?”

And Sasuke realized in that moment what had caused her to tear away from him in his sleep. Sakura thought they had been found, the faint glow a sign that someone was performing a light release through the tunnel.

Sasuke smirked to himself in the dark, knowing the truth of the light would be a welcome surprise for once. “Come. I’ll show you.”

When they reached the mouth of the cave, Sakura still only saw an indistinct glow coming from an angle farther down the tunnel. It was a vibrant blue-green and it became brighter as she followed Sasuke, clutching desperately at the fingers of his hand, unsure of what they would soon face.

Sasuke rubbed his thumb across the back of her hand to reassure her and Sakura tried not to let the affectionate action distract her. He was surprising her, Sakura admitted to herself, more and more every day, as he slowly let his guard fall, the pretenses drop, the ice melt away for her. She had never slept so contentedly as she had in Sasuke’s embrace, only broken moments ago. Her entire life, she had reached across her bed, her bed roll, the forest ground whenever she woke in the dead of night, fingers searching for the outline of a person who had never really been next to her, but who her heart told her that should be. As if the delusion of her passion was real and existed between the realm of sleep and wakefulness, an imprint belonging to someone from an alternative universe still etched into the space beside her, only available to her in the subconscious. How right it had felt for Sasuke to nestle his nose into the back of her neck, as if Sakura’s very soul had known all along that the lover of her intuition had a face, had a name she already knew and called out for, but that only time separated them for this long.

Rounding the corner, Sakura refocused her thoughts on the illumination and gasped at what she beheld before her. A galaxy worth of stars hung above her, twinkling like distant blue supergiants in an abyss of black. Sakura’s mouth dropped at the spectacle, astounded by the millions of tiny orbs of light splayed beautifully across the onyx walls and tops of the tunnel.

“What are they?” Sakura finally asked, glancing to Sasuke’s face, now alight with the blue-green light, his black eyes a mirroring universe for the pinpricks of fluorescence to glow against.

He smirked and confessed. “I’m not entirely sure you will want to know.”

Because they weren’t stars. Of course, they weren’t, being thousands of feet deep inside a mountain cave made that an impossibility. As Sakura observed them carefully, walking forward on the glimmering water, Sasuke in tow, she began to notice the fidgeting movement of the lights. Thin, sparkling, silk-like strands hung from each light, every star bearing a comet's tail that made them look as if they were shooting up toward a sky they would never reach. It became clear to Sakura suddenly that this was an organism— many living organisms.

“I suspect bioluminescence is at play?” Sakura asked as she immediately assessed the sight with a medic’s mind.

Sasuke nodded in confirmation, and Sakura saw the gleam of approval in his eyes, as if he were impressed that she solved it so swiftly. “When I stumbled upon them the first time, it took me a minute to realize what they were. When I came here searching for the Otsusuki race, they caught my attention at first, but I dismissed them after I realized they were of no relevance. I had forgotten about them until now.”

“How on earth could you forget such a sight?” Sakura questioned him, eyes roaming the ceiling as she paced forward once again, her neck straining to hold her head as she stared. “I’ll think of it every night. When I saw them, I thought of stars. But now when I see stars, I’ll think of them.”

Sasuke rubbed the back of his head, and Sakura could tell he was hesitant to ruin the moment with further details. “It can’t be that bad. Are they insects? I’m a shinobi, Sasuke, and a medic. Such things don’t bother me.”

The Uchiha smirked at her again and Sakura was hopelessly falling for that rogue smirk. She hoped he would do it for her the rest of his life. “Worms,” Sasuke revealed. “Larva, actually. And that’s mucus and excrement hanging from the ceilings.”

Sakura’s mouth dropped, not in disgust, but in absolute awe that there were threads of mucus hanging as long as two feet from the ceiling at a distance she could never reach unless chakra came into play. Sakura’s medical nature had her standing on her toes to look closer. Instinctively, she wanted to take samples, research them, and learn all about the ezymes responsible.

She heard Sasuke’s signature half-laugh, the ejection of air through his nose, the “hmph” resounding in his throat as she appeared to be completely unbothered by the truth of what she was seeing. Sakura didn’t care what it was. It was no less unusual than learning that stars were giant orbs of floating rock and gas giants.

“The light is predatory,” Sasuke informed her again, but Sakura had already guessed as much. “To draw moths and other insects to their flaming blue light. The mucus acts like a spider’s web.”

“Fascinating,” Sakura marveled, grinning and pulling Sasuke closer to further inspect one particular cluster of mucus strands that suspended on a low hanging rock.

“Ironically, like you,” he teased, pulling her back against him as she faced the depthless tunnel, the lights a never-ending trail into the void.

She laughed, elbowing him in the side, “Are you calling me an insect?”

“Insects are annoying,” he goaded, and Sakura realized she would have punched anyone else, but the tongue-in-cheek from his lips was like the saccharine additive she put in kids’ medicine.

She spun around in his arm, sending him a grinning glare. “Don’t make me give you another black eye.”

His smirk turned into a feral smile and the sight of it left Sakura breathless. He was so beautiful. More beautiful than the glowing worms. More beautiful than the cosmos. Who was she kidding? It wouldn’t be the stars or the larva that she thought of each night before she slept. It would be this smile. This moment between them as they lay hidden from the rest of the world, hundreds of feet underground in their own starry space and time.

The air stilled between them as both their smiles fell away. Sakura couldn’t help herself and she knew Sasuke could immediately sense what she was about to say. She would say it again, though, with the stars that existed below a mountain to witness. “I love you,” she breathed, staring into his glass-like eyes. “I want to tell you now, so that every time you see the stars at night without me, you’ll remember.”

And something snapped in Sasuke’s expression, a carefully constructed guard that Sakura didn’t even know was there. Because his mouth was on hers. Gently at first and then so very hungrily. Sakura was surprised at the fervor of the kiss. Like an inevitable collision that they had both anticipated for so long. And he wasn’t stopping. And she wasn’t stopping. Tangling her fingers in his hair as he guided her to the wall where the water turned into shoreline. She hadn’t even known there was a spot high enough out of the water to sit, but Sakura was soon placed upon it and she let out a gasp when Sasuke released her lips to press his open mouth against the throbbing of her pulse in her carotid artery. She bit her lip to hold in the sound she wanted to moan as the heat of his tongue brushed against it, and then further down, until he was peppering kisses along her clavicle. He was moving slowly despite Sakura’s reassuring fist in his hair. It felt like a burnt offering to her body. The most delicious string of fire igniting a path along her skin. She bit her lip harder to stop herself from making the noises she knew would flood from her mouth. And Sasuke realized what she was doing and returned to her mouth, freeing her lip from herself as he pulled it between his own teeth. The sound she had held back until now escaped into his mouth and he swallowed it as if he wanted to taste the sound.

The glowing spectacle around them was forgotten because it paled in comparison to what was finally happening between them, but Sakura tried not to get ahead of herself. Sakura had gotten her hopes up once before, believing their progression would lead to the inevitable, the release of years of sexual tension and pining. But Sasuke had slowed the last time she had hoped, halted their intoxicating, careening fall, just as he was doing now. Kissed once more. Waited. Then just once again more as if he was afraid that he wouldn’t be able to do it again once he regained some control over himself. And then stopped, looking to her face, anxious of her reaction.

“Don’t stop,” she pleaded as he stilled. “Please don’t stop. Just this once.”

“I can’t do this without knowing that if I had just—” he breathes heavily, trying to fumble for the words that had never come to him naturally. “I have to be sure. I need you to be sure. I’ll never forgive myself if this makes you suffer.”

“The only thing making me suffer is you kissing me like that and then stopping.” It was simultaneously a hiss and a plea.

In the glowing dampness of the cave, Sakura could see her words registering in his starry eyes and the smirk playing at the corner of his freshly abrased lips, but he grew serious again before it could spread into something more. “We won’t be able to go back from this. This life you’ll be choosing. If I am your choice—I’m terrified you’ll come to regret it.”

And Sakura realized what he was trying to say. What crossing this line for him would mean. That it wouldn’t be ‘just this once.’ It would mean them. This act would make it impossible for him to deny that they were together, officially. Maybe forever.

“I have already chosen you a thousand times,” Sakura sighed, clutching his cheek with the palm of her hand and bringing their faces closer together. “The only thing I will regret is knowing we were so close, but we chose to stop.” She glances up to the celestial larva above them, and Sasuke follows her gaze. “Even if we spend our lives like orbiting stars, passing one another in the night…The miniscule amount of time I spend next to you will be more than I would want with anyone else.”

Sasuke’s eyes soften. She watches his resolve waver. “I’m not very much like a star, unless black holes count,” he states sarcastically, punctuating his frank admission with the slowest of kisses. The kind that wanted to feel every microscopic inch and relish in every millisecond it took to join their mouths, just in case she changed her mind. Instead, Sakura wanted to tell him that she believed he was her sun, a central point in the glazy that captured her with its immense gravity, a sun that grew warmer as it approached her.

She had said, “Just this once.” And Sasuke had internally flinched at such words because that’s exactly what he was afraid of: their combined inability to leave it at “once.” It was never going to be just once between them and crossing this line would be rolling the snowball down the hill. It would be igniting the bang to the universe of them. Once Sasuke had her, he knew he would crave her forever afterward, and the rest of what came with it: the relationship, the label, a life with her. He would want everything as badly as he had ever wanted revenge or to find the Otsusuki race.

This past month traveling with Sakura, Sasuke had been like a man wandering the desert, starved of water, and following the mirage of a future, seeing it before him in the distance, telling himself he could have it, have her if he only reached out and grabbed it. That he might be able to choose Sakura after all. And that’s what Sasuke had been doing, stepping one foot in front of the other toward the mirage knowing that it could very possibly not turn out to be the reality he hoped for, but wanting it badly all the same.

And now this beautiful mirage was pulling his mouth to hers again, offering to become substantial. To give him a drink of her. And Sasuke knew it was better not to drink, because he was always going to be that man in the desert, unable to grasp an ever-fleeting illusion of happiness. But Sasuke also knew that if he got a taste of her, he would drink and drink and drink and want more, and he would suffer in the desert of his future knowing she was out there, and he couldn’t even see the mirage of her anymore. It was better for him not to even taste her.

But she had gone and said that, the devotion of two celestial bodies orbiting around their common center of mass, reuniting as time allowed them. And Sasuke had decided at this moment that until the time came where their orbits were ripped apart, Sasuke was going to love her, and spend every day waiting for their orbits to align again.

Her fingers pulled at his shirt and lifted it from his skin, and Sasuke sucked in a breath as her fingertips met the coils of his flesh beneath the fabric. He didn’t stop her because like any man wandering the desert of loneliness, stumbling upon the oasis of love and happiness, Sasuke was going to drink because he needed her so badly it physically hurt. And he wasn’t going to be able to stop drinking until he was satiated.

He breathed her in, knowing his resolve was gone. Shuddering with anticipation, Sasuke cupped her knees and pushed her back further along the ridge, following up after her. “We can start with once,” he breathed as he found her mouth again. And like a starved man, he drank.

In between their exploration of one another, their combined sighs and gasps that echoed off the cave walls, Sasuke made loved to her for the first time, both of their first times, ever, but it was such an inconsequential term for what they were experiencing. They both realized they weren’t as inexperienced as they had thought. Sasuke was both amazed and not surprised to find that they were both fast learners, but Sakura was obviously an academic with a complete understanding of anatomy. And Sasuke delighted in discovering the truth of what his instincts led him toward.

“Wait,” he pleaded before it evolves further. “I have to tell you. That I love you. You must already know, but I have to tell you now. Before.”

Tears began to brim her eyelids after he said it. She doesn’t need a further declaration, his worship of her body speaking beyond what words are even capable of.

And as soon as their bodies finally align, joining together, Sasuke thinks faintly somewhere in the back of his mind about orbits aligning and how the wait between orbits would be worth it if they always came together in this way at the end of it. Finally uniting into one solid, burning star. And then, if Sasuke had anything to say about it, their two orbits would fly off their trajectories and collide as they were now. Sasuke didn’t know collisions could be this beautiful. Absolutely nebulas.

“I love you, too,” she breathed into his mouth as they break into a million pieces together.

In the vast cathedral of blue green celestial after, as Sasuke made up for the slow and tender kisses he had skipped for other forms of reverence, he reached behind her to trace between her shoulder blades. The crest, an uchiwa fan had never belonged on any Uchiha’s back the way it did on the woman of his choosing, the woman that Sasuke Uchiha loved.

“What are you doing?” Sakura gasped, the realization of what he was tracing dawning on her. “That symbol—“

“I’m making my vow to you in this underground temple,” he whispers unapologetically, never as sure of any other words he had ever spoken to her before. “I told you what this would mean. That there would be no going back”

Sakura’s green eyes widened, as she lets out a whispered “What?”

He only pulls her closer, not retracting his statement despite her effort to give him a chance to take it all back, to clarify. “How do the words go?”

Sakura breaks into a sob as she buries her tear-streaked face into his neck and murmurs, “I am yours. And you are mine?” He can tell she can’t even believe this promise he was making her to be true. Because she had dreamed of it all her life and now it was happening.

“Those ones.” He leans forward and kisses her softly, suddenly sorry for the relentless pace of their first time. He would make everything up to her, including all his previous wrongs, in all the ways only a lover could, a husband.They had forever, didn’t they, even if it would be few and far between. A life with her was no longer a mirage in the desert. What was the next line? Ah, “Until death,” he announces to the air around them, voices it aloud for her so she will never forget the memory. He rubs the center of her forehead with his thumb. “Good thing that stars take forever to die.”

#naruto #ssfanfiction #naruto fanfiction #sakura hiden #approachingsun #sakura haruno #sakura uchiha #approaching sun #narutoshippuden #naruto gaiden #sasusakufanfiction #sasusaku #sasuke retsuden #sasuke and sakura

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anerdinallherglory · 4 months

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do you have any idea when the new chapter will be released? i’m not trying to rush you also just wondering 😊

Hello friend! I have the majority of AS 37 written, but put off editing and revising for the holidays. It’s looking like it won’t be until after the new year until it is posted. As always, thank you for your patience! In the meantime, enjoy these glow worms from the glowworm caves in New Zealand. You’ll need a visual for next chapter ❤️ Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

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anerdinallherglory · 5 months

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Could you maybe have Sasuke get closer to her in the next chapter instead of Sakura getting closer? I think it would get them closer. By the way, I read all of the chapters in one day and i’m so excited for the next!

You’ll like this next chapter, I promise 😉

#approachingsun #ssfanfiction

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anerdinallherglory · 5 months

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productivity challenge: day 63/100

— pics are from Pinterest bc I didn’t take any photos today

the day went by very quickly. the good thing about doing this challenge is that I can remember what I actually did. otherwise I would even say that I wasn't productive, but apparently I was 🧐

Today’s productivity:

Woke up early

I swept my yard first thing in the morning

Did dishes

Scheduled ultrasounds for my dad

Picked up my dad and drove him places

Worked at the office

I had some problems with my postgraduate registration but I solved them

Planned my study routine for next week

Today’s self care:

1h workout at the gym

Watched half of an One Piece episode

Read Chapter 36 of Approaching Sun by @anerdinallherglory as soon as AO3 mailed me 😍💙🩵

Esfiha night with my husband while watching Daily Dose of Sunshine

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anerdinallherglory · 5 months

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Approaching Sun (36)

Author’s Note: Hey again! Surprising you all with a new chapter a week apart. I had to cut the last one short and this one short as well, essentially dividing one chapter into three. This doesn’t mean the wordcount is short. This one comes in just under 10,000. But keep your eyes out for the next part. I also wanted to drop my linktree here: linktr.ee/anerdinallherglory so it’s easier to find all my info in one place. Please go and check it out! I am also looking for beta readers for my own personal novel. I’m even considering starting a newsletter or posting it back on Wattpad as a pre-published draft, but haven’t decided on that 100%. I will let you all know as soon as I decide. The tracks I recommend for this chapter: 1) Let Me Touch Your Fire by ARIZONA and 2) Daylight by Crypto/DEIIN. Thanks again for reading!

Pairing: SasuSaku

Previous Chapters: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35

Chapter 36: Demons

When Sasuke stepped into the brothel disguised as a bathhouse, an empty room greeted him. Not a single soul was in sight, and Sasuke wasn’t quite sure what he was expecting, but the place being deserted was the worst possible outcome. It meant no traces, no answers, and Sasuke dreaded finding Sakura’s trail end in this damned place. It also made his stomach knot at the thought that this might be what the room typically looked like on an average night considering the private and concealed activities that occurred in separate chambers.

Despite the absolute darkness, Sasuke could make out giant undisturbed baths beyond the reception counter, the water a still onyx glass as if the baths were only there to serve as a display, never to be used. And that’s probably exactly what they were: a lie to disguise the truth of what this place actually was. Only Sasuke’s Sharingan could make out the alcove, the inconspicuous hallway in the back that Sasuke crept toward in the shadows.

His visual abilities revealed the outline of the door at the end of it, where someone without visual prowess might find nothing but a wall. Sasuke placed his fingertips against it to push on the barricade, not detecting any sort of seal or rigging to prevent it from opening. Sasuke wasn’t surprised that there wasn’t considering this particular establishment housed regular citizens and not ninja. If ninja did inhabit the space, Sasuke figured that it was for a short, purposeful visit, not long-term residency. The door gave to his pressure and a faint light glowed through the opening as Sasuke silently slid the door until he had had hairline’s width to peer through.

A group of women were the first thing Sasuke noticed, all gathered in the middle of the floor, some holding candles in various states of distress. Muffled, crying sounds reached his ears and Sasuke naturally found the dimly-lit faces where the noises originated, paths of light-reflecting tears striping their painted faces. There were also lavish styled chairs scattered throughout the room, some tipped on their sides and others still erect in rows.

A gruff male voice interrupted the women’s soft, plea-filled weeping and Sasuke’s uncovered Sharingan eye instantly narrowed as he located three supervising figures that towered over the distressed girls. They stood just outside of the candlelight between Sasuke and the group they were terrorizing, their shadows passing in front of the light source which made it very easy for Sasuke to trace their movements, even without his Sharingan. Their mistake, Sasuke thought to himself, as the words became more substantial.

“There must be something else that she said,” hissed one man as he reached forward and fisted one of the older woman’s robes, yanking her forward from the group. The other girls screamed, clutching at the dangling woman and halting her movement forward. One girl was kicked down by the man because she dared to stand before him in an attempt to wrestle the woman from him. “You’re the Mother, aren’t you?!” he spat viscously in her face. “How could you make such a mistake? You let the enemy in, and you will pay for it!”

“We already told the last group of men here,” the woman gasped, tearing at the sleeve of the arm that held her in the air by her throat. “She’s gone to the Land of Fire’s border. That’s all we know. Please let me go.”

“Where?! Where at on the border?”

“We don’t know!” a fair-headed girl pleaded, crawling forward to the man’s feet to look up imploringly into his shadowed face. “That’s all she said after she took the men away.”

“There must be more,” another man spoke, coming forward to respond to the girl and glare up at the hanging woman, too.

Sasuke waited, dampening his eagerness to intervene. A situation such as this one was not typically one to cause any sort of reaction from Sasuke, but as his conscience had come back to him over the years after the Fourth Shinobi World War, these types of intimidation tactics on people who didn’t deserve it were the sort that pissed the Uchiha off in an unforgiving sort of way. But he couldn’t be too rash, considering the information he, too, was receiving from the exchange. Unfortunately, Sasuke was still the sort of person who would let that woman dangle for an eternity if it meant that he would get the answers he needed about Sakura’s actions and whereabouts. But at the same time, Sasuke was desperately hoping she knew nothing.

The woman choked, face purpling. She was beyond being able to speak now, her body no longer receiving the oxygen to use words, so the girls huddled on the floor made implorations on her behalf.

“Stop this! You’re killing her!”

“Give me more information and she we will live!” the man shouted down at them. “Or stay silent and she dies!”

Another minute of silent crying had Sasuke’s hand itching toward the door, not certain how much information there was left to learn. Their tactic worked as intended, however, and Sasuke stilled himself once more when a dark-haired girl shuffled forward on her knees, barely old enough to be considered a mature adult. With beseeching hand movements, she disclosed, “I’ll tell you everything. Just let her go.”

“Talk first!” snarled the offender, shaking the matron for good measure.

“All I know is that she dyed her hair after arriving. She’s in disguise,” she confessed with a shaky voice.

Finally receiving a scrap of intelligence, the man threw the matron toward the group of girls and there was more shrieking as she landed roughly among them, and their hands all scrabbled in unison to catch and break her fall. The matron coughed violently as color began to return to her face.

“And?” the man enticed the young girl to continue, leaning down to fist her dressing gown next.

The young girl returned his gaze with a fire that wasn’t there before. Now that she had replaced the matron’s spot in the face of the zealot, she laced her next words with venom. “And,” she murmured. “She’s going to kill every single one of you bastards.”

There was a loud strike against flesh, but the sound was infinitesimal compared to the crack of lightning that suddenly struck and shook the ceiling above them. Everyone fell to the ground at the sound, covering their ears and crawling toward one another instinctively. Even the three men crouched in surprise, but they were the first to recover, casting their eyes about wildly.

As the three extremists turned to assess the room’s entrance, the door that separated them from the Uchiha was now fully open, the darkness of the hallway consuming all of Sasuke’s person except for his unconcealed blood red eye. When he stepped into the room, the three ninja prepared themselves to face the new threat, which was a mistake, because all three of them locked eyes with red and purple.

Without a second of passing time, the three men fell back to their knees and their screams were positively delicious sounds as they succumbed to the horrors Sasuke had planned for them in his genjutsu. They would suffer and the chakra it cost the Uchiha to do it was worth it based on their screaming alone.

The girls scrambled to collect the candles they had dropped out of fear when the lightning had struck, each of them desperate to claim some light to reveal what monster had just stepped into the room with them. When the youngest girl successfully secured one, she brought it to her face only to reveal Sasuke’s dark outline standing before her. When she looked up into his Sharingan, she dropped the candle once more.

“The devil,” she whispered, speaking the word as if doing so had sealed her fate. “He’s finally come for me.”

Panicked gasps, crying, and prayers fabricated into existence around Sasuke as the other girls beheld the apparition of him for themselves, a phantom of black and red and purple delivering punishment to the three begging men now behind him.

Sasuke crouched before the young, dark-haired girl, the very one who had revealed information about Sakura to the three anti-peace members, all of whom would soon not be able to remember anything but Sasuke’s katana as it penetrated their bodies over and over. How fitting a description, Sasuke thought to himself as he remembered Itachi, whom the genjutsu he now used was modeled after, how devil-like the Uchiha clan became when they were set on protecting something they cared about.

“Not for any of you,” Sasuke responded coldly, wasting no time to reach for her terrified face over the flickering circumference of the discarded candlelight between their bodies. When he clutched her chin between his fingers, her eyes widened in fear, which was positively advantageous for the Uchiha as he peered through them to search her memories.

Sasuke moved through this girl’s memories just like the phantom she imagined him to be, gliding through the very sins she committed tonight until he saw the scene he was looking for: Sakura’s face coming into view as she entered into the dark room in which this girl and a man were coupled on a lounge, both still wet from the bath. They were wrapped in one another’s arms, exchanging sweet whispers to each other in the dark.

Sakura seemed surprised by this fact, as if she hadn’t expected to find them nestling into one another there. Sasuke watched his teammate hesitate for just a moment until a needle sank into the man’s flesh. The girl from whose eyes Sasuke watched his former teammate, gasped at the sudden attack. Untangling himself, the man swung in Sakura’s direction. “You,” he had hissed. “You’re—” he began before falling to the floor lifelessly, incapacitated by the drug that Sakura had injected him with.

Sakura stared down at him for a moment, eyes flashing back toward the girl, before she reached down to flip over the man’s body, so that he could breathe freely.

Sasuke couldn’t focus on anything other than the raven black of Sakura’s tinted hair. A small part of his heart wanted to linger on the scene, imagine a child with Sakura’s features and Sasuke’s hair. He fisted the emotions and shoved them back, resuming the memory.

“Hae, what are you doing!?” screamed the girl, scrambling from the lounge onto the floor beside the man.

“I am sorry, Tabi.” Sakura whispered, biting into her thumb and performing a summoning jutsu that Sasuke was too familiar with. Katsuyu, Sakura and the Fifth Hokage’s summoning familiar, materialized into existence on the spot on the floor where Sakura had pressed her five-fingered seal. To Tabi’s extreme horror, the slug, human-sized, began to encapsulate the man she desperately tried to shield away from the creature. But her hands disappeared into the mucusy flesh of the gastropod, failing to gain any purchase.

“Who are you?! Why are you doing this?” she cried, backing speedily away when the creature began to absorb her hands as well.

“There’s not much time to explain,” Sakura replied, coming to bend down before the girl. Sakura knelt before the girl, revealing a small canvas bundle of small bottles, needles, and medicines. “I’m not really in this business as I made all of you believe. I’m a doctor and I only have a few minutes to help you.”

When Tabi said nothing else, just stared at Sakura in confusion, she asked carefully, “Do you suspect that you’re pregnant?”

Tabi’s mouth fell open at the revelation and her hands moved to her stomach at the mention of pregnancy. The tears that began to fall from her face was confirmation enough for the medic. She asked her next question. “Do you want to keep it?”

“What?” Tabi asked, wondering how the woman before her could have suspected something Tabi only was beginning to experience the symptoms of.

“Do you want this baby? There are ways to—”

“Yes, I want it!” Tabi cried, hugging herself and flinching away from the unrolled canvas parcel of vials as she began to see the collection in a new light. “The baby is mine and—” she protested, turning back to the man who was now completely encased by the slug. “What are you doing to him?!”

Sakura’s eyes flicked over to the man and only Sasuke was able to recognize the regret in them. “He’s one of the members of Zenshin,” Sakura informed the distraught girl. “It’s my mission to eradicate the organization.”

“Please,” Tabi begged, grasping Sakura’s arms with her hands, stilling them over the bag of medical supplies. “You can’t take him. He’s different from the others. We love each other.”

Sasuke saw Sakura chew her lip in thought, rerolling the canvas bag into a tight parcel. He instantly knew Sakura was thinking of him, his face flashing in her mind as she faced Tabi. The confliction there let Sasuke know exactly what she was thinking. Just as Sakura so desperately wanted her own happy ending, she also wanted Tabi to have hers. But her eyes hardened, and she removed her arms from Tabi’s hands. In that very same instant, the slug dematerialized into nothing, taking the man with her to wherever the slug disappeared to.

“If Toka loves you, he will come back to you once I am finished with him,” Sakura divulged, looking pointedly at her stomach. “Does he know?”

Tabi shook her head, more tears streaming down her face. “I was going to tell him once he left them. He was going to do it soon—run away with me.”

Sakura nodded and shoved the canvas bundle into Tabi’s shaking hands. “Give these to the other girls and have them follow the directions inside. I don’t know how well you guys are taking care of yourselves here, but there are medicines in here. To prevent pregnancy— and to protect yourselves from diseases. As a medic, I can’t leave here without doing at least this.”

Sasuke flinched at the scene before him, knowing that Sakura had carried that on her person, probably having prepared it in advance for this very mission in this damn brothel, intended for her own personal use. Sasuke had never been so close to wanting to vomit in his life. He wanted to reach through this memory and grab her arm and force her to explain all of this to him. Why would she take such risks for a mission—abuse herself in this way?

“Where are you going?” Tabi beseeched, focused more on the fact that this parting gift meant Sakura’s immediate intentions to depart along with the man she loved.

“The border of the Land of Fire,” Sakura responded without hesitation as she met Tabi’s gaze with hers. “You can tell that to whoever comes asking questions,” the woman who Tabi had believed was named Hae added. “It’s the truth and it’s not a secret. Let them come.”

Sasuke closed his eyes at the intentional crumb she had left for the enemy. She had probably told every girl who had asked this information the same response. It was obvious that she was luring whoever was left of the organization out of Tanigakure. They had more of a personal vendetta against her now after her actions tonight and would definitely pursue, especially since they believed she was acting alone. It would be perfect for them, to eliminate their Number 1 and get revenge in the same motion. The temptation to chase would be too great.

As Sakura stood and headed back for the door, she turned back to Tabi, who was still kneeling on the ground and clutching the bundle of medications to her stomach, shielding the small flutter of life that had started there.

When Sakura’s eyes met Tabi’s, Sasuke suddenly felt as if Sakura were looking beyond them, into the memory itself until her eyes met Sasuke’s within. “In case you’re watching this, I can handle this alone. I don’t need your help.” Sasuke felt Tabi’s confusion as the girl failed to comprehend Sakura’s last words. Sasuke, however, knew exactly who those words were for: the Uchiha, himself. So, she knew. Sakura had known that he was here in Tanigakure searching for her. She had predicted that he would track her to this place and perform this very jutsu.

When Sakura closed the door behind her, leaving Tabi to sob uncontrollably to herself, Sasuke rewound the memory further, past the indecencies between the girl and the man called Toka, until he was watching the same man spin Sakura in front of a crowd of lust-hungry brutes. Sasuke froze the scene before him, eyes narrowing as he memorized each of their faces. One man came forward and grabbed Sakura, pulling her into his lap. His eyes were tightly bound, and the blind stranger leaned his mouth against Sakura’s ear in the dimly lit room. To Sasuke’s extreme dissatisfaction, Tabi had not heard, and therefore Sasuke could not decipher what the man had whispered in his teammate’s ear. Sasuke was beyond disappointed to miss the very words that he would repeat to the man as the Uchiha eviscerated him. The memory of Sakura ended once more as Toka led Tabi away to their private room.

Thoroughly enraged at what he had just witnessed, Sasuke cursed to himself as he released the young woman’s chin. Tabi gasped when Sasuke retreated viciously from her mind, and she fell back on her wrists away from him. Sasuke’s crimson gaze fell on every girl who clustered in the darkness, gaping openly at him in terror, and he couldn’t help but picture Sakura in all of their faces. They, too, had been feasted upon by the eyes of despicable men, dragged into laps and so much more. In another life and in different set of circumstances, who knows if Sakura might have ended up trying to earn her living doing such a thing, too. He pitied every woman who had no other options. Sasuke would not consider himself a sentimental or feeling person. In fact, he wanted nothing more than to turn on his heel and vanish from the room in the same manner in which he had appeared, letting his fire-style impede the very building in which he stood. But he wavered, glancing down at the tiny swell of Tabi’s malnourished stomach. With his Rinnegan, Sasuke could see the tiny orb of light there. It pulsed like a tiny, throbbing sun.

Leaning fully into the devil character they believed him to be, Sasuke did something very much unlike himself. He took the time to say, “Leave this place and do not come back. Every single one of you.” He turned back down to Tabi once more and said, “Your child deserves a peaceful world. The next generation does not need to suffer for the sins of their parents.”

And then Sasuke, like a demon specter made of shadows, turned and vanished back into the blackness of a hellish night.

The downpour lasted long into the night and Sakura swore at her bad luck. Sakura had quickly snagged a set of clothing from one of the smaller ninja that she had rendered unconscious back at the bathhouse. Even still, the man’s clothes hung loosely on her thinner, angular frame and Sakura had apologized to the palm-sized version of Katsuyu that clung to Sakura’s skin at the slug’s initial repulsion to the smell of the stranger’s attire. Sakura hadn’t had time to find her original set of clothing once her mission had begun; the tight-fitting robes from the bathhouse had been insufficiently insulated, so Sakura had tugged on one of the radical’s dark pants, black jacket, and matching vest in the presence of one of the horrified girls without explanation as the girl watched Katuyu absorb another person and whisk them away. Strategically, Sakura had even adorned her forehead with the five-spiral headband tucked away in the man’s vest just in case it was slightly advantageous to do so. Sakura had only seen the forehead protector twice before, but more recently caught a glimpse of it in the desert when Mako was thrown the identical headband for successfully kidnapping her.

With her shadow-colored hair tucked hurriedly under the jacket’s stiff-fabric hood, Sakura pulled the shirt’s loose-fitting collar up and over her nose so that only her eyes and the headband were visible on her brow. She had hoped such a disguise would at least get her out of Tanigakure unnoticed in the night. Surprisingly enough, Tanigakure’s “peaceful” reputation and open access to travelers made it relatively easy for Sakura to locate a small mountain path that exited the village undetected. The kunoichi also allowed herself a moment of pride, because not being stopped also meant that she had been quick enough with the execution of her plan. She had handled any immediate threats back at the brothel, making it out before any other Zenshin members could discover the cookie crumb she had left behind for them to find.

It was dark, and the rain was merciless as Sakura skirted the side of the mountain, taking refuge from the rain in the dense tree cover that blanketed the landscape. The tree limbs bowed beneath the weight of her hurdles as she bounded from branch to branch, arms thrown behind her as she mercilessly raced toward the border between the Land of Rivers and Land of Fire. Once she had guided her likely pursuers into the Land of Fire, Sakura would be able to handle the rest of them as she pleased, as recklessly as she pleased. She would no longer have to worry about causing any catastrophes in Tanigakure that the Leaf or the Sand might have to take responsibility for.

She had expected a pursuit. Mako had told Sakura that there were Zenshin members all throughout the shinobi world—eventually, they would come for her, too—but the remaining Zenshin members in Tanigakure would be absolutely desperate to prevent her from reaching the border. But what Sakura had not expected was the speed in which some of them had caught up with her.

When Sakura had first picked up on the footfalls that those without the sharpened senses of a ninja wouldn’t be able to distinguish beyond the crashing rain against the canopy above, Sakura had immediately halted her movements in the branches. Tucking her body tightly into the bough of a tree, she contemplated her options as the voices began to near her. Considering that it took Sasuke and Sakura two days of leisure travel to reach Tanigakure from Konoha, Sakura was predicting that it would likely take her a fraction of that time to reach the border—which was located much closer to Tanigakure than the Leaf—at the speed in which she was travelling now. If her estimations were right, it would be essentially six hours, four of which had already transpired since her exit. Could she simply outrun them for another two hours?

Maybe the solution was something simpler, something E-Rank that Sakura hadn’t used since her Genin days. Sakura thought back to her interaction with the second man she had spoken with at the brothel, “the clown” of the group as Rugo had called him. Sakura’s initial target who had asked Sakura questions, investigating if she were “new, new.” Sakura focused on his features as she performed a transformation. The Transformation Jutsu had its flaws, which is why it wasn’t used too often, especially in the presence of experienced shinobi or those who could see chakra with a visual prowess like the Sharingan or Byakugan, or detect chakra signatures like the ninja, Karin. But a confrontation was going to be inevitable regardless of whether or not Sakura could fool them with a jutsu; she would just have to face them head on sooner than she had wanted. If it were the latter, then the jutsu possibly failing was a moot point, so there was no harm in crossing her fingers and going for it. The jutsu wouldn’t have to be flawless to be effective.

She could hardly assess them, the rain a thick sheet between herself and the enemy. There were three of them, all cloaked and protected from the elements. The low number made Sakura suspect that this was one of many search parties and their likelihood of finding her had less to do with their skill at tracking and more to do with fact that at least one group was going to guess her direction of travel correctly and encounter her by chance. She waited until they were practically under her perch to make her choice.

Without a second more of hesitation, Sakura dropped several feet in front of them, shouting in a voice that had thickened into that obnoxiously loud tenor from the brothel. “I think she went this way!” Sakura didn’t wait to hear a response as she darted forward into the night.

“Araki?!” came a woman’s voice as she was the first to recognize the man whom was Sakura’s current disguise. The female immediately followed as she continued to shout after who she believed was her fellow Zenshin member.

“Hurry!” Sakura screamed back in reply but did not slow her pace for them. One of the Transformation Jutsu’s innate failings that made it unfavorable to use, was that it was difficult to converse with others or perform other mental feats because a ninja had to pour a lot of focus into channeling chakra into maintaining the transformation. It’s the very reason why a lot of transformations didn’t last too long; some people were better at executing it than others. It wasn’t overly difficult for Sakura to engage in conversation while transformed, but she didn’t know her enemy very well or their various jutsu and talents, so she decided to take advantage of the chase element of their interaction to avoid super close proximity.

Like shadowed hounds that thought they had found one of their own kind, they pursued after Sakura, barking after her as their feet collided with the ground, thinking they were joining the hunt when in fact they were chasing the very goose they were after.

“How do you know she went this way, Araki?” a male voice called up to her through the thundering rain, and Sakura barely made it out.

“She’s making a run for the Leaf Village, but we have to catch her before she gets too far over the border!” Sakura called back with the same arrogant confidence Araki had spoken to her with at the brothel.

“How did you escape? Weren’t you with the others at the bathhouse? What happened to them?” the woman’s voice called out again, firing questions off faster than the rain could fall from the sky, and maybe Sasuke had started to rub off on Sakura the past couple of months, but the relentless inquiries were beginning to annoy her.

Sakura didn’t know if she should even attempt to respond. She knew very little about this Araki’s personality, other than the fact that he was loud, bold, and talked incessantly as well. But Sakura was not comfortable sustaining an unrehearsed act for long segments, and was unsure exactly what types of ridiculous comments were normal for the man. A little too late, Sakura wondered if Rugo or Toka would have been a better choice to impersonate with their various stoicism in comparison to Ataki; their seriousness would have suited Sakura’s current circumstances better. As a side note to rationalize her choice, Sakura wasn’t too sure about how Rugo’s blindness affected his abilities, and Sakura naturally wanted to steer clear of casting Toka in more of a negative light in case he really was trying to cut ties with Zenshin as Tabi had claimed.

“We have to move faster!” Sakura deflected, pretending not to hear them as she bounded further ahead of them to create a safer distance between them.

Sakura relentlessly pushed them forward, a shadow before them that they could barely distinguish as it was. She was desperately clinging to the transformation even as she strategically considered her next move. Sakura had crossed the river she and Sasuke had camped at on their second night of traveling together hours ago. She was only minutes away from the border now. For the most part, Sakura had chosen to stick to the same remote path she and Sasuke had taken from Konoha because it was the most recent in her memory and it was a small miracle she wasn’t getting the four of them completely lost in this starless monsoon. At some point over the past hour, she dissected from that trail, travelling northwest for the plains she remembered passing through during a mission with Kakashi, Naruto, and Sai.

The forest thinned as Sakura neared the space between forests, the sizeable meadow surrounded by rocky plateaus like the very mountain the Leaf was built up against. Seeing such familiar forested landscape, Sakura could have wept in relief. Her lungs shuttered from the relentlessness of her breathing and her legs practically felt numb and cold from the freezing rain, but the pain was absolutely miniscule in comparison to the absolute thrill she felt in her bones when she took her first step across an imaginary line only a ninja who had crossed it multiple times would remember even in the hours just before sunrise. She stumbled to a stop in the knee-high grass, wading through ankle-deep flood waters, stealing herself for what was to come. As much as she wanted to fall to her knees, tilt her head up to face the rain, and not get back up, she couldn’t quit yet.

The three ninja following her burst from the trees behind, lurching to a halt when they realized their front-runner had finally stopped. “Did you find her!” one called out to her, but Sakura didn’t answer as she turned to face them. Sensing a change, one of the ninja suddenly stopped in his tracks and held his arm out to halt the others.

“Araki?” he asked, preventing his team from moving any further toward her as she stood unmoving and waiting for them. Sakura wasn’t intending to suddenly act so predatory, her shift in nature causing them to hesitate like all prey before a hunter, but she was just so tired of pretending. She let the transformation fall away and the girl in the group gasped. Sakura could still sense their confusion, and their assessments of her outfit and headband that mirrored their own was almost painful to watch.

Deciding that the charade was truly well and over, Sakura relieved them of their nervous bewilderment. “Unfortunately, no,” she called back, talking loudly to reach them through the persistent deluge around them.

“I was wondering why he was being so quiet,” one of the male voices answered, pushing forward to stand in front of his teammates. “It’s her. The Haruno girl. She’s in disguise.” Sakura could hear the girl gasp again before she grabbed onto the man’s arm fearfully to pause his advance.

Sakura pressed against the inner-pocket of her jacket, whispering, “Are you still with me, Lady Katusyu?”

“Yes, Sakura dear,” the small slug replied, slithering out to greet her despite the rain. “I’m here if you need me.”

“Hang on tight, then,” came Sakura’s instructions as she tucked her back away. “I’ll be sending more your way soon.”

A laughter broke out near the tree line and Sakura saw one man shove forward, past his concerned and apprehensive teammates. Sakura could make out his flashy, red cloak for the first time now that he was closer in the downpour. “You’ve given us exactly what we wanted—lead us far away where no one can help you, now! I am going to have so much fun beating you within an inch of your life!”

“What are you waiting for, then?” Sakura goaded, pleasantly surprised when the cloaked man rushed forward despite his teammates’ beseeching council.

The man charged at her, sloshing his way through the muddy field, and Sakura let him come, let his momentum carry him face first into the punch she had waiting for him. He sailed backward, right into his other male companion and they skipped like scattered stone across the flooding pasture. Even in the dark, Sakura could see the mud [SR1] that sprayed up around them, covering their once distinguishable features in total blackness. That felt so good. After days of secrecy, disguising her power and identity, the release of her physical abilities was positively glorious. Sakura didn’t have a ton of chakra left at her disposal after her repetitive use of the Summoning Technique, but she had the adequate amount remaining in order to take care of these three and anyone who decided to show up later.

The girl, who had avoided the collision, came for Sakura next, and as she neared, Sakura was able to finally get a decent look at her. Her hair was white beneath her black cloak’s cowl and her brow was adorned with the anti-peace symbol. Sakura wanted to talk to her, ask her opinions and learn her story, investigating her personal vendetta against the peace they had all fought so hard for during the Fourth Shinobi War. The girl quickly began to form the signs for a fire release and Sakura’s eyes widened as the heavy rain suddenly steamed around her as it hit the girl’s body and hissed into hot air. When the floodwaters pooled at Sakura’s feet began to bubble, Sakura cursed as she jumped back and into the air to avoid the boiling water below. At first, Sakura feared that the girl might have the Boil Release Kekkei Genkai, a transformation of water and fire nature energies, but as Sakura began to descend from her fall, the girl met her in the air, and Sakura soon realized that she had a unique fire release that allowed her to direct heat from pinpoints on her body. Sakura’s shielding kick that made contact with the girl’s stomach was instantly scorched through her boot from having touched her, and Sakura hissed.

“Die!” the ninja screamed, grabbing onto Sakura’s calf muscle with both burning hands and swinging her right into the arms of her knife-wielding companion. But Sakura gripped the man’s arms and simultaneously kicked against the girls’ stomach, deeper into her magma flesh, gritting her teeth at the pain, but directing her immense strength into the blow. The girl went sailing into the trees just as the red-coated man had done seconds before this second confrontation. Using the same momentum, Sakura swung up and over her captor’s shoulders, slipping easily from his grasp.

She landed behind him, a dark-haired, broad-shouldered man with silver pupil-less irises that reminded Sakura of the Kazekage. She saw these eyes clearly despite the darkness and the mud smeared across his face practically made them glow. The ninja turned on his heel to intercept her next blow, his knife catching her cheek just before he also received the brunt force of her physical strength.

Sakura could feel the water around her already tenderized ankle start to boil again, and Sakura swore, locating the girl with her eyes. Sakura had to admit that this girl was quite literally making it impossible to remain standing on her own two feet. Even if Sakura summoned chakra to the soles of her feet to walk on the surface of the five inches of saturation, Sakura knew that the water would quickly melt through her stolen shoes completely, so Sakura came up with another solution. She wouldn’t let this girl scald her from a distance; if this fire-nature ninja wanted to land another injury on Sakura, she was going to have to get up close and personal, just as Sakura liked it.

Sakura exhaled when her uninjured hand collided with the ground at her feet. “SHANNARO!” she screamed as the entire landscape fractured beneath her, spiderwebbing across the plain until all the rainwater succumbed to gravity, falling down the sides of new projectiles of earth, and down into the fissures. Sakura perched on top of one of the new pillars like a bird of night, staring down at her three recovered enemies who stared up at her with a new appreciation.

“You bitch,” the female spat up at Sakura, but Sakura ignored her. She fisted the anti-peace forehead protector on her brow and tossed it down to the three of them. She pulled back her hood and looked up into the sky as it fell on her face, the rain fingering her dyed tresses until streaks of black began to run down her chin along with the blood from her sliced cheek. Keeping it always on her person, Sakura reached into her vest and revealed her own shinobi headband, the red one bearing the Leaf Village symbol she had worn as a chunin. She tied it tightly against her forehead and across the back of her ink-dripping crown and thought how fitting it felt to bear her flag now that she was standing in Land of Fire territory. She saw her enemies’ shocked and exchanged expressions when green regenerative chakra began to glow around her knuckles, her cheek, and the various burns on her leg and ankle, healing the damage in seconds.

“You guys didn’t do a lot of research on your target, did you?” Sakura called down to them. She couldn’t understand it, the surprise. If they were not originally from Tanigakure, who had been neutral, that would mean they had all fought together in the war. So how did they not know every detail about Sakura? Sakura began to collect various pieces of information in her brain and a realization formed. Most of the members of this organization that Sakura had encountered in Tanigakure so far had not been overly remarkable. Aside from the shade she went head-to-head with in the sands surrounding Suna, everyone seemed to know the bare minimum of Sakura’s power. They knew of her, but not what she was capable of. In fact, they seemed content to hang back and relish in the fear created by their superiors, and Sakura suddenly realized why some of them might be interested in a world that created bitter and stronger generations to follow them. They were those ninja who hung back during the war, who let others—the strong and fearless—do all the work because they could not; it’s why they wanted to mimic conditions that would create strength in other ninja for them to hide behind. Huh, Sakura thought privately to herself. She wondered who exactly was taking advantage of ninja like this to kill off others who stood in their way. Who exactly was the leader?

“We know enough to kill you,” the silver-eyed one spoke, and his voice was raspy and menacing. Even his voice reminded her of the Kazekage, along with the sand-weilder’s path to redemption, and Sakura tried not to be distracted as she imagined this dark-haired ninja capable of a future where he could redirect his efforts into a righteous cause. This type of thinking, while keeping her intentions toward others good, would cloud her judgement now.

“We have to get information from her first and then deliver her to the boss,” reminded the red cloaked one, whom Sakura had all but forgotten was there after she sent him flying for his bold move to attack first.

The other two swapped looks of apprehension to one another, as if they weren’t sure they were going to be able to restrain and deliver blows to get her to talk, after all. And Sakura smiled because, she too, knew that wasn’t going to be happening.

Sakura’s finger bled once again when she bit back into it, and now that the rain had washed away most of her ivory face paint, the Hundred Healing’s seal spanned out across her forehead in black stripes. It was still activated since her very first summoning of Katsuyu, and Sakura could feel the steady drain of chakra from her body that it was costing her to maintain the states of all her captives where she had reverse summoned them back to Katsuyu’s home in Shikkotsu forest. Since Sakura wasn’t having to heal her horde of hostages, but rather, keep them all in an unconscious state, cryogenized in the chamber of Katsuyu’s flesh, the chakra being loaned to her familiar was a trickle, but it was still depleting her already diminishing levels.

“Are you alright, Sakura dear?” came Katsuyu’s voice from the inside pocket of her vest, the slug sensing her labored breathing and strain on the chakra connection between them.

Sakura nodded, whispering, “Yes. I have a few more summons in me. If more enemies appear here, I might not be able to hold onto the jutsu. The connection will be severed between us. What happens then?”

Katsuyu’s answer came back as a whisper in the relentless pattering of rain against Sakura’s flesh. “It will take them all some time to come out of comatose. When they do, they will have nowhere to go. The Shikkotsu forest is an endless maze of jungle. They’ll be in the same spot when you come for them.”

“Excellent,” Sakura responded, reaching into her waistband, and withdrawing three vials of sedative. Privately and expertly, Sakura filled three needles with the drug and placed each between her teeth until three needles protruded from her mouth like the fangs of a demon. Next, Sakura palmed her bloody hand into the top of the jagged steeple of earth on which she still stood and cried “Summoning Jutsu!” as clearly as she could manage with a mouthful of liquid sleep.

The three human-sized divisions of Katsuyu’s body slithered down the sides of the post and came to a stop when Sakura’s own feet touched level ground once more, the water no longer coagulating around her ankles.

“Here she comes!” shouted the girl, and Sakura smirked as she sprinted straight towards them through the rain, engaging each one in a pirouette of hand-to-hand combat.

Just as Sakura had once fought Sasori’s countless puppets on the end of Lady Chiyo’s chakra threads, Sakura took control of her own strings now and navigated smoothly between her enemies’ strikes like a leaf darting on the wind. Deflect, block, strike, defend, parry, punch. The actions were faster than Sakura could even think of which move to execute next, and she let her muscles act on memory alone.

She could feel the heat of the white-haired girl’s skin every time one of her open-palmed strikes grazed Sakura’s body. She was aiming for the most incapacitating of areas like the eyes, her hands, legs, or any other placement that might cripple Sakura temporarily. But every time the ninja got close to landing a hit on her, the sound of sizzling rain would alert Sakura’s sharp ears to her nearness and Sakura would dodge just in time. Sakura focused on the mud covered, silver-eyed enemy before her, turning to the side to dodge his kunai stab to her stomach. She fisted his own weapon hand with her own and used his own piercing thrust to direct it into the stomach of the red-cloaked shinobi who had come up behind her and fisted her inky, wet hair. She heard his cry at the same moment that the grip on her hair slackened. When the white-haired kunoichi recovered and came at her again, Sakura was ready. Grabbing the silver-haired ninja by the leg as he fell, Sakura swung him like her own weapon, right into the burning arms of his companion. The two of them collapsed into a tangle together, and Sakura’s knee was in the man’s back as she sank his body deeper into the lava skin of the fire-wielding ninja until he began to scream. Sakura used his screams to motivate the white-haired ninja. She would eventually stop her fire-nature jutsu.

Sakura couldn’t risk incinerating the needle, so she waited patiently, yanking out the syringe of her mouth in the meantime. She saw the girl’s eyes widen at the damage she was inflicting upon her partner, and the melting instantly stopped. Sakura plunged the needle into her neck, followed by a dose for the silver-eyed ninja. [SR2] They both fell unconscious against one another, and two of three Katusyus had already crawled to meet them.

When Sakura pulled the last syringe from her mouth and turned to face the red-cloaked man who had been stabbed, she was surprised to find him already standing before her in the darkness. He knocked the syringe out of her hand and seized Sakura’s throat, slamming her against one of the pillars of earth at Sakura’s back. The very blade that had lacerated his stomach was now pointing into her navel, still bloody and dripping from his own injury. Sakura’s next move was going to be to knee him directly where his wound bloomed the same shade as his cloak in order to create a safe space between them again. Even if he managed to cut her open, Sakura would use her Mitotic Regeneration Jutsu to heal herself before the blood loss rendered her unconscious. However, his next words made her reevaluate her actions at the last moment.

“When Mozai finally has his way with you, I’m going to enjoy every minute of it,” he snarled as he pinned her body with his. The knife in his hand dug into her flesh with every word and Sakura hissed at the sudden pain.

As she reached up to push against his hold on her throat, she choked out, “Who’s Mozai? Is he your boss?” She pretended to weaken at his hold. She needed to keep him talking and feeding her the information she wanted.

“Someone who will do a lot worse to you than I’m about to do.” His knife suddenly pulled away from her and began to snake up Sakura’s clothing, cutting a trail of blood up her bare stomach. She gritted her teeth against the pain, holding back the instinct to break the wrist around her throat. If Sakura could just get him back on the topic of her choice.

“He’s nothing without his henchmen. Didn’t you want to know what happened to the others?” she strained to ask next, spluttering the words, trying to regain his attention.

He laughed, a cruel, wicked laugh that reminded Sakura of the deranged Orochimaru. It was the sort of laugh that alerted her to his madness, the deeper and more dangerous kind of madness that a medic such as herself was easily able to recognize no matter how hard one tried to hide it. “He knows where you’ve run off to, and we will find the others soon enough now that I know your pets have taken them.” He pushed harder against her throat and despite her efforts to remain calm and focus, Sakura’s vision still blackened from the lack of oxygen and her grip on him tightened. In that moment, Sakura barely even felt Kaguya’s small body drop from her clothing. With her squinting eyes, Sakura witnessed the small slug make a dash for the syringe that Sakura had dropped earlier. At the same time, she realized that Katsuyu knew that it was their last dose of sedative and the slug wanted to either protect or retrieve it for Sakura.

The rain was still coming down so hard, a shower soaking every inch of Sakura’s newly exposed stomach. It made the knife he was ghosting her skin with wet and slick as it bounced against her skin, causing knicks and superficial lacerations where it touched. Sakura couldn’t tell if she was only feeling the rain, or the trickling of her own blood. Was it pooling at her feet with the man’s own colors of red?

“But he won’t mind if I have my fun with you first before he gets here,” came his thickened voice as he placed the hilt of his kunai between his teeth and replaced the pressure against her stomach with his fingers. They caressed her abdomen, smearing the blood there. Sakura realized in this moment that the game of holding back for information was over.

But before she could act, break his hold on her, and shove him away from her, Sakura’s stomach dropped as her vision came to focus over the man’s shoulder at the shadow that stood there in the rain, red eye flashing as he unsheathed his katana. The rain rendered him nearly invisible in the dark and Sakura sucked in a breath of alarm.

“You’re going to die if you don’t let go,” came Sakura’s hurried warning to the man still inching his hand up her shirt. The vice on Sakura’s throat instantly slackened when a blade came across the man’s throat, not hesitating to sunder the man’s head from his shoulders. Before the damage was inflicted, Sakura’s hand shot out and grabbed Sasuke’s katana just in time, the bite of the blade sliding against the palm of her hand until she stopped its movement completely with her grip. She fisted the quaking blade, and it was immediately abandoned.

Sakura was powerless to stop what happened next. In the very next second, the man was thrown from her, catapulted near across the field as Sasuke pivoted to ram his fist into the side of the man’s face. Sasuke, too, disappeared as he teleported, switching positions with the bloody kunai the man had possessed. Before the kunai stuck true in the grass at Sakura’s feet, the Uchiha was on top of his victim in a millisecond, and Sakura could hear the man’s screams as she ran toward them in the rain, still clutching Sasuke’s katana in a bloody grip.

“Sasuke, don’t!” she screamed, desperate to reach him in time. Sakura soon realized that the distance the man had been sent wasn’t just a coincidence. It served two purposes: to deliver a harder impact, and to generate enough space from Sakura to give Sasuke the extra second of time to exact whatever revenge he had in mind. The kunoichi spared one minute to find Katsuyu, a bright pinpoint of white in the overwhelming darkness. Beneath the slug, lay the last injection of sedative, and she scooped them both up.

“Follow me,” she instructed the last of the three summonings of Katsuyu’s body.

The screaming was Sakura’s only compass in the storm, guiding her to the source of the brutalization. When she finally neared them, two dark obscurities in the night, Sasuke was fisting both of the man’s hands with his single grasp. The black flames of Amaterasu were already ravishing the bones of his ten fingers.

“You seem awfully fond of these hands of yours,” Sasuke sneered, “let’s begin here, shall we?” The flames spread to the man’s palms and then his wrists, a drawn-out creeping of flickering black that couldn’t be anything other than an intentional deliberateness—to maximize the pain of it. The red-cloaked ninja’s screams were louder than any suffering Sakura had ever heard.

The kunoichi could see the smirk on Sasuke’s face as she finally came around to face him, and her stomach turned to ice. Even his words delivered a blow to her heart in a familiar way. It was like the Chunin Exams: the ferocity, the visible fury rolling off of him in waves, the embracing of inner-darkness. Sakura had only ever seen Sasuke resort to methods of torture a few times in her life, and the sight struck such fear into her heart. Don’t you see? She thought to herself at the terrifying vision of the Uchiha stooped over the scorching man. Don’t you see what the price of his love will be?

“Sasuke! Stop! You can’t kill him!” she shouted over the rain and guttural begging, grabbing onto the Uchiha’s clothing, fisting the wet fabric in her fingers. He didn’t budge, just let the fire spread as he watched and drank the pinned man’s screams, as if hearing them would quench a deeply buried thirst.

When Sakura’s immense strength lifted Sasuke to his feet and pulled him away from the man, Sasuke’s leer twisted into a frown and a different sort of fury filled his eyes. As if Sasuke sensed her impending interference and decided to finish the job before she could convince him to stop, the fire erupted over the man’s chest with a quickening ferocity. At his resolve, Sakura panicked, making Sasuke look at her with two palms to his face.

His dead eyes found her, and he spat a response to her previous demand, “He doesn’t get to live.”

The earsplitting screams intensified, and Sakura physically shook Sasuke, but he just glared down at her as the flames resumed their feast upon the man’s vaporizing flesh. “You’re not going to do this. You can’t kill someone because of me. I won’t let you go back to that!”

The words broke Sasuke’s carefully controlled anger. “I have spared hundreds today in your name! If it weren’t for you, they would all be dead. One of them can die, and it’s going to be him.”

“This isn’t who you are anymore!” Sakura shouted, willing her words into a truthful existence. She would hold on to him, the Sasuke she loved. The Sasuke who could see reason, act on ninja principles, and not let his emotions override his judgment. Not anymore. As a last attempt, she added. “You can be merciful. You don’t have to kill unless it’s absolutely necessary.”

Sasuke scoffed, choosing not to hide his smoldering ire as he broke eye contact with Sakura in order to survey the damage being done to the man who had attacked her. “It’s necessary.”

When he didn’t say anything else, Sakura demanded, “Spare one more. This is my mission and I need him to live.”

After a moment of deliberation, Sasuke snarled, like an animal being forced to give up its kill, and turned his back to her. With the dying of the Amaterasu, the screams turned into painful whimpers as the man spasmed on the ground.

Sakura knelt beside the man, who now looked at her with desperation in his eyes. A begging for mercy that hadn’t been there earlier, now glistened with tears. “Remember that I spared your life,” Sakura told him, penetrating the vein in his collar with the needle of the syringe. “Maybe one day, a future version of you will deserve it.” The man’s eyelids fell, and even in his unconsciousness, Sakura could sense the relief that came with oblivion. The third slug had appeared by her side, and Sakura watched as Lady Katsuyu began channeling Sakura’s chakra in order to heal the man’s injuries. They were deep, penetrating wounds that would require intensive medical treatment. The draw on Sakura’s reserves zapped her, real fatigue coming over her now.

“I can’t hold the summoning,” Sakura relayed to the two Katsuyus, one small and gliding over Sakura’s shoulder, the other encapsulating the injured man as the creature healed his injuries. She was the first to vanish, just like all those summoned before.

“Don’t worry about me,” came Katsuyu’s small reassuring voice. “I can handle the rest until you arrive. Will you be okay?”

Sakura nodded, “Yes. Thank you, Lady Katsuyu.” With the last of the jutsu released, Sakura exhaled a sigh of relief as the drain on her chakra reserves lessened. She caught her breath, sitting in the muddy grass for a moment.

When she turned to Sasuke, he was standing over her, silently brooding with an emotionless mask slipped back into place.

Sakura wanted to yell at him for his recklessness. For interfering when she was more than capable of handling this herself. “You have potentially jeopardized my mission,” she informed him bitterly, rising to stand toe to toe with him.

He didn’t respond, unmoving as he received her rebuke. Even the rain hailed down on them harder if that were even possible. And then the Uchiha was moving, taking her bloody palm, the hand that had come between Sasuke’s killing blow and his victim, between his fingers. She fisted it rebelliously, stiffening her arm, not quite ready to let her anger go.

And so he grabbed her wrist instead, pulling her with him toward the circumference of trees closest to them.

“I can’t leave,” she protested, digging her heals more firmly into the ground. She became immovable. “More of them could be on their way. I need to intercept them.” Sakura didn’t know how many more there would be, or what she was going to do to incapacitate them now that she was no longer able to summon Katsuyu. She would have to dig deep, fight until she couldn’t stand, pummeling them until she knocked them unconscious.

Still not looking at anything but the wrist in which he gripped as if Sakura could be ripped away at any second, Sasuke confessed. “Every person who was headed in this direction in pursuit of you tonight was handled. I shoved each of them into another dimension.”

Sakura’s eyebrows rose as she stared at him speechlessly. For the first time since she observed him, Sakura noticed his heavy breathing. His Rinnegan eye was closed and the Sharingan deactivated, and Sakura recognized the tell of his exhaustion. He had overexerted himself, definitely a sign that he really had transported an unknown number of men through his Rinnegan’s portal tonight.

“At least for now, let’s get out of this rain,” he told her. “There’s a place not far from here.”

Sakura pulled her hand free from his grasp and Sasuke didn’t move to take it again, accepting and mirroring her own frustration. After a moment, he turned, and Sakura followed the coiled back of the Uchiha into the shelter of the trees, allowing him to lead her from the battlefield.

#naruto #ssfanfiction #naruto fanfiction #sakura hiden #sakura haruno #sakura uchiha #approaching sun #narutoshippuden #naruto gaiden #approachingsun #sasusakufanfiction #sasusaku

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anerdinallherglory · 6 months

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Glad A.S. could help you care for yourself ❤️ A.S. 36 coming your way soon!

productivity challenge: day 56/100

It was a very productive day. Such a lovely Friday. I had a lot of work from the company in the morning and in the afternoon my house was full of dust because we drilled holes in the walls to catify our living room. As I'm in a very good mood, I didn't mind. Plus, it's iced coffee season! There's nothing like a hot Friday with iced beverages🧋

Today's productivity:

edited more institutional videos

confirmed meetings

I dealt with finances

Did dishes and vacuumed the house

Gardening

I catified my living room and Amora absolutely loved it, while Athena still prefers to sleep in her box

today's self-care:

watched episodes 91-93 of one piece during lunch break

Read Chapter 35 of Approaching Sun by @anerdinallherglory and ohhhh boy how I was waiting for it 🥹 (if you don’t know her story you should read it asap on AO3)

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anerdinallherglory · 6 months

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Approaching Sun (35)

Author’s Note: I had planned on delivering more this chapter, but the wordcount got a little out of hand and it made the most sense to stop it here. I’ll be working on the next chapter in advance so I can still write the good parts while my muse is present. For those that are still with me reading this story, I would suggest listening to Runaway by AURORA for Sakura’s pov in these chapters and Don’t Worry by Boon for Sasuke’s second pov. Special shouthout to my Optom husband who was happy to lend me his medical knowledge for this chapter. As always, let me know your thoughts. Thank you for your patience. I promise it will pay off.

Pairing: SasuSaku

Previous Chapters: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34

Chapter 35: No Help Needed

Sakura’s trail was cold. Beyond their shared bedroom and her departing letter, there was nothing. Like a released bowstring, Sasuke had sprung forth into the night in the direction of the only detail he was certain about her plan: Tanigakure. He had plucked this detail from Mako’s memories like a healer digs out pieces of metal in a flesh wound. The physical toll of traveling nonstop overnight while chakra-depleted had cost the Uchiha, and he had been tempted several times to just pop another chakra pill into his mouth. However, he couldn’t risk taking it in case he came upon a situation where he would need it in combat. So, Sasuke had trudged through the sand all night, wrapping his hair and face with the black cloth of his turban, pulling the hood of his traveling poncho up and over his hair to better disguise himself; Sasuke didn’t want to even waste chakra on a simple transformation jutsu. He ‘had to be discreet,’ after all.

Sasuke arrived at the jagged mountainous ribcage surrounding Tanigakure the following evening, gaining entrance easily as an unrecognizable traveler in a world of peace. His eyes searched for any flash of pink and he stopped at every place he could think where Sakura might start her search for the organization bent on killing her: the hospital she made Sasuke stay at just so she could visit the medical facilities here, and even their old hotel room, but there was no sign of her. After hours of staking out with no word or sign, Sasuke cursed himself for not gathering more information about her plan from Kakashi before pursuing her. His inability to find even a trace of her just went to show that Sasuke was always a little too confident in himself and still found himself habitually underestimating Sakura’s skill.

As the sun began to set, Sasuke wanted nothing more than to approach every single soul crowding the streets in the evening lantern-lit dusk and ask if anyone had seen her, but Sasuke couldn’t risk the suspicion it would rouse about his own identity. Who was he and why did he want to know? How did he know her and where could they find him if they did see her? He could already hear the questions and he didn’t want any rumors to make it to the leadership of this village. Discretion turned out to be a lot more difficult when you were panicking.

And so, Sasuke perched himself on the roof above a crowded izakaya, where many individuals were flocking to participate in nighttime drinking and he did the only thing he could think of: watch and wait for a word, a clue, the breath of her name or description between the boisterous laughter of intoxicated patrons. In the darkness of night, when the starlight outshone the dimming lanterns, Sasuke even became desperate for the crickets to sigh but a syllable of her name. But like everyone else, they gave him nothing. Sasuke released a frustrated sigh, adding another useless sound to the nightscape around him as he jumped down from the building, too restless to do anything but pace the streets and wonder how he ever ended up like this.

Sakura fingered her dark hair in the reflection of the ink-stained water in the bucket at her feet. She scrubbed at the lingering residue of black dye running past her hairline and wrapped the towel in her hands quickly around her short hair. When Sakura heard the crack of the door, she flashed the woman who entered a quick grin.

“You dyed it!?” the youngest girl of the group, Tabi exclaimed, falling to her knees beside Sakura with her hands covering her mouth. “But it’s your best feature! You would attract the attention of everyone!”

Sakura shook her head, wanting to say something along the lines of ‘that’s exactly the point,’ but she didn’t for the obvious reason of blowing her cover. And despite what she had told the headmistress of the bathhouse, Sakura didn’t plan on being here long—just long enough to gather the intel she needed in order to move into the next phase of her plan.

“Mother will not be happy,” the girl stated, reaching over to finger a stray lock of jet that escaped from the bundle atop Sakura’s head.

“Mother,” Sakura responded, using the same honorific for the headmistress, “will hopefully understand my reasons. I don’t want to stand out too much.”

Tabi shook her head, saying, “Is it permanent? How long will it last? Will the steam from the bath ruin it?”

Sakura shook her head, grateful she could be honest with the young girl with at least one thing. “It should hold for a couple of days, if not more.”

“The sooner it fades back to rose, the better.” Tabi stated matter-of-factly, rising to move to the other side of the room that they shared to begin the evening ritual of preparing for the night’s work.

Sakura copied her experienced movements, powdering her face while her hair dried, carefully concealing the purple diamond between her brows. Infiltrating this job had been easier than Sakura had anticipated given the reputation of difficulty in this line of work. Sakura had approached the headmistress as a ‘transfer’ from another establishment. Due to Tanigakure’s exclusive nature from the outside world, it was not difficult to acquire fabricated copies of the necessary paperwork indicating a ‘private transfer’ from another village, and Sakura easily produced the medical assessments of her health that was also required. It also didn’t hurt that Sakura’s coloring was considered rare and possibly desirable by some; in other words, she would be highly profitable. Sakura promised the headmistress a steep percentage for every patron she ‘pleased.’ Or would allegedly please.

No, Sakura did not plan to violate herself in order to gain the information she was looking for. She had never stooped into this role before in all her mission activity, but Ino had once used the disguise in order to slip into minds of her targets more easily once she got them isolated and no harm could befall her body once she performed the jutsu.

Sakura had only acquired empty leads since she had arrived in Tanigakure. All Sakura needed to do was assess, learn what she could from the right people, and transition into the next step of her plan. The infiltration was the easy part, but this next part was dangerous, and Sakura would have to tread so very carefully.

“Why are you here, Tabi?” Sakura couldn’t resist asking, wondering how such a lovely girl ended up servicing despicable men at one of the secretive bath house locations in the shinobi world. “How did you end up in a place like this?”

Tabi eyed Sakura curiously for a second before laughing. “I could ask the same about you.” And then she didn’t talk to Sakura for the rest of the evening as they prepped for the night.

Sakura followed the other girls into the establishment, a building disguised as a common bathhouse in the front section, advertising the typical bathhouse amenities, but concealing the back half which included private baths and rooms. When a section of the wall slid back to reveal a dark sitting room, Sakura had to steal herself and conceal an inner cringe under the stares of the lounging men who were already expecting them in the luxury-style waiting room. Sakura never felt so disgusted in her entire life than she did in that moment under the predatory gazes of those who only sought to devour others and pleasure themselves. Sakura immediately found herself second guessing this step. Maybe this hadn’t been such a clever idea. But she had no other choice. The members of the organization had been able to conceal themselves in a “neutral” territory long enough to gain numbers and begin operation. To Sakura, this meant one of three things. The first and most unlikely option was that this anti-peace organization had managed to keep their activity low enough to avoid detection and that Tanikage was truly focused on other things. Sakura doubted this one. The village was simply too small to have as many members as Mako had claimed go undetected. Or there was a very real possibility that the Kage and Council were already aware and didn’t take action because powerful figures were involved, maybe even leadership, or they simply did not care.

When the door was shut behind them, Sakura watched the other girls disappear into the noisy room hazed with pipe smoke, making their way toward familiar patrons. Socialization seemed to be a part of the selection process, to intensify the excitement, and Sakura planned to take advantage of it. She held her breath as she navigated, walking up to Tabi who had already familiarly climbed into the lap of one of the younger men, apparently a returning patron of hers.

“Is this a new friend,” the man drawled thickly through a handful of Tabi’s hair that he had twirled throughout his fingers and pressed to his mouth.

At Tabi’s sudden wide-eyed expression at Sakura’s appearance, Sakura answered for herself, soothing Tabi’s fears in the same sentence. Sakura knew the look of someone who felt threatened by her presence, and Tabi was giving her a warning stare for approaching her patron. “Yes. Guta Hae, sir,” Sakura introduced with a bow. “I am new. Perhaps you could introduce me to any friends that you might be in company with.”

Around her, the socialization had already begun and men who had already found their women for the evening, began to mingle with their associates, the girls clinging to their arms like trophies. Several of them appraised Sakura from a distance, naturally curious at the new face. But Sakura wasn’t going to just be picked from the lot like a prized animal ripe for butcher. No. Instead, Sakura would be choosing amongst them in the form of an introduction, just as she had planned.

Tabi nodded, exclaiming, “Yes. This is her first night so she doesn’t know anyone,” Tabi smiled back at the man who was running his hands possessively over her leg in the dim light around them as he debated whether this unexpected disturbance would be beneficial in some way, or if he should just whisk Tabi away to their private room. “Could you introduce her to some friends, Toka-san?”

“Hmm,” Toka smirked, “any favor for you, dear,” he murmured into Tabi’s hair. “If you’re willing to return it.”

The words dropped into Sakura’s stomach to spoil like rotten food. This wasn’t good. Sakura didn’t want anyone to suffer anything personally from her meddling, especially not a woman as nice to her as Tabi had been. Just as she was fixing to retract her request, intent to say nevermind, Tabi was helping the man in the lounge chair to his feet, twirling his arm around her neck as they walked toward the crowd gathering in the back of the room.

The haze grew thicker around the smoking men as they lounged against the shadow-cloaked walls, and Sakura bowed to them when Toka stopped and held out his hand smoothly for Sakura to take. Masking her face to conceal her repulsion, Sakura slid her fingers into Toka’s waiting palm and he held her hand above her head to spin her in a half pirouette in front of his curious counterparts. The way each of their eyes clung to different parts of her body had Sakura feeling like she might wretch.

“Guta Hae,” Toka introduced, dropping her hand as if he were a gentleman. Sakura knew he was anything but. “She’s new here. Tabi asked that I introduce her to you all.”

Sakura’s eyes fluttered as she feigned shyness, bringing her shoulders innocently up for a small second.

There were exchanged smiles amongst some of the men as they debated their current choices, but Sakura’s eyes assessed them back, weighing her options and gathering what little intel she could gather from them. At the center of the pack, Sakura’s medical eye immediately located a man with his eyes tightly bound with bandaging. He was quiet as he tilted his ear to appraise her, solemn with two girls on each of his knees as he sat in one of the red, luxuriously tufted high-back chairs. And Sakura marked him as someone of little interest to her despite the initial surprise of his blindness. His injuries could mean several things, either good or bad for her purposes, but Sakura also could tell that whatever had happened to him had potentially wisened him, and Sakura didn’t need to approach that type of person. The fact that his injury potentially revealed his status as a former ninja, put him on Sakura’s radar; but, she also believed he might be worth investigating at a distance. Sakura’s eyes scanned over the rest of their smoking and laughing personas.

“New in what way?” one of the men joked loudly as the rest of them snickered with shiny, interested eyes. “New here? Or…new, new?”

Sakura wanted to sneer at such a suggestive question, curl her lip and let her inner Sakura bleed through her teeth and down into her firsts. “I’m from the Land of Fire,” she revealed, weighing the various reactions to such a revelation. And several eyes flickered to her, assessing her differently.

“The Land of Fire?” asked the loud man again as he crossed his arms. “Can’t be Konoha. I’ve never heard of such an establishment in the Leaf. Not recently, anyway.”

The others agreed around him, but Sakura didn’t reveal that answer. She had made her cast, throwing the lure out onto the smoke-infused water, dangling the bait in the crocodile faces of six influential men. By smiling and shrugging her shoulders and keeping the mystery of her origin concealed, Sakura was reeling in that line and establish her own draw.

Sakura moved toward the loud one, painting a saccharine grin on her face. He was going to be the one to spill secrets, Sakura could tell. He had a mouth on him like Naruto. “Are you familiar with Konoha?” Sakura asked him sweetly as she moved into his inner circle, receiving a glare from the woman on his arm. “I’ve never been to the Leaf, but had many patrons from there,” she continued.

Before she even learned the man’s name, Sakura’s fingers were grasped carefully once again, the same application of force that Toka had just touched her with, and she was being tugged back around to face the group of men. The rougher man with the bandaging around his eyes had stood to retrieve her, reeling her in towards him as if she were the bait on the line. “Don’t waste your time on him. He’s a clown.”

Sakura’s instinctual reaction was to become solid, send chakra to her feet and become as immovable as her inhuman strength would allow her to be. It took her only a millisecond to resolve herself, to recommit to her plan, and Sakura became supple despite her annoyance with the man who felt too important to be overlooked by her.

The two women who had once sat on his lap were gone and he replaced them with her, pulling her down to sit on his right knee. She still stiffened despite her resolve, realizing once again how dangerous the people were whom she was trying to play with. This guy was lucky, so incredibly lucky that Sakura’s purpose here was not to kill every single one of them.

“I can tell you about Konoha,” he spoke lowly, a whisper as the conversation resumed around them, as he bent his head into her blackened hair. Sakura could feel the rumble of his voice in his chest as he said, “What is it that you want to know?”

Sakura couldn’t help herself. She turned her left shoulder into him to create more distance as she watched him carefully. “Are you from there?” she asked, wary that this man might be able to recognize her despite her careful disguise.

“No,” he answered, “but I know several men who are.”

“Are you a ninja?” she questioned again, trying with everything in her to relax into this man’s embrace. Where their bodies touched, Sakura felt as if he were like a boiling acid, searing and burning at the connection points.

“Have you been with a ninja?” he countered, and Sakura recognized his attempt to avoid answering the question.

“Who do you think visited my previous establishment in the Land of Fire?”

He chuckled, a mirthful laugh that lasted a little too long to make anyone comfortable. His next words sent an electricity through her blood. “What I wouldn’t give to see your face as you lie to everyone around you that you’re a sex worker like the rest of them.”

Her eyes grew wide as she checked to see if anyone heard what he had said. Most of the couples had already retired to their rooms, so Sakura forced her breathing into a steady cadence of ease and indifference. She turned to him slowly. “I don’t know what you mean.”

Her hand was taken lightly into his and she resisted the urge to snatch it back as he guided it to his cheek, splaying her fingers across the side of his head with his own as he grinned wickedly. “Your face was the last thing that I saw before I lost my vision. I’ll never forget the sound of your voice, Haruno Sakura.”

When the door closed behind them, Sakura snatched her hand from the blind man who had lead her privately to one of the sauna rooms where extracurriculars were expected to take place. Sakura’s initial plan for this part was immediately interrupted. Pulling a kunai from her tightly-fitted silk attire, Sakura spun and pinned the mysterious man against the black wood of the closed door, kunai flush against the flesh of his throat. Beyond the slight tilt of his chin skyward, the man had no reaction.

“Who are you?” she hissed, all pretenses and disguises temporarily dropped.

The man chuckled against her blade. “It’s not surprising you don’t remember me. The battlefield of the war was so gruesome and so many men at your mercy, my face was one in a sea of millions.”

Sakura couldn’t help but think of Satou, Isao’s father, and Satou’s wife, whom Sakura had failed to save. Isao’s mother, too, had been one of millions. Sakura desperately searched for any recognition and came up blank. She remembered healing hundreds of visual injuries—this man had only been one of them. A heavy weight settled in her gut as she realized, that like all those others, his injuries had most likely been passed off to others because of the minority of them in comparison to those on the brink of dying. Severed appendages, organ damage, bleeding. Going blind was unfortunate, but not life threatening.

Sakura asked the next obvious question. “Are you one of the people out to kill me?”

“Yes, actually.” He admitted and Sakura pressed the blade deeper, contemplating the pros and cons of killing him on the spot. “But,” he added lightly, avoiding the dipping of his throat against the bite of her kunai’s sharpness. “Since I was lucky enough to find you first, I will make you a deal.”

“Why should I even believe a word out of your mouth?”

“Because you have something that I want,” he answered, a hand coming up to grip her own. But he couldn’t move the fisted blade away because Sakura’s hand was as unmovable as steal as she no longer suppressed her immaculate strength.

“And what is that?” she interrogated, unperturbed by his words.

“Your abilities,” he smiled. “Heal my eyes completely, and I’ll help you.”

“I’ve been betrayed once already by a fellow member of yours,” Sakura revealed. “I won’t make the same mistake twice. Trusting you is the last thing I am going to do.”

Another chuckle reverberated up his chest like the swell of a wave in a turbulent ocean. “Then don’t trust me. But I am afraid that you have no other choice to work with me.”

“And why is that?”

“Because all of your friends are being watched carefully. And to your soon-to-be dismay, a certain Uchiha has been identified here within Tanigakure, and he is looking for you. The Zenshin’s plans for him aren’t a part of your plans, are they?”

Sakura’s kunai bounced as her hand shook in surprise at his words and it nicked his throat once before she steadied it. He hissed and pulled harder against her hand, but it still didn’t move.

“He is here?” Sakura asked in a whisper, a myriad of paths of possibility spidering out from the revelation. Sasuke had followed her. Despite her wishes and despite Kakashi’s promises of keeping Naruto and Sasuke preoccupied, Sasuke had followed her. Not Naruto, but Sasuke. Even if it was out of concern for her, why? Why did he continue to doubt her abilities? Sakura pushed those feelings to the back of her mind as a new thought formed around the name of the organization that wanted to kill her and many others: Zenshin. To advance. Progression. The exact same word that Mako had declared to her in the desert wind only nights ago. She finally had the name.

“Here and unsuccessful in his search for you, is what I have heard,” came the blind man’s sultry response in her face. “We knew you had to be close if he was here sniffing for you.”

Damn it. Her plans were already starting to unravel. She was banking on the fact that they might not believe her brave enough to confront them, alone and in their own territory. “On the off chance you’re actually telling the truth,” Sakura growled, “you lot are absolute fools to underestimate Sasuke. He and Naruto are singlehandedly the strongest shinobi to have ever walked this earth. He will mow you down just as Madara did to the shinobi alliance.”

“What about you?” he asked, a smirk tugging on the corner of his mouth despite the knife still secured against his flesh, nearly vibrating with the energy it was taking Sakura not to silence him permanently. “How strong are you?”

In the next movement, Sakura sheathed the weapon and relaxed her face into a smile of her own. “I am not far behind them.”

The blind man instinctively rubbed his neck where her kunai had been, smearing the pinpricks of blood there. “You’re lucky that even blind, my senses are sharper than my companions’,” he spoke, seriousness replacing the nervous humor of his previous persona. “By claiming you first, I have saved you from the lions you were prowling amongst just outside.”

“Which ones in the sitting room are a part of ‘Zenshin’?” Sakura asked, and her eyes grew terribly wide at the next admission from his mouth.

“Why, all of them,” he laughed once again.

All of them? If the man had been able to see, he would have noticed that Sakura’s face had drained of all color. Sakura’s mental efforts doubled as she began to cross out steps of her plan and recalculate, following the conceptual intricate spiderweb of possible effects from each detour she could potentially plan for.

He took a step toward her. “And all of them were already suspecting your identity the very minute Toka introduced you. I happen to be the only one present who has ever heard your voice. My actions to grab your attention will have interested them even more. I’ll have to explain what I did tonight. Your next move will determine the words that will come out of my mouth.”

Sakura nodded, still silently assessing her options, before she said, “remove the bandage.”

The man hesitated, as if he was almost unsure if he wanted her to see what lie beneath. He only hesitated for a moment before fingering the white bandage. He walked toward her until he was only a few feet ahead of her. When the bandage slipped down to reveal his eye sockets, Sakura frowned at the unblemished nature of them. Not an external injury that could be healed, then. She had been hoping for cataracts or some other resolvable issue via procedure.

He flinched as she touched his temples, tilting his head back so Sakura could peer into them. She summoned her chakra to her fingertips and pressed exploratory chakra into them. He gasped at the invasion when her chakra made contact with his flesh, and his hand came up to grasp on to Sakura’s wrist.

“I’m only investigating the injury,” Sakura reassured him.

“I know,” he frowned. “You did so once before. You told me there was little that could be done.”

Sakura nodded, feeling dread at her past self’s words. If she had not been able to heal them, she suspected no one could. Sakura suddenly recalled the shinobi war and Kakashi sensei, whose eye had been torn from his eye socket by Madara and then restored by Naruto, through his perfected Ying-Yang release through the sun seal given to him by Hagoromo. Naruto was not only able to restore Kakashi’s eye from nothing, but he had also been able to revive Obito after the extractions of the Ten Tales, and accomplish other grand healing feats during the war in the duration of which he had possessed the seal. Both Naruto and Sasuke relinquished their Sun and Moon seals when they sealed Kaguya. That sort of healing power was gone now.

Sakura possessed and could control both Yin and Yang chakra due to her healing training under Tsunade and her natural affinity for genjutsus. Even with Sakura’s near perfect control of chakra, she could not use Yin and Yang simultaneously as Naruto had done with Hagoromo’s seal.

“Are you able to see anything at all? Lights? Shadows? Shapes?” There was a big difference between being blind and being visually impaired. While others saw nothing but darkness, some could still make out some glimpses of their surroundings.

“Nothing. Not since the war.”

Sakura frowned as she searched the eyes with her chakra. The eyes themselves were undamaged. The optic nerves intact. The retinas whole. They were clear in appearance, with startling dark irises. Black, like Sasuke’s. No clouding. There was only one possible cause left: brain damage.

Sakura frowned at how hopeless the situation was. “Do you have any pain?”

“No,” he answered. “Would pain be a good sign? That the body is trying to heal?”

Sakura winced at his train of thought. People often believed that pain meant the body was trying to repair itself, and that if there was no pain, it meant one of two things: the body was not damaged, or whatever healing was to be done was complete. This was not the case for many injuries. If he was experiencing pain, it might just indicate a different type of injury. Saying he had no pain was just strengthening Sakura’s suspicion.

Reaching to cup the back of his head, Sakura pushed her fingertips into his scalp. He winced at the contact.

“Were you hit in the back of the head during the war? Is that how you lost your vision?”

He nodded, grinding down his teeth as she determined the truth he hadn’t offered freely. Brain damage was irreversible. Sakura could not create new pathways for nerves. She felt the dead-end her chakra reached after traveling down the optic nerves. The visual cortexes of the occipital lobe at the very back of the brain was no longer receiving signals from the eye. Sakura suspected that he probably had been told this by multiple healers and was hoping she would arrive at a different conclusion.

“What’s your name?” she asked, feigning medical indifference to his injury. She wasn’t ready to reveal her deductions while he was still in the mood to answer her questions.

“You can call me Rugo. It’s what the others call me.”

Sakura nodded, understanding why he wasn’t going to divulge his real identity to her. She decided not to ask what village he was from originally, which was going to be her next question. Tanigakure had been neutral in the war, and since he had allegedly fought in the war, he had either migrated here after the war, or he came to be a part of Zenshin mission, specifically.

“How many members of Zenshin are ninja from other villages?” she questioned instead while she still had the opportunity.

He hesitated for a moment, before admitting. “Most of them.” Sakura frowned at that. Just how many ninja had been unsatisfied with their lives after the war that they believed healing the grievances of the next generation stood in the way of progression?

“Is your vision loss why you joined Zenshin?” she asked boldly, trying her best to understand his particular motives. Something as significant as blindness could make the kindest of people bitter. If that was the source of his bitterness, Sakura didn’t understand why he wanted to allow such anger spread for the sake of strength and progression in the next generation of ninja.

He did not answer at first, but then said. “Yes. It is the reason. But I did not join Zenshin to prevent you and others from healing the trauma of ninja. I joined to find you. You are the only one who can help me now.”

Sakura sighed at his confession and pulled her hands away, but Rugo caught them desperately, a sharp contrast to his cocky charisma. “If you can heal them, I’ll help you. Don’t tell me what the other healers say. I know that you can fix this.”

Sakura pulled her hands free, hesitant to disappoint him. She fumbled silently in her pocket for an item that she had prepared for the next phase of this night once she was alone in this room with whichever man was unlucky enough to become her recipient, even though it hadn’t exactly happened how she had planned.

“I am sorry Rugo. Brain damage cannot be reveresed. I cannot heal them.”

The man frowned deeply at her words, shaking his head. He was not expecting the sharp prick in his neck that came next. Sakura pushed down on the plunger that pushed the harmless sedative into his bloodstream. Ironically, as a medic, Sakura couldn’t help but notice the widening of his eyes as the muscles registered his surprise, which indicated that the cerebellum, the separate part of the brain in control of muscles still operated perfectly. He crashed to his knees before falling forward as she caught him.

She wished she had the time to tell him that he was lucky, so incredibly lucky to only have lost his vision from the type of head injury that he had received. If any other parts of the brain had been damaged, he would have likely lost his ability to speak, to control his muscles, to walk; he could have become paralyzed. Maybe, if he were still alive, they could have this conversation in the future after she executed her plan.

Sakura was only a little disappointed that she hadn’t been able to accept Rugo’s offer of assistance as an inside source, after all. Whether or not he had intended to, the Zenshin member had already given her the information she was looking for. And Sakura never really needed anyone’s help anyway. Not Rugo’s. And not Sasuke’s, either.

Only when Sakura turned on the tap water for the bath that wouldn’t be used after all, and she was certain the sound of it would keep her from being disturbed by the head matron, did Sakura bite into her flesh. Blood pooling at the tip of her finger, Sakura placed her thumb against her palm and pushed her five fingers into the ground, performing the summoning technique.

“Lady Katsuyu,” Sakura greeted the small slug, 1/1000th of her original body, that began to climb its way over the legs of the man she had just incapacitated.

Sakura knelt, using her blood smeared finger to trace an intricate symbol on Rugo’s temple. The blood pooling where she had traced, and small trails hastily dissected from the main paths to trickle down into the hair at his temples. “You’re certain this will work?” Sakura asked the human-size slug that reached up to cover the man’s unmoving face with her body.

“It should,” Katuyu reassured her. “The blood is just an extra step of assurance. I should be able to do this on my own without it.”

Sakura nodded, sparing the little extra chakra it took to stop the blood flowing freely from her thumb without completely healing it. She was going to have to repeatedly break the skin there as the night continued, so growing new skin was not needed. “This is the first of many.”

“Sakura, dear,” Katsuyu responded as the slug divided into an even smaller version of herself and slipped into Sakura’s outstretched palm while the main body completely consumed the man Sakura had incapacitated. “Please be careful.”

“Of course, milady. I’m sorry for what you will witness from this moment on.” She tucked the slug away into the hem of her robe’s neckline.

Sakura opened the door to her room and turned to stare down the hallway at all the closed doors concealing the fellow members of Zenshin.

It was the sheer lack of activity that he was witnessing in his observation spots that first alerted Sasuke that something wasn’t quite right. In every town, if someone positioned themselves correctly, there would be brawling to spectate, scandals to witness, information to gather, but not in Tanigakure, apparently. The last twenty-four hours had been surprisingly uneventful in comparison to his first pass through when Sasuke and Sakura had been ambushed in their sleep. It was odd, how quickly they had been identified the first time in Tanigakure, but Sasuke had yet to be approached. Yes, he had been more discreet than before, but Sasuke was starting to feel annoyed both with his lack of progress in finding Sakura’s whereabouts and this organizations inability to notice his whereabouts.

That was, until he noticed that nothing around him was particularly noticeable. Ah, he realized. So I have been discovered. It was the only explanation for how fruitless his efforts had been to acquire any real intel about an organization fixated on killing his friend. Sasuke realized immediately that he was purposefully not being fed anything helpful. It only unnerved him when he realized just how many people must be in this group if the multitudes of people he currently watched from above were being intentionally silent. Sasuke also surmised that whatever organization this was, they were also dodging interest from the leaders of Tanigakure. They, too, were trying to fly under the radar.

And so, Sasuke waited in the night, perched above the noisy izakaya once more, rain pattering against his cloak and bouncing from the brim of his black hood, content to play his role while he schemed. He contemplated doing something unexpected just to shake things up, but what would they consider unexpected? Sasuke tried to see this situation for their perspective. This organization knew that Sasuke had followed his pink-haired friend here, and that he was searching for her. They knew that Sasuke had retreated the last time he was here, whisking Sakura away in order to protect them both. They knew he was trying to be discreet so as not to cause any problems for Konoha. With that information, Sasuke deduced that they expected him to continue to look for Sakura, sit and listen discreetly until he located her, interrupt her mission to take her away. They were allowing him to do just as they expected him to in order not to alert him.

To their extreme disappointment, Sasuke was smarter than everyone involved in this ridiculous plan to distract him.

And so, Sasuke covered his face tightly. He planned to throw a wrench into the plan, discreetly, while still sending a very strong message to those he assumed lurked in the rain-cloaked shadows. And it wasn’t going to cost him very much chakra.

Unfortunately for them, thunder rumbled above him, and Sasuke inhaled the energy of the surrounding atmosphere. Unlike in his battle with Itachi, Sasuke did not have to manipulate the air with Amaterasu in order to manipulate the cumulonimbus clouds into existence. They brooded over him regardless, as if his very frustration manifested into the storm that now cast the village in a torrential downpour. For once, Sasuke saw it as a sign that the universe might actually be on his side, that his decision regarding a future with Sakura might have been the right one. One worth destroying a few buildings for.

And he did exactly that. Sasuke wasn’t entirely his former revenge-seeking self, one bent on the destruction of an entire village, but he smirked dangerously as a flash of lightning struck the infuriatingly useless izakaya. A lightning bolt strikes in 1/1000th of a second, and the explosion happened first. Sasuke waited on the sound to follow before he let out one quick laugh to himself. Sasuke inhaled as if it were the first real breath he had in a long while; it felt so good to let go, to cave to destruction. To push things back into motion and take control of a situation.

As expected, people ran from the building, some attempting to put out the small fire in the ceiling, while others ducked for cover back into other structures and away from the smoking rooftop. The heavy rain assisted in putting it out very quickly, causing minimal damage.

It wouldn’t draw enough attention from those who didn’t know that the lightning wasn’t entirely one of nature’s unfortunate disasters. Only those who were watching him as closely as he was suspecting, would realize that Sasuke was done waiting.

When two ninja landed on either side of him, Sasuke’s Sharningan glowed in the dark as he leaned his head back against the building, arm slung forward over one reclined knee. His Sharingan darted to each of the two men, seeing what no one else could see in the blinding shower and muddled night. Two shinobi, faces covered, stood before him, proudly adorning two headbands with that insufferable five-spiral symbol he’d seen the last time he was here and more recently glimpsed from Mako’s memories.

“Finally,” the Uchiha breathed as he rolled his neck.

At his words, the two ninja, obviously assigned to monitor him, glanced at each other in surprise. Sasuke saw it cross their faces: the moment they realized they had been outplayed and forced to show themselves.

The air, now electrified, lashed out on its own and more lightning crackled in the air above them. In one lightning flash, Sasuke sat unmoving against the building’s side. In the very next, he had swapped with one of the men, teleporting places with him. Timing his movements with the crash of thunder, Sasuke grabbed the second by the neck and hurtled him into the first, smashing their bodies together. Sasuke justified his next actions based on two things: his low levels of chakra and the fact that he had one arm to handle two ninja at once. His katana spun free of its sheath before either men could even react to their sudden collision, and Sasuke skewered them on his blade, penetrating one through the shoulder and the other through the bicep until they were pinned together against the elevated section of the roof. They cried out in unison but their noises didn’t echo beyond the very next crack of lightning that Sasuke generated somewhere in the distance, its very purpose to disguise their screams.

Releasing the blade, Sasuke knelt before them in the pouring blackness, just so that they could see a glaring set of red and purple irises. He wouldn’t waste his limited chakra combing through their deranged minds, so Sasuke planned to interrogate his preferred way and do it thoroughly. “Where is she?”

“We don’t know who you’re talking ab—,” came the automatic lie, and Sasuke twisted the blade immediately in disguised fury. He was not in the mood to listen to deceptions. The thunder boomed.

Sasuke sighed. Sometimes it was the most predictable outcomes that tipped Sasuke over into an all-consuming sea of annoyance. If he treaded this sea too long, Sasuke would tire and eventually sink, and the Uchiha was already too well-acquainted with the depths of anger. If he hit the bottom, people would begin to die. And Sasuke didn’t want to be a murderer anymore if he could help it. Steadying himself, Sasuke pinched the bridge of his nose and said lowly, “I would advise not bothering to waste my time with more lies. It won’t end well for you.”

“We don’t know,” spat the first man as he clutched at the katana penetrating through his arm. “The lightshow is unnecessary. Someone needs to put you in your place, Uchiha, for using your power in this village.”

So that was it. As long as Sasuke was laying low, they were planning to leave him to his futile attempts to find Sakura. They didn’t want the real authority alerted to his presence because then Sasuke would talk, explain his presence and involve the real people in charge of this village. That, or there was deal with the higherups. If the village leaders knew of this organzaiton’s activity, they had allowed it to transpire as long as it remained inconspicuous. All of this information told Sasuke that the less evident of a profile this organization could keep, the better. Sasuke suspected that Tanigakure didn’t want multiple villages involved, but were somehow benefiting personally from this arrangement. Sasuke guessed that this secret organization also wanted to eliminate more reputable individuals off their list before they were confronted by multiple parties. It was a testament to their lack of experience and firepower if they had yet to eliminate Number 1 and had already pissed off two out of the five Kage.

“Last chance to be honest,” Sasuke hissed, twisting the blade deeper into both of their bodies, relishing the squelch of the blade’s movements in their flesh.

“We lost her!” the man in the very back hissed, spitting out rainwater, holding his partner very still with his clenched fists to keep him from jostling the weapon any further. “And many of our men, with her.”

Sasuke unfeelingly blinked at that confession.

“Shut your mouth,” the front man said to the fellow soldier behind him, jostling the both of them as he tried to shift in order to look back at him.

“Stop moving!” the man in the back hissed, grabbing more firmly to the man seated practically in his lap.

They had already located and lost her? The mention of other members of their organization going missing was the part that had Sasuke’s mind trying to make connections. Sasuke wasn’t sure if this was a trap. He had expected it to be a lot more difficult to receive any answers from anyone. So, what was the angle? Did they intend to follow Sasuke to her after telling him that? There would be no chance of that happening; Sasuke would quickly ensure it.

Inhaling, filling his lungs with electric energy, Sasuke reached forward and gripped the hilt of his katana. The current came from his lungs when he exhaled and it snaked around his arm in a circuiting slither, crisscrossing down the blade until a surge of electricity connected with their open wounds. Another crack of lightning, closer this time. More screaming.

It had been a very long time since Sasuke had used this technique to simultaneously torture and weaken his captive. He remembered performing this very move on Yamato, the temporary squad leader for Team 7 when they had come searching for Sasuke in one of Orochimaru’s underground hideouts. How ironic that he had once felt the same level of annoyance that he was now, but it had been directed at Team 7. And now. Now, it was because these imbeciles had the absolute audacity to come after one of them, as if any member of Team 7 could be taken down by such dirt beneath their feet. As if Sasuke didn’t have the absolute power to obliterate every single one of them without a second thought.

“Enough,” Sasuke growled lowly, forcing himself to talk more than he was usually inclined to do. “This current will intensify over the course of two minutes until you are essentially executed by electrocution. Which means you have two minutes to answer my questions without lying. If I even suspect a lie, lightning will travel straight to your heart before two minutes is even up.”

Their eyes widened, and Sasuke moved out of the path of the rain running down the slope of the roof towards him, until he was free of any electrified water that connected with their bodies.

“First question,” Sasuke began, thickening the electricity traveling through his arm to his blade. “Where was her last known location?”

“The bathhouse,” groaned the man in the back, the more talkative of the two. “The brothel.”

Despite his usual collected countenance, Sasuke’s red and purple eyes widened marginally at such a word. A brothel? A brothel? A new fire quickly formed in Sasuke’s chest at the revelation, and it was not the lightning-style chakra centralized there. It was a fire of panic and rage.

“When?” Sasuke asked next, amping up the voltage once more. The man in front, the first to receive electrical current, slumped forward unconscious.

“Earlier in the night,” the guy mumbled, lips beginning to numb with the rest of his body. His words still came out in a rush, however, eager to meet Sasuke’s deadline, before he, too, ended up like his partner. “Our leaders failed to give us our next orders at our usual rendezvous point. We arrived at the bathhouse, their last known location, to investigate—the other girls. They told us she had taken them.”

“Where is this bathhouse?” came Sasuke’s final question.

“Promise you will spare me, first,” the man pleaded, but Sasuke’s frustration only grew at the begging. Instead of assuring the man, Sasuke twisted his blade again.

After the scream, came the answer to his question. “On the eastside, against the mountain.” This man, too, fell unconscious, slumping against his partner, when Sasuke poured more electricity into his chest cavity. Sasuke ripped his blade free from their bodies.

He left them there in the rain, feeling absolutely no guilt at all because they would at least eventually wake up. Unlike every man who had occupied Sakura’s space in a godforsaken brothel, these two men were lucky because they would keep their lives.

#naruto #ssfanfiction #naruto fanfiction #approaching sun #sasusakufanfiction #sasusaku #narutoshippuden #naruto gaiden #sasuke shinden #sasuke retsuden #sakura hiden #sakura haruno #sakura uchiha #sasuke uchiha

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anerdinallherglory · 8 months

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Hiii!!! I wanted you to know that I love “Approaching Sun” so much! I’ve been rereading the chapters lately and it’s really so well written. You’re very talented. I’m dying to read new chapters, but I also saw in you AO3 profile that you have a baby so I really hope everything is okay with you and with your 2 year old 💗 come back to us as soon as you can 🥰 reading your story really makes my day. Thank you for your work! 💞

This means so much, really! My life has gotten incredibly busy the last couple years so this story has been slow rolling, but I’m glad people can go back and read what’s written in one go. I’m hoping once it’s finished, I can personally bind it myself and go back enjoy it as an actual book. Thank YOU for reading AND for taking the time to share your message with me. I’ll will forever remember you 💜 Sometimes it’s nice to know I’m not just writing into the void of the internet. AS 35 is in the works!! Much love 🥰

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anerdinallherglory · 9 months

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Hey there, I thought I saw a patron post the other day, but I'm not seeing it any more. What's your @ on there so I can support it? :)

Hey! So I deleted and will announce it with the next chapter release. You’re awesome!!

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anerdinallherglory · 10 months

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Approaching Sun (34)

Author’s Note: Hi! Me again! Life is consistently a wild ride. I have OCD when it comes to raising my child and want to be as emotionally and physically available as I can as a mom, so my free time is limited. I completely underestimated the SAHM gig; it’s a 24 hour job. It also takes me twice as long to knock out a chapter because I can only find the time to write during nap time. As mentioned before, I am also trying to find time to work on my own novel, so between it and AS, the time is split. For those of you who have been reading AS for a long time, thank you for your patience and dedication to the story. You guys rock. This ship will reach shore eventually. For the landlubbers, this sea is a long one. Beware the journey. P.S. I usually write around 6,000 words per chapter and this one is over 10,000! Hope that helps the wait!

Pairing: SasuSaku

Previous Chapters: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33

Chapter 34: All Wars, Theirs.

After performing her rounds at the hospital the next morning, Sakura found herself staring into Mako’s cell again as the man who betrayed her looked at her dejectedly through the bars. His head was rested back against the wall and his chin jutted forward as he watched her. Ironically, Sakura came carrying a cup of tea in her palms, debating on whether to drink it herself or offer it to Mako.

When she placed the steaming cup through the bars and onto the ground, sliding it forward carefully to refrain from sloshing it over the porcelain rim, Mako raised an eyebrow and snorted a dubious laugh. “You can’t be serious, right?”

Sakura shrugged her shoulders innocently in response. “I thought we agreed to be close colleagues again.”

He sat up straight as he responded. “I don’t remember agreeing to that. Second, we were never really close to begin with; I only ever gave you the tea to lull you into a sense of trust.”

Sakura dismissed the confession because it was already common knowledge between them anyway, and said, “Yes, yes. I’m aware.”

“Then you have a distressing sense of humor,” Mako breathed, gesturing to the tea between them as he stood from his lonely, reclined spot against the sand-constructed wall at the back of his cell. Stooping, Mako reached for the tea and cradled it in his hands all the way down as he replaced its spot on the floor with his cross-legged figure.

Sakura mirrored Mako’s sitting position on the other side of the bars strategically, a tactic she often used when talking with someone she wanted to make feel at ease.

Seeing straight through the method, Mako sipped the tea before asking sarcastically, “Am I due for another therapy session now, Doc?”

Sakura shrugged off his sardonic comment and decided to move straight to the point. “Where is the heart of your organization? Are they based in Tanigakure?”

Mako shot his eyebrows up, swallowing the tea thickly at the abrupt question. He replied with another patronizing question. “Doesn’t your Kazekage know that? Why don’t you go and ask him?”

Sakura said bluntly, “He more than likely does. But I don’t. I want you to tell me yourself.”

Mako set his tea down, suspicion darkening his gaze. “There’s a reason you don’t want to ask him, then. Tell me and I’ll consider sharing what I know with you.”

Sakura was either extremely transparent today, or Mako had truly spent their time together as physicians studying her so thoroughly that he was able to see straight through to some of her thoughts, and it gave Sakura a slithering sensation of uncertainty in her gut.

Sakura frowned back at Mako for his intuitive guess, because in all honesty, Sakura had spent the morning tending to a countless number of patients, recalling familiar faces and learning new names, and had recoiled once again at Gaara’s plans of an inevitable confrontation within Sunagakure.

Even though none of this was Sakura’s fault, she couldn’t help but feel like her presence in the Sand Village endangered the citizens here. She had wanted to believe that Gaara had everything under control, especially since Kakashi, Shikamaru, and the rest of Team 7 were here and ready to go through with plans of Gaara’s design. Sakura, too, had convinced Sasuke last night to trust in Gaara’s approach, saying: “It’s the best option we have.” To which, Sasuke had interjected with the idea of going to Tanigakure to intercept the enemy himself, saying, “A covert operation with one person wouldn’t involve Konoha and Suna. It would be discreet.”

And at first, Sakura had rejected this idea because it didn’t make sense. Sasuke had his mission. To tangle himself up in this now when he had just had a breakthrough would delay his progress and distract him from a far superior threat to Konoha. And Gaara was more than capable of handling this, but then again, Sakura believed that so was she. And so, Sakura had contemplated Sasuke’s “covert operation with one person” idea throughout the night, wondering if it wasn’t an entirely preposterous plan if only it didn’t involve the Uchiha, but her instead.

As Mako blinked at her, expecting her response, Sakura covered for herself by saying, “I just want to confirm his suspicions.”

“Liar,” he accused, and Sakura frowned again at Mako’s own forthrightness. He had stopped hiding himself, Sakura realized. He was allowing her to see who he truly was, and Sakura felt somewhat sad knowing that the kind and exceedingly thoughtful version who had fooled her truly had just been a ruse. This Mako was abrasive and it kind of reminded Sakura of the sensation of having just a little too much salt, not enough to deter you from the food, but more than enough to make you blanch and investigate the dish more carefully.

“What can I possibly do in here?” he asked as he motioned around him at Gaara’s impenetrable sand, no longer humming in the air, but solid and unyielding in its shape of the tunnels and countless cells. Sand that Sakura was sometimes wary around simply because of its desire to do its master’s bidding. As if specks of it could whisp away to speak into the Kazekage’s ear whenever it wished. Sakura knew she was being too paranoid simply because she was harboring a secret plan of her own, one that Mako was beginning to discern. Could she tell him? Should she tell him?

As if he could sense her hesitation, he added, “I did promise to spend the rest of my life—however short it may be—atoning for my actions, you know. And it’s not like I can run off and tell your secrets now, can I?”

Not entirely ready to believe him or trust in him again, Sakura sighed and told him a half-truth instead. “I want to know that, because I want to talk to the organization myself.”

Mako’s eyebrows raised and he laughed sharply. “You want to talk to them?”

Sakura nodded.

All of his false humor instantly died away at her confirmation. “Listen, if Leaf shinobi just show up there, on their turf, things are not going to go your way. They certainly aren’t going to talk to you about anything.”

“And why is that?” Sakura questioned.

“Because you are not their only target.”

Sakura’s stomach dropped at his sudden revelation. “What do you mean? I thought—”

“You are a target,” Mako interrupted, “A very big target—their most important one—but not their only one. You are at the top of the list. But after you, there will be others.”

“Like whom?” she probed.

“Anyone with power and influence whose ideals align with yours. People responsible with healing the next generation directly. Doctors, missionaries, leaders, teachers. The list goes on.”

“How many members,” Sakura asked, leaning toward the bars. “And is the Shade not the leader?”

“Not many, actually, but growing by the day.” Mako confessed easily and quickly, and Sakura could see that it was the truth. “Kasek, the man of shadow you refer to as a Shade, is one of the leaders. But there are others. He is not the mastermind.”

“Then who is?”

“I was new and never made it that far into the organization to find out. Hisa didn’t even know, and she has been involved much longer. They operate on a need-to-know basis, and she only ever consulted Kasek.”

“I see,” Sakura sighed, hoping for more intel than that.

“They are based in Tani as the Kazekage expects, but they are spread out. Or were. As they looked for you and the others. They might be dispersed and not all at the central location. From what I could gather from my conversations with the others, finding them all will be like searching for one cockroach at a time in a growing infestation.”

Sakura bit the inside of her cheek as she listened to this last bit, not entirely sure what she was expecting in the sense of her enemies’ locations. Sakura hadn’t been so naïve to hope that she could locate a singular location with all the bees inside their hive, but she had hoped for something more positive than the dismal reality that they might not be located at their base at all. This group and their teams and separation reminded Sakura, eerily of the Akatsuki. And if all of this was true (it was wise to only take Mako’s advice with a grain of salt), this brought Sakura full-circle to Gaara’s plan which was to lure them into Sunagakure. She hated to throw a wrench in any plans, but Sasuke was right. She needed to do something else, something less dangerous for everyone.

She had learned what she needed, so Sakura stood, dusting the sand off her pants.

Mako jumped up at her sudden indication of departure and blurted, “What’s your plan? I only told you this so you would think twice about whatever schemes you have. Even with your friends’ help, it’s dangerous. They will kill you.”

Sakura wanted to laugh at the preposterous idea of Naruto, Kakashi, and Sasuke being taken down by any enemy at this point. The three of them would die from old age, she was sure of it. She even had confidence in her own abilities despite how aware she was of the fact that this newly formed organization had no hesitancy to take her life. She vividly recalled how Mako had tried to convince Hisa to spare her life, arguing that she was too useful to kill. But she had bested them, hadn’t she? Even the shade who had corpsified her arms.

“Would I have really learned my lesson if I told you my plan?” Sakura asked him as she placed a hand on her hip and smiled pointedly at him. But Mako grabbed the bars between them, eyes narrowing once again.

“Listen, I know you have no reason to trust me, but take me with you.”

Sakura laughed out loud this time, unable to help herself as she covered her mouth with the soft side of her curved hand. Mako only glared. “Take you? Why on earth would I do that?”

“Because,” he hissed, “I could help you. You could use my affiliation with the group in whatever way you thought was best. They will more than likely kill me, but I could come up with something to get us in.”

Sakura’s smile disappeared. “The only help I need from you is for you to stay in this cell where you can’t stab me in the back again. I may have extended a hand of collaboration to you, but that doesn’t mean I’m dumb enough to trust you completely.”

Mako instantly responded with a frown, “You’re making a mistake.”

Sakura turned her back to him, ordering, “Start planning for your future here while I am away. The clinic needs you.”

As she began walking down the dark corridor of the underground tunnel toward the exit, she heard Mako yell after. “I? You’re going by yourself?!”

But she didn’t respond. The sand door that had fallen away before, floated back into form behind her, solidifying into a solid, soundproof barrier once more.

Despite his words last night, Sasuke was the one who was distracted. Distracted from his mission by so many different things, all of them pertaining to a certain pink-haired kunoichi whose cherry-blossom color bled into every crevice of his mind. Pale fingers tracing his back in the dark privacy of a shared room, Mako’s declaration of incoming enemies with the purpose of killing her, and Gaara’s various plans for their arrival were at the top of his thought list—right up there along with how much he wanted to throttle his blonde best friend for his incessant slurping.

Sasuke was trying to explain to Kakashi the development of his mission regarding the foodpill’s ability to lengthen his span of jump between Kaguya’s dimensions. At the mention of foodpills, however, Naruto had insisted he was going to resort to eating some of Sakura’s disgusting ‘mudballs’ himself very soon if they didn’t make a food stop and continue this discussion over a meal.

And so, this is where Sasuke currently found himself: sitting annoyingly squished in a small corner of a crowded food market stall located in the busiest section of the market square, closing his eyes tightly as Naruto shoved another bite of seasoned rice and meat stew loudly down his oversized gullet.

And now Kakashi had just brought up the very topic Sasuke had been brooding over since Gaara had announced to the group his plans on dealing with Sakura’s newfound enemies. The very topic that had Sasuke so distracted. Sasuke had been fantasizing ways to take out that lazy, spiky-haired strategist for even suggesting that Sakura be used as a lure in the first place. Shikamaru did not sit amongst them at the moment because he had “better things to do” in Suna at the moment, which thankfully kept him out of Sasuke’s sight.

“Let’s convene again with Sakura and the Kazekage this evening,” Kakashi suggested, somehow managing to eat without revealing the face behind the mask. “We need to consider the next steps carefully.”

“Gaara can handle it,” Naruto said, almost unintelligibly through a humongous bite of rice. “Whatever he says, we can trust him with it.”

“Or we could handle it,” Sasuke put out there, seeing an opportunity to change the situation and going for it instantly. “Quietly and effectively. Just us. No Sand Village.”

Naruto choked in his excitement at such a notion, agreeing with Sasuke immediately. “I like that idea better!”

“Hn,” Sasuke voiced in agreement with Naruto, whom technically had just agreed with him, but Sasuke didn’t care, because he wasn’t past emphasizing his own statement at this point.

Kakashi tapped his chopsticks thoughtfully against the table. “The situation is delicate because Tanigakure is a mostly neutral country between two shinobi villages. We can’t just go in there and start fighting a multitude of ninja who don’t represent the country as a whole. Even discreetly, the battle ensued would potentially cause too much damage. Gaara’s presence alone in Tanigakure for a few days caused some strain. Needing this fight to happen elsewhere is imperative.”

Naruto’s face had scrunched up the longer that Kakashi spoke, and the blonde knucklehead let out a thoughtful “hmmm” as he nodded his head like he had actually understood any of that. Sasuke wanted to roll his eyes and sigh.

“The Shade refuses to speak,” Kakashi continued his remarks. “We need intel, or we will be going into this blind. The Kazekage has that intel and is in the works of acquiring more information. Trusting Gaara is our best option.”

Sasuke wanted to say more, to argue, to persuade if only it weren’t so unlike him to do so. The Sasuke everyone was expecting was the uncaring one. The one who couldn’t be too bothered with any of this at all because it didn’t directly involve The Uchiha or his mission to investigate the Otsusuki. And part of Sasuke told himself to get a grip and to reign in the worry and trust the others. Sasuke knew he was being unreasonable, knew that he needed to focus on his own mission and goals. That’s what Sakura wanted, too. But Sasuke didn’t know how to wash his hands clean of this anymore, to eradicate the presence of Sakura in his mind, the feel of her skin, the embraces, smiles, and promises between them. Sasuke didn’t want to and therein lied his problem.

Kakashi was giving him that knowing sidelong look that had Sasuke glaring back at him.

“First things first, then,” The Sixth Hokage stated as he made to stand. “Let’s go find Sakura and then we can meet up with Gaara this evening.” And as Kakashi stood, the sensei suddenly realized that his former students no longer occupied the table but were making a break for the entrance, leaving Kakashi with a table full of Naruto’s dishes and an expectant storeowner smiling at him with the bill.

Sasuke heard their sensei sigh, murmur something about how he was supposed to be saving for retirement, but then handing over a wad of change to the giddy and grateful older woman.

When they located Sakura soon after in one of the medicine preparation rooms, she was bending over a mortar and pestle again, gloved hands moving deftly, and her hair pulled tightly behind her and Sasuke realized for the first time how long it had grown since they had left Konoha. The time had seemed to have passed them so quickly, and yet more than a couple months had transpired since he had returned home that day at dawn back in the Leaf. Her attire had changed overnight, and Sasuke instantly noticed that she no longer wore any of the clothes he had bought for her but had taken the liberty of finding something more fitting her previous style: red, short sleeved, and tantalizing short around the midriff. The very stomach he had ran his fingers across in the darkness of their shared room last night.

Sasuke pointedly looked away from her exposed skin as they advanced upon her position, and he decided to hang back against the entrance as Naruto and Kakashi greeted her enthusiastically. He settled into a comfortably uninterested position in typical Uchiha fashion against the wall and peeked over when Sakura elbowed Naruto’s arm when the blonde idiot shouted, “You’re making more puke pills?”

Sasuke felt a weight settle in his stomach as he made the connection that she was handling the ingredients required to make him more food pills for his mission. And from the trays set out before her, Sakura was making a lot of them. Even Kakashi glanced back Sasuke’s way as his former sensei realized Sakura’s purpose, as well.

Although somewhat touched by her effort, Sasuke feigned disinterest in the lot of them.

“Let’s have a taste!” Naruto exclaimed. “Surely, they aren’t as bad as they used to be!”

But before Naruto could touch one, Sakura pushed him away with her body. “Naruto! You need to stop that greedy habit of yours! They are made with Ashuwa, a plant that many people have severe allergic reactions to!”

Sasuke smirked silently to himself as Sakura chastised their gluttonous friend and Sasuke wanted to say something like, “Should have just let him eat it. That would teach him a lesson,” but Sasuke remained silent as Naruto shrieked at Sakura’s revelation.

The idiot jerked his entire body away from the food pills, eyes turning into round circles as he pointed at them, “Now you’re cooking can KILL people?!”

“Na-ru-tooo,” Sakura seethed in that drawn-out warning of his name she often used while considering to pommel their friend, and they all knew if she weren’t holding her gloved, Ashuwa-tainted hands up and away from everyone, Sakura would have hit him.

“They won’t kill you unless you are allergic,” Kakashi explained, motioning Naruto to take a few steps away. “How did you learn it was a common allergen?” he asked Sakura.

Her anger instantly forgotten, Sakura turned red from embarrassment and her eyes darted to the Uchiha. “After Mako told me about the plant, I tested it myself to assess the taste. I might have had a little reaction—”

Sasuke scoffed at the half-truth and spit out what she didn’t want to say. “It wasn’t little. Mako didn’t stop her from trying it, knowing how toxic it was. He was trying to kill her.” Feeling merciful, Sasuke left out the part about Sakura’s anaphylactic reaction, her face and mouth swelling up like a balloon that had left her bumbling through an explanation to a half-annoyed, half-concerned Sasuke.

Naruto instantly reddened after learning of Mako’s involvement, “THAT GUY!”

Kakashi didn’t give Naruto’s exclamation any attention, skipping over his statement immediately as he leaned curiously over the large array of food pills. “But Sasuke isn’t allergic, so these are the food pills you made for his mission? Are all of these for him, then?”

“Yes,” Sakura stated and she proceeded to relay the properties of the foodpills, their various side-effects and so on. Apparently, she had made modifications to these. They had less of a physical toll on the body and a greater number could be taken in a single dosage. They all raised their brows and glanced at one another in silent admiration; Sasuke didn’t bother to hide the small smirk of pride spreading across his face at his female companion’s astounding ability to make advancement upon advancement on something she had only just created days ago. Where had she even found the time?

“It’s not foolproof yet,” Sakura disclaimed as she hoisted a large container of compacted food pills from the counter and took slow and careful steps to Sasuke.

They both froze when her fingers bumped against his during the transfer; they also both instantly looked away from one another as the small physical contact brought memories of the more intimate touches of last night. The first physical anything other than kissing that had transpired between them had progressed so quickly and now Sasuke was back-peddling, silently berating himself for the first time about his weak willpower. They had only ever exchanged a couple kisses, something that Sasuke thought would be manageable, safe, and just enough to take that edge off, satiate that desire that suddenly choked all his stoic sense out of him. And yet, things had heated so much last night that Sakura had felt compelled to mention it. Sasuke just hadn’t expected the cravings something like running his fingers along her bare back would evoke in him. Her touching him was wonderful, but when he had touched her in return, his hand starting with her shirt and finding her skin underneath… it was erotic. And typical for Sasuke, he had balked, realizing the trajectory of their course. Because the truth was, they needed clear heads. Just as he had told her. And Sasuke’s head had been anything but clear since Sakura had joined him on his mission.

“I still need you to test them,” Sakura stated quietly, and Sasuke’s attention snapped back to his pink-haired teammate, who was still avoiding his eyes shyly. “I can make adjustments from there.”

Sasuke didn’t know what to say or do other than nod silently as he withdrew a summoning scroll and performed the justsu that would seal the foodpills within it. “Naruto could go with you, now. Go train and test one out and come back before nightfall so I can modify the recipe if I need to.”

“Great idea!” Naruto exclaimed and he ran over to Sakura’s workstation and plucked a loose pill off the counter, gulping it greedily before saying, “They still taste like mudballs, Sakura.”

“You IDIOT!” Sakura gasped, storming over to him and checking his face. “You don’t even know if you’re allergic!!!”

“I can’t let Sasuke have an unfair advantage!” Naruto announced with that stupid face-breaking grin. “I’m fine! See? If Sasuke can handle the Ass-ingredient than so can I!”

All three of them rolled their eyes at Naruto’s sense of competitiveness against his lifelong rival—Sasuke would never admit that neither of them still couldn’t stand to be outdone by the other in any way—as he stomped out the door, yelling, “Come on, Sasuke! Time to kick your ass!”

Sakura sighed, turning once again to Sasuke. “If he has a reaction, teleport him back immediately.”

Sasuke nodded, then hesitated, glancing back between Sakura and Kakashi, whom had been leaning against the counter with an amused sort of expression. “What about the Kazekage—”

“Oh,” Sakura smiled innocently as Kakashi briefly explained their intentions of visiting with her and the Kazekage about the situation at hand. “He won’t be finished until later this evening. That’s when we are supposed to all meet up.”

Sasuke nodded, already being aware of this fact. When neither of his remaining members of Team 7 said anything more to detain him, Sasuke followed his blonde rival out the door, not being able to shake the suspicious feeling that he was purposefully being sent away.

Sakura admired Kakashi for his perceptiveness because as her sensei leaned out the window to watch his two chakra pill-dosed disciples navigate through an intricate web of sand-constructed and adobe houses, he asked, “What are you planning?”

Sakura’s eyes widened when he found hers and she suddenly knew that she had been caught. Sakura sighed. “How did you guess?”

Kakashi moved away from the window to lean against the counter beside her as she finished working, whipping out his favorite scandalous Icha Icha book. “Your behavior is off. At first, I thought it was because of the evolution of your relationship with Sasuke, but…”

Sakura’s eyes grew even wider as his words registered in her mind, and she blushed furiously as she defended, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Kakashi raised his hands, saying, “I won’t mention anything again. It’s between the both of you.”

Sakura turned her back to him to hide her face, not believing him for a second. He would stick his nose where it didn’t belong for the rest of their lives.

Kakashi continued, “However, I’ve known the both of you for a long time and I just want to say that I am happy for you. It looks good on you both…being in love.”

Sakura stilled her panicked faux-work movements at Kakashi’s words and turned back to face him. Even with half his face concealed by the black mask, Sakura saw the upturn of his lips and the crease of a smile beneath his exposed right-eye. She had never wanted to hug someone so tightly in her life because his words, his approval, meant so much to her. “Thank you,” she whispered, her eyes threatening to water and Kakashi nodded.

But the feeling of happiness eroded when Kakashi finished the rest of what he was trying to say before getting side-tracked. “Seeing all these food pills you’ve made in advance suggests to me that you’re not planning on being here to make more of them. Am I wrong to assume this?”

And Sakura sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose as she dropped her shoulders in silent defeat. “No,” she admitted. “You’re not wrong. I wanted to talk to you. As a leaf shinobi talks to their Hokage.”

Kakashi raised his eyebrow but waited for her to continue.

And she confessed to him her feelings about Gaara’s plans, Sasuke’s valid suggestion for a single-person mission to infiltrate the organization, her own plans to deal with the situation, along with the details of Mako’s information, and her carefully constructed counterplans. She told Kakashi everything she planned to do and exactly how she would do it.

Kakashi listened with a grim face, simultaneously intrigued, and sighing at each step of Sakura’s points of reasoning. When she finally finished, Kakashi stared down at his feet for a moment before lifting his eyes to her. “As your Sensei, I want to say no. To put the responsibility on Gaara as he suggested. It’s too dangerous to do this alone.”

Sakura nodded. She was aware of this, had prepared herself for this.

“The boys won’t hear of it,” Kakashi pointed out, “they’ll insist on joining you.”

“I don’t plan on telling them,” Sakura confessed. “I’ll leave immediately. When they learn of it, I’ll need you to convince them to stay behind. And persuade Gaara, too. Strategically, it is the safest route for everyone.”

Kakashi sighed. “I don’t foresee this part of your plan going well. Even the Kazekage won’t be pleased that you’ve gone against the plan. He feels responsible.”

“Do what you must. Play the Hokage card if you have to. Isn’t that your favorite?” she smiled teasingly.

Kakashi looked affronted at her statement and Sakura laughed good-naturedly despite the stressful topic.

“Do I have your official permission, then?” she asked.

“As your Hokage, I say go. Bring them to the light or bring them down, whichever of the two options prevents them from threatening your life again. Are you sure that you’re ready?”

“I was ready the very moment they laid their hands on Isao. It’s my turn to protect the ones I love, now.”

Sasuke scowled deeply at Naruto who had just taken his third chakra pill before funneling Kurama’s chakra into his limbs and body once again. “Let’s go again!” he yelled across the sandfield at Sasuke, shaking sweat from his hair like Kiba’s white-furred mutt.

Sasuke sighed, feeling thoroughly exhausted, not having entirely recovered from overexerting himself on chakra pills just days ago. As he watched Naruto take his third dose, Sasuke found himself wishing his blonde companion had been just slightly allergic to the Ashu—just enough where they had an excuse to go back—but of course, Naruto had no reaction; certainly would have saved him from having to walk into the desert and rile himself up with Naruto’s challenges.

There was a part of Sasuke that loved to challenge Naruto, to spar until his limbs were heavy, mottled with bruising, and he could lay on his back that night and feel released from his thoughts—just feel the soreness of his body and the satisfying memories of getting a few ones in on his bijuu friend. But today, Sasuke felt half-in the fight and often found himself tossing distracted glances back toward to the Sand Village.

“Enough Naruto. I think we’ve tested them enough. Let’s head back.��

Powering down, Naruto shouted, “You tired, Sasuke? You’re off your game today.”

And even though Sasuke told himself not to react to Naruto’s goading statement, he still found himself scoffing. “Unlike you loser, I haven’t just been sitting around doing nothing.”

Naruto pointed an annoyed finger in his direction. “Flirting with Sakura doesn’t count!”

Sasuke whipped his head in his friend’s direction and narrowed his deadly purple and red glare at the knucklehead, who was grinning and laughing at Sasuke’s reaction. “You should see your face!”

Sasuke scowled, half-tempted to shoot another fireball in the obnoxious jinchuriki’s direction, but he would need another chakra pill to do so, and Sasuke didn’t want to risk consuming three in a row, despite Sakura’s claim of reduced side-effects. He was completely spent. Anymore and Sasuke might really overdo it and he couldn’t risk being completely bedridden. Not with Sakura’s attackers out there somewhere still organizing a retaliation.

Sasuke struck with his words. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. And I’m NOT tired. Don’t you see the sun setting? We need to head back to meet with the Kazekage.”

Naruto turned to appraise the sun for the first time, and the vibrant red of the sunset cast a crimson glow on their skin and clothes, projecting lengthy shadows of their stooped, heavily-breathing figures on the ruby sand beneath them.

“Alright fine. Just to save your Uchiha pride.” Naruto exclaimed, rolling his purpling jaw and stiff shoulders. “I’ll definitely be stealing some of those pills for future use.”

Sasuke scoffed again and joined his friend as they trudged back through the red-tinted sand at a slower pace, the both of them trying to disguise limping. Naruto even stumbled once in the deep sand and instead of catching himself, he purposefully sprawled out onto his back and Sasuke came to stand over him.

“Don’t make me drag you back,” he hissed threateningly. But Naruto just raised his hand and said, “Five-minute break.”

Sasuke didn’t even argue, grateful for the rest, but he was also simultaneously anxious to be back. Unlike Naruto, he didn’t allow himself to sit. He was afraid he might not be able to get back up.

“You know,” Naruto wheezed between heavy breaths. “I may be oblivious the majority of the time, but not when it comes to you two. Things are different between you, aren’t they?”

Sasuke released a sigh into his hand, not because he was annoyed—although he was very much tempted to disguise it as annoyance—but because the weight of no one knowing and keeping it a secret from Naruto was no longer a burden; he had already guessed it. And so, Sasuke nodded with a confirmatory “hn.”

And then Naruto was grinning, larger than Sasuke had ever seen the knucklehead grin. There was even a tear that slid down the right side of his friend’s sand-dusted cheek as he gazed up into the darkening sky. Naruto covered his eyes to disguise the tears with the crook of his arm as he grinned and whispered, “Finally.”

Sasuke’s first reaction was to insult him for the crying, but he was honestly genuinely affected by this ninja’s emotion, and Sasuke for once in his life wanted to confide in someone who knew Sasuke’s entire history, his past, his everything.

“I’m afraid.” Sasuke confessed. “How do you love someone without spending every waking second worrying about them?”

Naruto sat up at that, leaning on one elbow as his body rotated in Sasuke’s direction. “You’re still concerned that something will happen to her?”

Sasuke just nodded again, giving voice to one of his inner-most thoughts. “Yes. Because of me. Because of who I am.”

“Haven’t you already realized that Sakura is going to be a target because of who she is? Look at the current situation. She’s a medic ninja out there changing the world and one of the most capable shinobi we know. If you’re going to be with anyone, Sasuke, Sakura is the only one who can handle all that come with it.”

Sasuke found himself nodding because he had realized this recently. Everything Naruto just said, Sasuke had thought himself. He could now fully appreciate the fact that Sakura’s life would be threatened regardless of her association with him. But he needed to hear someone say it, the confirmation he was looking for from the universe that set his heart at ease.

“If anything,” Naruto began, standing and dusting the sand from his clothes. “Her association with all of us keeps her protected.”

Sasuke raised a brow in confusion, but Naruto continued. “She may be hunted for her connection to us: the Kazekage’s student, the jinchuriki’s friend, and the last surviving Uchiha’s…” he trailed off, and Sasuke narrowed his eyes dangerously, daring him to say the word. But Naruto chose to finish that sentence with,”partner” and Sasuke found that he and Sakura had even referred to one other as such, so the word felt appropriate.

“But,” Naruto continued, “her particular connections to us protect her, too. Who’s going to risk the wrath of us in order to get to her?”

“This damn anti-peace organization,” Sasuke answered, immediately finding a hole in Naruto’s explanation. He wanted to mention Kido, that madman who had tried to use Sakura to get his sharingan, but Sasuke decided against that one.

Naruto waved away that answer, stating, “Tanigakure was neutral in the war. If this organization truly originates there, they didn’t witness our abilities. There will always be instances that Sakura is targeted, but we will remind them every time who she is and who she belongs to.”

“If she doesn’t remind them herself, first.” Sasuke added.

“Exactly,” Naruto agreed, clapping Sasuke on the shoulder.

Kakashi and Shikamaru were the only two waiting in the Kazekage’s office when Gaara and his two accompanying siblings entered. Kakashi and Shikamaru glanced between one another tensely, aware of the news they would soon share with the Kazekage.

Immediately after Sakura’s conversation and departure, Kakashi had found the lazy ninja strolling the streets carefree with Temari. Wrestling him away with the “official business” excuse, Shikamaru had sighed, “This early? I thought I had until this evening. What a drag.” Once Kakashi had confidentially reported Sakura’s plans for an independent mission, Shikamaru had initially argued with him about her decision, stating it was unnecessary for her to take the risk. That was, until Kakashi had told him everything. The plan. The details. Everything Sakura had confessed to Kakashi as a ninja would to their Kazekage.

“I don’t like it,” Shikamaru sighed with his head in his hand, “but it might just work. We need to meet with her and discuss strategy—”

“She’s already left,” Kakashi interrupted and Shikamaru dropped his hands from his face in shock.

“Already?!”

“Leaving immediately was imperative,” Kakashi explained and by the look on Shikamaru’s face, he had already made the connection that it had to do with the other two members of Team 7. Kakashi continued with: “We can send her your advice by hawk.”

Shikamaru groaned, “Telling Naruto and Sasuke is going to be such a drag.”

That was definitely going to be a mountain that Kakashi was not looking forward to. But before facing that mountain, he had a bridge to cross, and that bridge was none other than telling the Kazekage he had made a decision as the Hokage despite the Kazekage’s careful planning.

As the Kazekage sat cordially behind his desk, ready to scheme and discuss tactics, Kakashi sat across from him, grateful that Gaara was usually a level-headed and understanding leader and was typically easy to work with. But just before Kakashi could blurt out Sakura’s plan, a blue-haired sand shinobi entered the room, pushing a rather drab-looking ninja medic whom Kakashi instantly recognized as the man responsible for betraying Sakura to a group of vigilantes. Kakashi raised a curious eyebrow at Mako’s sudden presence, and Kakashi assumed it had something to do with information garnished from his interrogation.

“The prisoner who keeps asking for you, Lord Kazekage,” the ninja stated respectfully as he pushed Mako to his knees on the floor before Gaara who seemed slightly annoyed with his unexpected appearance.

“Yes, thank you.” The Kazekage gestured for the shinobi to leave.

Mako strained his arms against a pair of sand shackles and Kakashi noticed for the first time that the former Sunagakure medic was trying to speak past a gag of sand as it rained from his mouth. Not only was he struggling to speak, but Mako was glancing around the room into each of their faces and Kakashi witnessed the medic’s eyes widen in alarm, a panicked look Kakashi had become very familiar with from his time as a shinobi: fear.

“Excuse the interruption,” Gaara pardoned and Shikamaru and Kakashi were both a little too eager in shaking their hands in dismissal, both of them more than happy for a delay in delivering their news.

“Make it quick,” Gaara said emotionlessly, snapping his fingers to disintegrate the manacles and gag from his mouth. “What is it you want?”

Mako choked on some of the remnants of grit on his tongue and he wiped furiously from his mouth. Finally, Mako began to breath evenly, blurting, “She—” he choked again. “You have to stop her.”

“Stop who?” The Kazekage interrogated, a furrowed brow of confusion passing across Gaara’s usual emotionless expressions.

Kakashi’s stomach dropped when Mako cried out, “Sakura! She left the prison this morning, asking for information. I got the impression that she was going to go looking for the enemy on her own! You can’t let her—”

Gaara silenced the noisy vomit of words spilling out of Mako’s mouth with a raised hand. He turned to Kakashi and raised an eyebrow. “Where is Sakura?” the sand-wielder questioned. “Why exactly is she not here right now?”

Kakashi rubbed his neck half-humoredly. “Well, about that,” he began and he heard Shikamaru sigh at his right. And so Kakashi found himself explaining the current situation, at which Gaara’s eye grew wide in surprise. Just as Sakura had explained to him, and Kakashi had relayed to Shikamaru, the Hokage now recounted a censored version of Sakura’s goals (he wasn’t naïve enough to reveal anything essential in Mako’s presence).

Even Temari and Kankuro exchanged worried glances between one another as Kakashi reported, and Gaara placed his fisted hand on his mouth to think.

“I had thought we were on the same page, her and I.” Gaara voiced. “If she goes into Tanigakure, discretion is a must. Are you sure she can handle this without our help?”

Kakashi nodded. “If anyone can do this, she can.” Kakashi was relieved to see him nod curtly before whispering an instruction silently to Kankuro, who dashed quickly from the room, sending a small hateful glare in Mako’s direction as he exited.

Mako took turns exasperatedly gaping between all of them. “You are all too confident.” Mako seethed. “I should have just kept my mouth shut. She hasn’t been on the battlefield since the war. She’s too inexperienced for the numbers, especially going alone.”

“Why are you working so hard to prevent her from going? Are you disappointed that her plan might not work?” Shikamaru drawled, the annoyed tone very much like his character. “She handled your team well enough.”

Mako laughed derisively. “Of course, her plan won’t work! She said she just wants to talk to them! You’re sending their target, a martyr in the name of mental health, into a nest designed for her death!”

“Then tell us what you know.” Gaara’s rasping voice sounded and Kakashi witnessed Mako tense at the legendary jinchuriki’s question. “You’ve chosen a second life here, correct? In exchange for your information, I’ll offer you protection as long as you reside here.”

Mako’s eyes widened at the offer and then he sighed; Kakashi saw the internal struggle still within his eyes as if the young man truly was trying to recall everything he could remember. “I’ll tell you what I told her,” the prisoner exhaled as he rubbed his sore blistered wrists. “I don’t know much. I didn’t get that far in, but I will tell you everything I do know.”

“Better make that quick,” Kakashi announced, walking to one of the windows across the room. The descending sunlight illuminated the sand ground in orange, striped by the shadows of all the buildings within the village, and two smaller shadows shuffled their way slowly towards the Kazekage’s tower.

“You’re late,” Shikamaru drawled when Sasuke practically hauled Naruto’s limp body through the door of the Kazekage’s office. Stupid idiot had walked the entire way back, but the stairs, the stairs, had been too much for him. Sasuke practically dropped him on his back to the floor.

“Coming from you, Shikamaru?” Naruto laughed, pointing an accusing finger and upside-down jeer at the lazy Hokage’s assistant. “You and Kakashi Sensei are always late to everything.”

“It’s Lord Hokage, Naruto…” Kakashi corrected, covering his eyes with his hand, and Sasuke thought he looked like a parent who was embarrassed of his two humiliating children.

“You can blame Naruto,” Sasuke stated bluntly as he side-stepped Naruto, already feigning disinterest in the present company. That was until his narrowed eyes met an unlikely visitor that Sasuke would have rather never seen again. Mako sat with his hands bound and mouth gagged with what appeared to be whirring sand. His silent figure observed Sasuke, blatantly staring at him in forced silence, and Sasuke could have kicked in his teeth. Sasuke didn’t question Mako’s presence too much; Gaara probably had him brought from the cells to testify for insider information.

Moving along with a threatening glare in Mako’s direction, the Uchiha positioned himself casually against the wall the farthest away from everyone and instantly became aware that Sakura had not made it to the Kazekage’s office, yet. Sasuke mentally scolded his pink-haired teammate for her overachieving work ethic, and that kernel of uneasiness from earlier that came from Sakura’s absence was back again. Maybe he should go and retrieve her.

“Were the chakra pills effective?” Kakashi suddenly inquired, and Naruto enthusiastically answered as he sat upright once more, crossing his legs and arms simultaneously; the very same squat he often took as a genin.

“Yes! I took four in a row!” he praised. “Wish she could improve that terrible taste though,” he mumbled lowly to himself, taking a dramatic swipe at his tongue with the pad of his right thumb and then inspecting it for a residue. Sasuke wanted to roll his eyes.

As Naruto rambled on about the effects that he personally experienced from the new food pills, explaining that the results and consequences were as expected, but less serious, and how it took much longer to get there, Shikamaru laughed to himself and shook his head in disbelief. This laugh pricked Sasuke’s ears and his attention switched to Kakashi, and Sasuke witnessed the Hokage and Kazekage exchange a quiet look, the type of glance that was charged with a silent conversation. Sasuke then turned to find Mako’s heavy gaze on him, staring directly into his eyes as if he no longer feared them. The Uchiha narrowed his eyes at the man, trying his best to not let the behavior provoke him in this uncomfortable atmosphere. God, Sasuke was tired of this meeting already.

“Where is Sakura, by the way?” Naruto glanced around, the first to address her absence since they had arrived. It may have been the only time today Sasuke wasn’t annoyed at the blonde idiot.

Naruto’s question was interrupted and ignored when the puppet-wielding ninja appeared through the entrance, signaled Gaara with a nod, and the Kazekage announced, “All right then, let’s get started.”

Sasuke had rarely felt so skeptical in his life as he did now when the sand-wielder engulfed the room with sand, creating a soundproof barrier that Sasuke had witnessed him do several times. It hardened within seconds, encasing them all in one un-impenetrable room. Sasuke glanced at Naruto as his question was skipped over, and Sasuke noticed that the knucklehead, too, had a confused frown on his face. And Sasuke suddenly had a gut-wrenching feeling, because it was obvious that if Gaara was sealing the room already, it was because everyone who was expected to be there, already was. Which meant that Sakura wasn’t coming.

And Sasuke’s gaze suddenly locked on the sand-muffled Mako, whose eyes still bore into the Uchiha’s as if he had been trying to communicate with him all along—eyes that had been so cautious to meet the Sharingan and Rinnegan before, but now volunteered themselves for Sasuke’s inspection. And as it finally clicked in Sasuke’s brain, he called on his reduced supply of chakra and his eyes instantly morphed into the deadly purple and red.

Mako slumped forward as Sasuke plowed into the ninja’s memories, frantically searching for Sakura’s face, reversing time so quickly that he struck through Mako’s memories like electricity, faster than the streaks of lightning of his chidori. Finally, his charged consciousness of his lightning style chakra illuminated the memories containing her. Finally, Sasuke witnessed her sitting before Mako’s cell, eye-to-eye on the other side of the bars crafted from sand. Sasuke paused and played out her questions to Mako:

Where is the heart of your organization?

Are they based in Tanigakure?

How many members?

When Sasuke stumbled through the rest of their conversation, hearing Mako ask Sakura to take him with her to help her with her plan, and then experiencing Mako’s panic at realizing that Sakura planned to go alone, Sasuke felt the same fear again. That same fear he had felt many times in the past, and now found himself feeling again. Everything suddenly made dreadful sense: Gaara surrounding the room with sand—an action that Sasuke had misunderstood to be sound-proofing, the exchanged glances, and even Sakura asking he and Naruto to test the food pills so they would both be too physically drained to pursue her. Damn it. Sasuke felt like a fool; he felt betrayed, afraid, and so cross with everyone for their part in Salura’s self-sacrificing mission.

Too late, a veil of sand came before Mako’s eyes, the sand creating an impassable window to stop Sasuke’s genjutsu. But Sasuke had already learned what he needed to know and he withdrew from Mako’s head like a snake that had bitten him. Mako gasped from the shock of it and the entire room turned to watch the medic slump forward onto the ground, not having witnessed the silent exchange, but realizing something had just happened.

Gaara’s efforts to stop the genjutstu said a lot to Sasuke about how the Kazekage wanted to handle this confrontation: slowly, easily, and as emotionless as possible. But as Sasuke met the Kazekage’s eyes and Sasuke didn’t retract his emotional prowess, everyone in the room suddenly realized that Sasuke had discovered their closely guarded secret, and the Uchiha didn’t plan on calmly playing along with their plans.

“Naruto,” Sasuke drawled, his voice as low and heavy as the rumble that resounded when the ground shook on a war-torn battlefield. His next words had sharpened to accusatory ice. “Sakura’s not coming. She left Sunagakure on her own.”

Naruto shot up from the ground as if he hadn’t just crawled his way up the steps moments ago. “What?” he questioned the others, his gaze coming to rest on Kakashi who was putting a hand up already in an attempt to calm the Uzumaki.

“Why don’t you both sit down, so I can explain the situation to you—” their Sensei began, but his words only registered in Naruto’s head as a confirmation of Sasuke’s sudden declaration.

“WHAT?!” Naruto screeched, pointing a finger at all of them. “You let her go by herself? To do what? Fight? ALONE!?”

Sasuke’s immediate desire was to jump through space and time, directly through the portal of his choosing, bypassing everything altogether: the explanations, the defensive behavior, the justification of Sakura’s choices. But he was drained, just as Sakura had planned, damn her, and that only left Sasuke able to move to the door, instead. When he found the sand thickening around it, he turned and flashed his red and purple glare at Gaara.

“Even your sand will burn in the fires of Amaterasu,” Sasuke threatened dangerously. “You can’t hold me here.”

In the next moment, Kakashi had his hand on Sasuke’s shoulder and the Uchiha turned his glare back on him. “This is her plan, Sasuke. A covert operation with one person is discreet. She can handle this. Hear us out.”

Sasuke sucked in a sharp breath at the words that just came out of Kakashi’s mouth, the very words Sasuke had used to try and persuade Sakura to let him handle the situation himself. Sakura had listened, told Sasuke it was irrational, but had really gone and decided to take his idea and do it herself. His hand found his painful eyes. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. And they had agreed. Kakashi had agreed. Sasuke was so furious at himself for giving her the idea, but not as enraged at the Hokage for sending her.

“You think she can kill them?” he suddenly hissed in Kakashi’s face. “I watched her spare the life of that bastard who betrayed her,” Sasuke spat in Mako’s unconscious direction. “I’ve watched her spare the life of the monster who almost took the use of her arm away. There are countless others.”

“She killed one of them,” Shikamaru defended, “because it became necessary.” And Sasuke hated the strategist ninja once again, for his entitlement to a say. He didn’t know her. None of them knew Sakura the way that her own teammates did, including Sasuke, himself.

“She only killed the one who hurt that kid,” Sasuke retorted, cursing his own damn depleted state of chakra that was forcing him to sit and reason with these idiots. “None of the ones who touched her suffered any sort of consequence.”

“How many times?” Kakashi asked lowly, but loud enough for them all to hear. “How many times must she prove herself to you, Sasuke?”

Sasuke gritted his teeth in frustration, his blood pulsing in his head from the chakra-depletion induced headache forming there. The truth was, that this wasn’t an issue to him anymore. He believed in her abilities. He had witnessed them, himself. And as he had explained to Sakura as he had wrapped his arms around her in the moonlight of last night, his faith in her didn’t change the fact that Sasuke would worry. That Sasuke would go after her. Every. Single. Time. Why? Because he loved Sakura, and a man in love with someone didn’t need an excuse to make sure she never faced anything alone, not as Sasuke had for years. Sakura’s enemies were his enemies. Her battles, his battles. All wars, theirs.

“Tell us where she’s gone, Kakashi!” Naruto interrupted, derailing both Sasuke’s thoughts and their sensei’s attempt to convince him completely. “Sakura is our teammate. I don’t care what her plan is! We fight as a team!”

Sasuke saw it in their faces, the wavering. Naruto always had that effect on people when he spoke, altering their thinking and changing their minds, easily.

Kakashi remained on course, however. “You can’t follow her, Naruto. Everyone in the shinobi world knows who you are. They would recognize you instantly. Remember what I said earlier? Leaf shinobi can’t enter into Tanigakure without consequence. It’s neutral. You’ll be starting something—”

“And the world doesn’t know Sakura?!” Naruto shouted in disbelief. “She’s just as recognizable as any of us! Is just as important to the Leaf!”

“Sakura has many different strengths she can draw from,” Kakashi continued. “She doesn’t have to rely on a ninjutsu that could give her away. Not like your Rasengan, beast modes, sage art, and more. She has another plan.”

Naruto began to protest again, but Sasuke interjected. “Fine, Naruto can stay here.”

“WHAT?!” his friend screeched, rounding on him instantly, but Sasuke ignored him.

“The idea was mine originally,” Sasuke explained to Kakashi. “Sakura just stole it. I will go and I will be as discreet as I have for the last couple of years on Konoha’s behalf.”

Kakashi sighed. “Sasuke, you’re involvement is not a good idea. You have your own mission.”

And as Kakashi began to deny him once more, Sasuke felt a sense of dread and panic as more time was slipping away from him. Each minute that passed, took Sakura further away from them and toward those who wanted to kill her.

Desperation wasn’t like Sasuke and he had never resorted to begging before, always being able to rely on his strength and jutsu to carry him through life, taking what he wanted, doing as he pleased, and needing permission from few. But he was growing more and more irate and more and more frantic, and so he risked being vulnerable in front of all these ninja who had often judged him.

“If I have to watch someone who I love die, sacrificing themselves for the sake of the Leaf Village, again, the person who I am now won’t survive it. What’s left of the shinobi world will either fall to the Otsusuki race in my absence, or it will fall to the person I will become.”

He watched the fear flash across each of their faces as Sasuke’s words registered throughout the room. Sasuke had been too young to help his brother bear the weight of such terrible orders from his village, but Sasuke wouldn’t sit by and do nothing when Sakura was given such a mission.

“Is that a threat, Uchiha?” Gaara grumbled and Sasuke felt the very ground, the entire sand-constructed village, shift in response to the Kazekage’s wrath. Sasuke felt no fear. He didn’t fear such things anymore.

“Sasuke,” Naruto whispered as his friend placed a supportive palm on his shoulder, but Sasuke shrugged it off and stepped up to Kakashi, so close that Sasuke could see the red and purple of his own gaze in Kakashi’s irises.

“That will be its fate if you keep me here and she dies, Kakashi. Don’t make the wrong choice.”

He saw it in Kakashi’s face. The realization that Sasuke was more dangerous to Konoha than any repercussions from Tanigakure, or any unnamed organization. Sasuke was also essential because he was the only one who could use the Rinnegan to get an edge on the Otsusuki race. He watched the risks shift in the Hokage’s mind as he weighed this new danger to the Leaf. And so Kakashi didn’t stop him. The sand rained down around him. They let him go.

Sasuke fisted the pink hair that had been cut and placed upon a note on the foot of his bed. He had almost missed it in the darkness, but the moon as always, caught Sakura’s hair in a way that nothing else could. The sight of her slashed hair, a pre-battle ritual of Sakura’s, instantly caught his eye and it panicked the Uchiha even more; he wished he would have returned to their shared room earlier in the day, because Sasuke would have realized what exactly Sakura had intended to do, and he could just have avoided the Kage meeting all together and gone straight after her.

He had returned now to make sure Sakura wasn’t there waiting for him. Sasuke knew better, but he had still hoped. All their conversations about partnership, communication and goodbyes, and all their small promises to one another these past couple of months had given him that hope. But it was all nothing, now. Empty words because none of it prevented her from leaving him. Sasuke Uchiha had been left behind. And for the first time, he realized just how lonely and horrendously painful it was to be left behind.

In the darkness, the hair fell from his hands onto the bed like Sasuke’s slashed headband had once descended from his forehead. He snatched the note from the bed and separated the two pages with the pad of his thumb. Sasuke activated his Sharingan in the dark and forced himself to read it slowly and carefully, instead of skipping over lines in his urgency.

Sasuke, it read.

Sasuke,

I am sorry. If you have found this letter, know that I write it because we promised one another a goodbye. This is my goodbye, for now. I thought a lot about your suggestion on how to handle this situation, and I decided to do this on my own, since I was going to be involved regardless. I have thought it through, put extensive research into how I will achieve my goal, and decided a solo mission was the best option after all. Forgive me for being a distraction to you and I hope that the time apart will give us ‘clear heads’ as you suggested last night. Focus on your mission and I will focus on mine. Keep Naruto from following. He can be impulsive, and I need to do this alone. If you don’t find this until later, and I do not return, know that I love you. You have always been worthy of that love, even the darkest version of you. Save the shinobi world and remember who you are.

She did not sign it. As soon as his eyes scanned the last line of pen scrawl, Sasuke was half-tempted to crumble it in his hand. But his eyes found the most important words on the page: I love you…you have always been worthy of that love…remember who you are. And Sasuke realized he needed this letter as much as he needed chakra or oxygen. Because if she died, Sasuke would have to stare at it every day for the rest of his lonely existence and let it be the tether that kept him from falling apart.

#sasuke and sakura #sasusaku #approaching sun #approachingsun #sasukeshinden #Sasuke Uchiha #sasuke retsuden #Sakura Haruno #sakura uchiha #sakura hiden #ssfanfiction #sasusakufanfiction #Naruto Shippuden #naruto fanfiction #naruto

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anerdinallherglory · 11 months

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AS 34 in the works ✍🏼

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New Sasuke Retsuden illustrations by Shingo Kimura

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anerdinallherglory · 1 year

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Approaching Sun (33)

Author’s Note: Hello everyone! All this SasuSaku content we’ve been blessed with over the last couple of months had my heart hungry for more, so I got to typing! As always, sorry for the delay, but I hope this chapter is worth the wait. To all my readers who have been with me from the beginning, do not lose hope for me! And new readers, welcome to a world of waiting on me to get my crap together. Thanks again for the support!

Pairing: SasuSaku

Previous Chapters: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32

Chapter 33: Interrogations

Watching her friends exit through the doorway of the Kazekage’s office, Sakura couldn’t help but feel relieved as the rest of Team 7 and Shikamaru trailed behind Sasuke and Kankuro to the Sand Village Prison. Sakura’s cheeks were still a little red, taken by surprise at Sasuke’s unexpected appearance just now. Sakura mentally berated herself for the flushed reaction, especially after rehearsing in her head all morning how she would come off much more composed during their reunion after the whole kissing thing last night. She had matured a lot from her Genin days, and was usually very collected around her peers now (except Naruto, maybe, who sometimes brough out her temper), but seeing Sasuke assessing her own reaction with a certain white-haired sensei’s watchful, knowing eye had Sakura acting like her schoolgirl self again. She cringed at her own embarrassed behavior.

Suddenly, the Kazekage’s voice brought her back to the matter at hand. “Even though it is not ideal, there’s some logic behind Shikamaru’s suggestion.”

Sakura nodded, remembering her friend’s proposition regarding the anti-peace group targeting Sakura for her mental health-centered endeavors. Shikamaru had offered a solution to their dilemma on finding the rest of the group’s members, but it involved using Sakura as a lure for her enemies. It’s not that Sakura was opposed to the idea; she wasn’t worried in the slightest, actually. She was just annoyed with the problem at hand. She was making progress here in the Sand with the mental health clinic and she was reluctant to put that on hold while she dealt with these war-focused sociopaths. At least, she told herself that if she were to draw them out, she wouldn’t have to go looking for them in Tanigakure, but she had another concern regarding that.

She voiced this concern to Gaara, saying, “Drawing such a crowd into your village might pose a risk to the citizens here.” He shook his head thoughtfully at that, and Sakura wondered why Gaara might be willing to take such a risk all in the name of her safety. If anything, it would be more appropriate for Konoha to take such an action since she was a Leaf Shinobi, after all. Or was it really her safety that inspired Gaara to do so?

“They were able to infiltrate here through the clinic which I take personal responsibility for. It’s not in my nature to overlook such an offense so easily and I believe I owe this to you as an apology for failing to keep you safe.” Gaara’s rasping voice faded away as he assessed her reaction and Sakura saw a faint ember of emotion in his typical stoic eyes that accompanied the apology. She found herself blushing for the second time as she reassured him that everything was fine and that it was her fault for leading them here from Tanigakure in the first place.

When she brought up Tanigakure, Gaara interjected, “If we settle the matter within my country, we would be sparing Tanikagure from getting involved more than they already have. They have not taken too kindly to our investigative presence the last twenty-four hours. I thought that involving Konoha would make it seem more diplomatic, but Shikamaru’s suggestion might be best. We don’t want another situation on our hands where a small country is caught between two nations.”

Sakura nodded again at the Kazekage’s rationale, acknowledging the truth and importance of his words. ��I’m willing to do anything I can to help,” she finally declared, already wondering how she would manage to entice them here.

“Let’s think it over more carefully and discuss it more tomorrow,” he said, relaxing into the chair behind his desk. “We have discovered a couple of leads that we need to explore and thinking of a plan will take some time. Meanwhile, I’d like to ask your opinion on something.”

“Okay,” Sakura responded, making to sit in the chair Gaara indicated with his hand across from the desk. A part of her wanted to grill the Kazekage for more details about the group in Tanigakure, so she could know the ins and outs about those who wanted to target her, but Sakura also believed that the shadow-being she had gone up against was most likely the scariest of them all to face, so she wasn’t too worried about the details. And if Gaara didn’t offer her more information than that, then he was probably holding back for official related reasons. So, she let it go.

“We also talked about a mental health treatment for adults as well as children. Should we begin with those you’ve captured and brought to me?”

Sakura blinked at such a statement as she recalled her conversation with the Kazekage as they strolled together along the sun-lit avenues of sand toward the village’s entrance a few days ago. “It has been an inaccuracy to think that only children could suffer,” Sakura had said to Gaara, “What if we included adults in our mental health program, too?” Gaara must have taken the proposition very seriously at the time, considering how quickly he was choosing to take action toward such a goal.

Sakura couldn’t help but hesitate in response to Gaara’s sudden proposition. Could someone like her really get through to those people, the people she had gone toe to toe with in the desert—the very people who had set out to kill her for the sole reason of her mental health efforts? She wasn’t sure.

“I’ll be there,” came the hoarse reassurance of the sand wielding Kage before her. Seeds of hope suddenly embedded themselves within her heart of doubt. “I’ll help you start.”

Sakura nodded, offering the Kazekage a smile of gratitude. Just before they had viewed the sunset together, Sakura had meant the words she had told Gaara in response to the question of who would be best to help people in need: “Like you, Lord Kazekage.” Even though Sakura silently pondered how Gaara had the availability to help her begin this process, Gaara had the same noble way as Naruto of making others believe in him.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Sasuke sneered beyond Naruto’s shoulder as his friend knelt before the sand encased jail cell containing one of Sakura’s attackers. They had separated him from the other two, all of whom Sasuke had transported via Kaguya’s dimensions back into the Sand Village. Sasuke knew Naruto’s hands itched in the same way his did as they both witnessed Mako’s silent interrogation. The medic revealed very little as Suna’s renowned questioner sat before him just on the other side of the bars, ticking off questions one by one.

“How did you manage to subdue the medical kunoichi known as Sakura Haruno?” the investigator asked without skipping a beat.

“I drugged her. Isn’t that already obvious?” came Mako’s tort and honest reply. It was as good enough as any confession as far as Sasuke was concerned, so what was the point of continuing this charade of a civil investigation? Sasuke knew it was morally wrong to skip necessary processes and jump straight to the physical force required to extract the information he wanted, but it was hard to kick old habits of thinking.

The questioning continued. “You expect us to believe that you were able to drug an elite medical ninja without assistance? Who helped you sedate her and what was the method used?”

Mako let out a small derisive laugh that had the Uchiha narrowing his eyes lethally in the traitor’s direction. “You’re overestimating her. All I did was pretend to be her colleague and slip something into her drink. Someone who desperately wants a friend isn’t difficult to deceive.”

Mako’s declaration did two things for Sasuke. First, it was like a heavy stone dropped in Sasuke’s heart, for he felt so terribly guilty about his and Sakura’s falling-out immediately post-kiss in the medicine preparation room two nights ago. Had Sasuke left her feeling so eager for kindness that she had dropped her guard? These same words also ignited a rage so savage within the Uchiha that he felt like stepping through a portal, just to stand on the other side of these bars, inches away from the man who had the audacity to say that about Sakura.

Sasuke smirked when Naruto’s angry voice echoed throughout the jail from his place beside the Uchiha: “Drugging Sakura was that last thing you’ll ever do, you BASTARD!” Sasuke was somewhat relieved that his friend was getting worked up, too, and had actually spoken Sasuke’s mind for him.

“Calm down, Naruto,” Kakashi stated predictably, and Sasuke wanted to roll his eyes at his sensei’s typical levelheaded lecturing. “You too, Sasuke,” Kakashi ordered next, placing hands on both of their shoulders. “The last thing we need is for either of you to get involved in this personally.” Sasuke wanted to flash his sensei an affronted look for even comparing him to his loser best friend or suggesting that he was getting angry on Sakura’s behalf, but Sasuke dropped the pretense. What was the point of pretending he wasn’t just as pissed as Naruto? The Uchiha’s annoyance was visibly displayed on his face in colors of red and purple. He so desperately wished Mako would turn in his direction, catch his sharingan and spiral into the memory-searching genjutsu Sasuke had prepared for him. He would find the answers without all this unnecessary time wasting. But Sasuke knew that Mako knew better than to search him out; he had witnessed what Sasuke had done with Satou in the hospital room to learn just what he needed to know about Isao, the child Sakura cared for.

Again, Naruto voiced both their thoughts by arguing, “We are already personally involved. He drugged our teammate. She’s one of us! The least we should do is teach this guy a lesson.”

“Hn,” Sasuke breathed in agreement, surprising himself for allowing the sound to reveal his own private thinking. When Kakashi, Shikamaru, and Naruto looked over at him in surprise, Sasuke decided to further add: “we need to find out where the other ninja of this group are.”

“It appears to me that Sakura accomplished that herself, Naruto,” Shikamaru chimed in, pointing out the wounds still not fully healed on the young traitorous medic. “We’ll get the information soon enough.”

After the interrogator jotted down a few private notes on the table between him and Mako, the green-haired man pushed the round frames of his glasses back up the bridge of his nose as he made eye contact with Mako again. “Where is the rest of your group?”

“There isn’t any more. You’ve apprehended all who were a part of it,” Mako replied immediately.

Then the green-haired investigator sighed, pulling his glasses off in irritability. “I despise liars. I have methods of making you talk. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have this job. But the Kazekage—he is the only thing between you and my preferred methods of interrogation.”

Why would the Kazekage hold back against this scum, Sasuke thought silently to himself. This fake had infiltrated Gaara’s village who knows how long ago, targeted the mental health clinic Sakura had helped establish here, posed as a caring and concerned medic, earned everyone’s trust, and betrayed Sakura at just the right time.

“I’m not lying,” Mako seethed.

The green-haired man, who Sasuke grew to like more and more as he questioned Mako, narrowed his eyes and leaned across the table and said, “I’ll let you in on a secret. Do you really think that the Kazekage does not have all the answers to these questions? Why then, do you think I’m wasting my time questioning you? Think really hard, I’m sure you’re capable of figuring it out.”

And with that whispered revelation, Sasuke couldn’t help but review Kankuro’s words from yesterday in his mind: “With unmentionable methods, we were able to find out who their target was.” Did this mean that Gaara already knew how many were in the group from an interrogation that Gaara had conducted back in Tanigakure?

Naruto snickered loudly at the divulgement of the Kazekage’s secret, interrupting Sasuke’s thoughts, and Sasuke noticed that Mako couldn’t help but locate the blonde-haired jinchuriki who observed him. Mako’s face turned slightly white as he realized for the first time who exactly had been making so much noise outside his cell. Sasuke noted his fear of Naruto as a good thing and smirked when Mako made a point of dropping his gaze and locating Sasuke’s figure next, eyes trained solely on his legs. Mako’s fear of him was even better.

“Have you figured it out yet?” the interrogator asked, laughter in the question.

Mako’s eyes widened suddenly, not because he had solved anything, but because the Kazekage was suddenly there in the flesh, standing beside the green-haired ninja with a palm on his shoulder. “Enough, Kizumo. Let’s stop here.”

Glancing back at the Kazekage, the green-haired ninja sighed and let the pen he was holding drop and roll across the notepad on the table in frustration at having his job cut short.

“We will take care of this one,” the Kazekage rasped, gesturing to newly formed entrance at the back of the sand-bodied cell. “Go and see what you can learn from the shade. Don’t touch him but do what you need to do.”

A wicked smile replaced the disappointed frown on Kizumo’s face. “I won’t have to touch him, Lord Kazekage.” And with that, he exited hurriedly through the hole in the wall that Gaara had formed.

But Sasuke was hung up on the word Gaara had used at the beginning of his command to Kizumo: We? We will take care of this one?

Just as Sasuke had that thought, his stomach dropped when his pink-haired teammate entered the cell through the hole as well, Gaara gesturing for her to take the seat across from Mako that Kizumo had just vacated.

Sasuke was certain that the same frown he now wore, not only occupied his own face at seeing Sakura face the man who had betrayed her, but Naruto’s and Kakashi’s as well.

“Punch his face in, Sakura!” Naruto called to her from the other side of the cell, and Sakura turned to find him. She smiled at Naruto, reassuring him that all was okay. She found Sasuke’s multicolored eyes next, lingered on them for half a second, before turning back to Mako.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Sakura shuffled the papers in a yellow file that Gaara had given her to look through before they came to Suna’s prison. The papers contained many details about Mako, his activity within the village, and his alleged backstory. “Every non-Suna born citizen has a special documentation file,” Gaara had relayed casually as they descended the steps into the underground sand-constructed prison, “with information regarding their activity and how they came to be here. It might not be much use since its mostly filled with his lies, but I figured if anyone could discern anything valuable, you might.”

“I’ll try,” Sakura had assured him, flipping through the record carefully as they walked. In truth, the file didn’t contain much out of the ordinary—or what she would expect for Mako. He had come to the village a year ago, claiming to be from a small island asking to join the medic team, claiming to be a part of the elite medic unit in Tanigakure and would like to learn from the medical advancements here. Unsuspicious of an individual hailing from a non-ninja nation, Gaara saw Mako’s knowledge of medicine as an asset and granted his request, offering Mako a place and lodging. His activity was also unremarkable as he spent the last year learning from medical staff Sakura had helped train.

Hisa, unexpectedly, did not have a file. In fact, she had managed to somehow infiltrate the village secretly, and Sakura suspected that Mako had succeeded in smuggling her in. Sakura wasn’t surprised that Gaara addressed this topic with Mako first.

“You smuggled your counterpart inside the village via the medical trade route, am I correct? When receiving medical supplies from Tanigakure, an advanced medical country, she came with and was disguised as someone with a position in the building. Is any of that wrong?” The examination was calm, unthreatening, just as if Gaara had been talking to Kankuro or Temari. The way he phrased the questions revealed that Gaara had already figured this particular scenario out.

Mako kept his eyes down, focusing on the file in Sakura’s hands. She guessed that he was evaluating its thickness carefully, determining just how much information about him and his co-conspirators was already contained within. Would he bothering lying in the Kazekage’s face, Sakura wondered.

“If you’re going to end up killing me, just get on with it,” Mako replied behind clenched teeth, his silence about Hisa revealing Gaara had been correct in his guesswork.

And to Sakura’s surprise, sand began to spiral at Mako’s feet and in just a few seconds, it reached up to form manacles around the imposter’s wrists, jerking them back behind the chair so that he was properly restrained. “If that is your wish,” Gaara responded calmly to Mako’s now wide-eyed expression of fear. “The path of life you have currently chosen will lead to your death anyway.”

Large heaps of sand began to fall from the ceiling around Mako, filling the room rapidly with sand like a tipped upside-down hourglass. Creating an invisible barrier across the cement table between them, Gaara allowed the sand to crash down around the conspirator so that only Mako’s side of the sand-bodied interrogation room began to rise around his feet like water in a cave during high tide. Sakura’s heart felt like it was going to beat out of her chest.

The room buzzed loudly, and sand whipped through Sakura’s hair as the grains were summoned in Mako’s direction. Gaara’s voice was still intense enough to be heard despite his overall composure and the humming of the sand as if this very room was designed to emphasize it. “My sand delights at the blood of others and I’ve killed many before you. Since you have volunteered your life, it eagerly accepts.”

Mako began to shift anxiously as the sand reached his shoulders and he bit his bottom lip in steely resolve to quiet his quickened breathing and accept his fate. Gaara’s slow voice continued, “When someone chooses a life of darkness, a life of hatred and evil, and puts their life on the line for a cause accomplished through darkness, they are only marching towards an inevitable death.”

Sakura glanced over at Gaara in concern as the sand billowed like a wave around Mako’s chin and Mako leaned his head back and strained his neck above it, gasping for the last few breaths of oxygen belonging to him in this world.

“Why so?” Gaara asked, composed and relaxed despite the struggling man before him. “Because you have pit yourself against those who share a stronger vision—one of peace and hope and love. Naturally, the odds will be against you.”

“Stop,” came Mako’s desperate voice at last, sand knocking against the sides of his head. “Please. Stop!”

“Do you choose life?” Gaara asked Mako, and the long-subdued tears began to spill over the rims of his eyelids.

“Yes!” he cried, but the sand did not stop ascending around him. “I said yes! Don’t kill me! MAKE IT STOP!”

“Not good enough. Which life do you choose?” Gaara probed, crossing his arms over his chest in resolve to wait for the answer he wanted.

“A peaceful—" Mako whimpered, sand choking off the words as it filled his throat.

Gaara watched him thrash for just a moment and Sakura tried desperately to hold herself back despite the Kazekage’s hesitation. She had chosen to trust the Kazekage as someone to align herself with for the sake of the lives almost lost to an all-consuming darkness. He wanted to help them just as much as her. These corrupt ninja were not children as Sakura was used to. She would trust Gaara’s judgement.

Finally. Finally, the sand relented, ascending once more into the air to reconstruct the ceiling above the jail cell. And as Mako coughed violently, rubbing sand from his eyes and ears, Gaara made a final statement that made Sakura realize that only Gaara would be the savior of these ninja: “Rather than a life a loneliness, we surround ourselves with evil people. Such a life is worse because you will lose your soul to the hatred within you, no longer caring for the feeling of comradery, and you might as well be dead anyway.”

Mako sat in his chair gasping like beached ocean creature that waited for death on a bed of sand.

“I too, was like you,” Gaara announced, voice softening as he recalled the sand from Mako’s lungs and hair. “Until someone extended a hand in friendship.” Gaara gestured over his shoulder to Naruto who grinned heartily and rubbed the back of his neck shyly at Gaara’s recognition of him.

“Can you take over from here Sakura?” Gaara asked her, and she nodded, watching the Kazekage’s back as he turned in Naruto and Kakashi’s direction. When the sand bars of the cell disintegrated as he passed through them, Sakura once again found herself grateful to be considered a friend of Gaara’s and not an enemy. She had faced him head on once before, and was thankful every day afterward that Naruto had extended that hand of friendship to his fellow jinchuriki.

“Come with me,” Gaara said to the waiting Leaf ninja, “there’s another ninja you need to see. He possesses an ability like yours, Shikamaru.” Kakashi and Shikamaru immediately followed the Kazekage, and Naruto lingered for a moment, offering a hesitant look back at Sakura as he was conflicted at being summoned away from her. The blonde ninja glanced back over to Sasuke who seemed to be content just where he was as he perched himself against the wall just across from Mako’s cell, eyes closed as if he were settling to doze. Naruto rushed to Gaara’s side once he was certain Sasuke planned to stay behind.

When Sakura turned back to Mako, he was rubbing his wrists where Gaara’s sand had bound him. He chose not to look at the pink-haired medic he had betrayed, instead shamefully focusing back on the table between them. He shifted painfully, and Sakura noted for the first time that blood ran in tendrils down to his feet from his previously sustained injuries, injuries Sakura had yet to heal.

Standing, she made her way around to Mako’s back, lifting the material around the stab wound to assess it. Mako hissed in pain as the material lifted from the wound. “What are you doing?” he murmured.

“Healing you fully,” she explained, rolling up the back of his shirt against Mako’s stiffening protest.

“Don’t,” he said weakly as Sakura tugged the shirt the rest of the way up and over his head. “Save your strength. You’ll need it.” She frowned at the wound that now festered from incomplete treatment. At some point in his capture and detainment, Mako had reopened the wound. Sakura had only staunched the bleeding with her chakra immediately after rendering the other two of her enemies unconscious on the desert battlefield, and now the skin puckered with redness and swelling.

“Why is that?” Sakura asked calmly, already predicting his next answer.

“There’s more of them waiting,” he whispered quietly, so that not even Sasuke who indignantly peeked at them under thick eyelashes, could overhear. “They’ll come for you.”

Summoning the green chakra to her fingertips despite his warning, Sakura pressed her fingers to the open rip in Mako’s flesh and he gasped. “Why do you tell me this?” she asked him. “Have you really chosen to seek a new life of peace like you promised the Kazekage? Or was that a lie just to save your own neck?”

“Once they find me, and realize I have betrayed the cause, they’ll kill me anyway,” Mako whispered again. “The Kazekage has shown me mercy, but they will not. I cannot choose a life of peace even if I wish it.”

Sakura frowned, glancing over the top of his dark head of hair to admire Sasuke from a distance. Sasuke had been able to choose peace because he had the support of others. As did Gaara. This meant that they both had friends who were willing to go against the world in order to protect their choices to start over. Mako didn’t have that.

“Why did you join them? Do you really believe that there needs to be hatred and war circulating throughout the ninja world?” Sakura asked him honestly, chakra sputtering and dying as she suddenly ran empty. Her breathing quickened as a headache began to form at her temples. She cursed internally at her low supply of chakra. She needed more rest. She still hadn’t fully recovered from the battle, had used what chakra she had possessed healing Isao this morning, and was also consistently feeding a stream of chakra to her injured hand. The freshly healed wound on Mako’s back was enough to reassure her despite the strain. At least he was restored.

“I needed a place in this world. Their vision made sense to me.”

Sakura nodded, returning to the chair exhaustedly. She closed Mako’s file and said, “You had a place. You have a place.”

His eyebrows raised, as he mentally processed what she was suggesting.

“We need you,” she said to him, emotion thickening her already tired voice. “I need you—by my side in the mental health clinics when I’m here, and running things in my place when I’m not. I’ve never had such a competent partner before.”

Mako stared back at her and Sakura saw the confliction in his eyes. “How can you say that to someone who betrayed you? I drugged you. I had every intention of handing you over to them to do as they wished.”

This was true, and the reality of it twisted in her heart. However, Mako had also refused to let Hisa kill her, insisting that she was too valuable to kill right away.

“Everyone deserves a second chance,” she smiled, making to stand behind the table. “Forgiveness is how we will manage to create a peaceful world.”

Mako looked down at his feet again as Sakura turned back toward the hole in the wall that Gaara had morphed into existence. Her head was throbbing terribly now, and Sakura massaged her eyes.

“Ok,” Mako said to Sakura’s retreating form, and Sakura turned back just before reaching the exit. “If I somehow make it out of this alive, I’ll do it. I’ll help you with the mental health clinics. I’ll help you achieve peace. In return for your forgiveness, I’ll spend the rest of my life making it up to you.”

Sakura blinked at Mako, feeling somewhat comforted by the fact that even though he had betrayed her and did some terrible things, he still had goodness in him. Sakura hadn’t entirely been fooled by Mako because he was still someone worthy of forgiveness. “Deal,” Sakura nodded, taking the last step from his cell and entering a small sand tunnel that would eventually connect her back to the main stairway. As if on cue of her exiting, the tunnel closed itself off behind her, leaving Mako to take the first mental steps toward a new life.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

As soon as the wall had sealed her away from Mako, Sasuke was there, reaching for her as she leaned against the wall to hold her head. Sakura jumped when his hand found her upper arm, surprised at his sudden appearance.

“Sasuke,” she breathed, trying to smile despite the pain. “You shouldn’t be wasting your chakra teleporting carelessly.”

Sasuke scoffed as he forced her to sit against one of the tunnel walls, “You’re one to talk,” he chastised, summoning a little chakra to the palm of his only hand. “Draining the last of your chakra healing lying snakes like that one. How annoying.”

She laughed nonchalantly and Sasuke wrapped his glowing hand around the back of her neck, focusing what healing powers he possessed to the center of her nape, pushing the chakra up into her skull. As Sasuke had watched her with Mako, the Uchiha had detected a drop in her chakra signal and saw her hand reach up to touch her eyes. He had known in that very moment that she had wasted what little chakra she had left on that bastard.

After a second, she pushed against Sasuke’s elbow weekly, signaling him to stop. “That’s plenty.”

Sasuke ignored her, pressing his fingers gently into her skin so she couldn’t remove them by fighting him. “Let me have my way, or we’ll be here longer,” he mimicked, repeating to Sakura her very own words when Sasuke had pushed her hand away from his forehead last night after he had overdosed on chakra pills.

She laughed in response, her voice already beginning to strengthen from the newfound energy. Her damn inhuman strength also returned slightly, because she was suddenly pulling his palm away from her neck and no amount of his strength would be comparable enough to hers to keep it there, no matter how much he might want to.

Sakura didn’t let go of it though as Sasuke expected, but instead grasped it with her own as she, too, used her other hand to gently cup her fingers around the back of Sasuke’s neck. There was no healing or sharing of chakra as he had done for her, and Sasuke realized that Sakura simply just wanted to experience the same sensation Sasuke had felt by touching her there.

Sasuke was thankful for the darkness because the sudden intimacy made him blush and react instinctively. He smoothly pulled at her fingers, pulling her hand down so that the inside of her elbow hung over his neck instead, and he used her arm to help lift her from the ground. Sasuke led her down the dim tunnel that Gaara had apparently fashioned. What a mole Gaara was, Sasuke thought for a second, cutting corners and creating paths through the sand so he could make it from point A to point B in the shortest distance possible.

“Sorry,” Sakura whispered beside him, she too, relishing this apparent excuse of supporting her to be so near to one another. “I know physical contact isn’t really one of your strengths. If I do something that makes you uncomfortable, please tell me.”

Sasuke nodded, not quite sure what he wanted to say to that. Yes, displays of affection would always be…difficult, especially if anyone else was around. But there was a growing part of Sasuke that craved Sakura in ways he didn’t know were within him. Just moments ago, he had watched her lift the back of Mako’s shirt and run her hands along the traitor’s back and Sasuke had never frowned so deeply in his life at seeing her do so. She had performed such an action on countless ninja, including everyone in Team 7 at one point or another, and Sasuke couldn’t understand why such an act now suggested something more sensual. She had healed him on his back before and Sasuke had never been bothered by her touch, but he suddenly couldn’t stop imagining her fingers there. He had never had thoughts like this before, but then again, Sasuke had also never reached for a woman in the dark of a shared room, finding her lips with his mouth. Sasuke had crossed a line that he knew would require self-control from here on out.

“Let’s get you back to the room,” Sasuke stated as he shuffled her more securely against him. “You need rest so that you can recover.”

When they made it back to the inn which was conveniently not too far away from the underground prison, Sasuke opened the door for Sakura and stood within the frame after she entered. Observing her climb into bed and settling within the blankets, Sasuke asked something that had been bothering him ever since it occurred, “What did Mako tell you?”

“About what,” she requested in return for clarification.

“When he told you to save your chakra,” Sasuke prompted, probing his female friend’s mind for information despite her exhaustion. He had to know the details if he were going to keep her safe.

“Oh,” Sakura announced, sitting up on an elbow as she recalled the words. “He said there were more of them out there, the group that was after us in Tanigakure.”

Sasuke nodded, his suspicions confirmed. He had already guessed this, considering he had yet to find someone with the correct size and voice as the ninja he had confronted in the hallway of Tanigakure’s inn after the ninja had made an attempt to get Sakura to answer her door.

“I’m going back to the prison,” Sasuke said suddenly, waiting a moment more in the doorframe for a response.

Knowing him well, Sakura answered the question the Uchiha held on his tongue before he could even speak it. “I’ll be fine. Go.”

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

When Sakura finally woke, it was dark in the room, except for the small ray of light shining in through the window from the crescent moon. Sakura rubbed the back of her stiff neck, not realizing until now that she had slept on it crookedly, her exhaustion apparently dragging her so deep into a sleep that she slept the entire day away.

When she sat up, she started in surprise to see that Sasuke was still awake, sitting on his bed across the room, staring out the window. Sakura instantly recognized the fierce set of his jaw as one of annoyance.

“Sasuke?” Sakura called out to him, “What’s wrong?”

When his eyes landed on hers, he narrowed them, silently contemplating his next words to her. The anger in them made Sakura rise to her feet and go over to him. She sat slowly beside him as he stared at her with an unhappiness that had Sakura’s stomach dropping. “What happened?” Sakura asked again, reaching for his fingers splayed tensely across the bed. He didn’t move them.

“Why did you agree to let Gaara use you as bait to draw out the enemy?” he asked, forcing the words past his tightly set jaw. Sakura had never seen Sasuke upset with her like this and she didn’t know how she was supposed to react. She just returned his angry stare with an even expression, sighing smally as she released his hand.

“It’s the best option we have,” she explained. “I know it’s dangerous, but Gaara thinks—”

“I know what he thinks,” Sasuke interrupted as he stood, pacing over to the window and away from her. “I just spent hours listening to potential plans designed around this mutual decision of yours.”

Sakura swallowed thickly as more of the pieces concerning his frustration came together. “What other alternative is there?” she began, trying to lead him back to the only solution that made the most sense.

“I could go to Tanigakure, myself,” Sasuke suggested. “And intercept them before they made it here. A covert operation with one person wouldn’t involve Konoha and Suna. It would be discreet.”

“You have other business here, Sasuke. Focus on your mission and I’ll worry about this. I don’t want this to distract you—”

“Before,” Sasuke whispered in the dark. “The me before could have done so. But I can’t now. What is the point of my mission to find the Otsutsuki race and eliminate them as a threat when I can’t eradicate a group of ninja set on killing you?”

Sakura’s heart stilled at such words, knowing how difficult it was for Sasuke to admit such a thing to her. Rising, she made her way over to him, tenderly tucking her arms around his sides as she had done many times before, resting her forehead against his back. “I can take care of this, Sasuke. You don’t have to worry.”

There was no scoff or sneer at her words for saying such a ridiculous thing, and instead, Sasuke gripped her fingers at his waist like a lifeline. “I know,” he admitted, turning in her arms to face her.

Sakura’s stomach dropped to her feet when he leaned his forehead against hers in the reflection of the moon. “I don’t doubt your strength,” he whispered. “But if something happened to you, I don’t know who I’d become again.”

“Sasuke,” she breathed, “You don’t have to worry about such things because I’m not going anywhere—not now—not when I can finally do this.”

Carefully, Sakura stood on her tiptoes, closed the distance between their noses, and pecked the scowling Uchiha right on the lips.

A beautiful thing happened next and Sakura locked the image into her heart to last her a lifetime. Sasuke smiled. Actually smiled—just for a moment as he sighed in relief, and then his eyes lingered on her lips in return. His face grew serious again as he did so.

Daringly, Sakura pulled on his hand, and Sasuke followed her to his bed against the wall. He hesitated as she rose onto the bed with her knees, turning so that she faced his still-standing form, and cupped both of his cheeks with her palms. Sakura gazed into his dark eyes that reflected the moon as if they were their very own black and moonlit skies. She could see the struggle within them, so she didn’t take another step, didn’t make another move until Sasuke decided to do what Sakura knew he wanted to.

As she started to loosen her tender hold on him, Sasuke found the nape of her neck with his hand, just as he had in Gaara’s tunnel of sand, and she gasped at the warmth of his fingers. He crashed his mouth against hers, a kiss that was sweltering with need and desire, one so unlike the tender first kisses between them last night. At first, she was genuinely shocked at the emotions Sasuke was communicating through the kiss, and Sakura couldn’t believe her luck. He was kissing her, kissing her as a lover would and she couldn’t believe it. Sakura responded greedily, fastening her own fingers around the back of Sasuke’s neck. She deepened the kiss, responding to his need with a need of her own. Sakura pulled him down to her as their mouths moved against one another until he had no choice but to straddle her knee.

When Sakura’s fingers found their way under the hem of his shirt, Sasuke sucked in a sharp breath and broke away from her mouth long enough to tear the shirt from his skin. He guided her hand slowly back to his spine, holding her eyes with his. “Touch me,” he instructed.

She did as he asked, running her fingers up along his back slowly. She wasn’t so sure if she had just imagined him bite back a moan as he arched his back in response to her fingernails. Was this really happening? How far was he prepared to go with her? At this pace, they would—

“Touch me, too,” Sakura whispered against Sasuke’s teeth when his mouth found hers again. He, too, found the hem of her shirt and pushed it away from the skin above her right hip. Angling them so that they were on their side facing one another, Sasuke slid his fingers around to her back and sighed her name when he felt the dip in her spine.

“I have—” Sakura began to bring up an important factor to the natural progression of events like this, but Sasuke withdrew his hand from her skin and kissed her slowly one last time before pulling away and sitting up on the bed.

“It’s not going to happen,” he declared to the dark.

Sakura couldn’t help but feel the disappointment that suddenly doused the fire in her veins. “Why not?” she asked dejectedly, sitting back up to face him. She reached out longingly and traced the now-exposed clavicle of his chest.

“Think about it more before you decide,” he said, tenderly pulling her fingers away from his skin.

“I’ve given this plenty of thought,” she admitted too hurriedly, and instantly wished she could recant the words at Sasuke’s sudden smirk as he retrieved his shirt from the floor and slipped it over his head. “I mean,” she tried again, retracting back the meaning behind that sentence. “I want this.”

“Let’s keep you alive over the next few days. I don’t want us distracted by this.”

Distracted? Did he really not know that this almost that had happened between them would distract her every waking thought for the next several days? Her mind would recall every second and the longing for more would intensify the distraction. Sakura pouted silently to herself as she treaded back over to her bed across the room. Sasuke didn’t breathe another word and neither did she, because if they spoke or broke the silence, they might find their way back toward one another in the dark and Sakura had already promised to respect his wishes when he felt uncomfortable. Damn her mouth.

#sasusaku #ssfanfiction #sasusakufanfiction #naruto fanfiction #sasuke and sakura #Sasuke Uchiha #sakura uchiha #Sakura Haruno #sakura hiden #sasuke shinden #sasuke retsuden #approaching sun #approachingsun

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