Wilting Blossoms

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Chapter One: Of Risk and Gain
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Her pink hair flew in the wind, and warm tears stained her cheeks. “I’ll even help you with your revenge! There must be something that I can do. That’s why… please, stay here… with me.” He still stood with his back to her, motionless. No response. Her final option left… “Or if that’s not possible… please… take me with you.” The words echoed in her ears as she said them, realizing what they meant. To abandon her life as a ninja… to abandon everyone… all for a boy who she loved but did not love her back.

He turned back to her slowly his eyes narrowed in suspicion. “You mean that?”

She nodded her head fervently, realizing that she was getting through to him. She would save him… save him from himself. “Yes, Sasuke. I don’t have any of my things packed but…”

She heard a whooshing noise, and to her eyes he disappeared. He could move as fast as Lee-kun for short bursts, she knew. His breath fell lightly on the nape of her neck, standing a few inches behind her. She choked back a gasp, standing paralyzed. “Sakura…” His voice trailed off, and the hesitation in his voice was the longest wait she had ever experienced. “Thank you.” With that simple enunciation, he softly struck a pressure point in her back with his thumb. She felt her legs go weak and the world grow dark as he caught her falling body in his arms.

*****

She woke slowly. The soil beneath her was soft, and not terribly uncomfortable, but it was definatly not her own bed. And the tree canopy above her, with waning sunlight glinting through gaps in the foliage cover, was definatly not the ceiling in her bedroom. Dare she hope? She looked around her with bated breath. Sasuke’s face, complete with an angelic serenity found only in deep slumber replacing his usual sneers, lay in the dirt next to hers. His breath fell slowly and regularly, his face was smudged with mud. She sat up, feeling dizzy, and looked him over for wounds. Nothing obvious, though his clothes were torn in a few places and looked like they had been soaked with sweat. She lay on her back quietly, thinking. He must have carried her as he fled the village, traveling quickly by tree branches. She didn’t recognize where they were, but it was nearly dusk judging by the sun, and Sasuke could travel fast even carrying her. So they could be nearly anywhere…

She felt a lump in her throat form. She had left home, without saying goodbye to Naruto, any of her friends, her sensei, her parents. They were officially enlisted genin, bound to the Hokage and Konoha Village, required to take and complete missions. By leaving without permission, they were branded Missing Nin… traitors. She forced down her terror… the rational part of her mind going over the last reports she had read about Konoha’s forces. They were spread so thin that teams of genin were being assigned to difficult missions. Would Tsunade-sama have ninja to spare to send out after them? In her heart, she knew the answer. No one knew if they had been kidnapped, or left on their own accord. Konoha never abandon them or forget about their disappearance. Hunter Nin would be dispatched to track down the pair of them… and Sasuke would fight them until the end.

She mumbled to herself quietly. “If I think too much now, I’m going to have to decide if this was a wonderful decision or the most monumental mistake of my life. I don’t think I’m ready to face that answer just yet.” The pink haired kunoichi drew in a deep breath, trying to distract herself. Nearly three quarters of a day had passed, she reasoned, and for a good portion of that Sasuke had been running at high speed bearing her weight. He would probably be very hungry when he woke, and she wanted to make him breakfast. She had no supplies of her own, but it was time to find out what Sasuke had brought in his pack. She shuffled through it tenderly… mostly extra kunai and shuriken on the top. She found the flint and tinder, started a fire with practiced ease, then pulled out the single amenity for cooking Sasuke had deemed fit to pack: a small pan.

Examining her surroundings closely, she studied the nearly invisible wire traps Sasuke had put up before passing out. She bypassed them carefully and hunted around, managing to find enough eggs to make a decent meal for the two of them. As she returned, she noted the sun’s level. “Only an hour of daylight left…” She began cooking the eggs with a small sigh. “I should probably get some meat… but I’m terrible at hunting.” As the eggs cooked, she shuffled through the pack to look for spices. Not finding any and quickly becoming frustrated, she dug to the bottom before her fingers hit an old scroll, as wide as the width of the pack and taking up nearly the bottom quarter of the pack. Her pondering came to a halt as small noises emanating from Sasuke reached her ears. Her attention snapped over to him and she crawled near him. His breath was labored, his expression morphing between terror and anger. Her expression creased in worry, trying to find a way to comfort him. “Sa… Sasuke-kun.” She gently took ahold of his shoulder and tried to hug him.

In a flash, he struck her hard in the chest, knocking her back and nearly onto the makeshift fire pit. He landed crouched over her, his black kunai gleaming in his grasp, screaming down for blood. It halted a razor’s width away from her neck, his expression, a twisted visage of hatred, looming over her. She could feel her heart hammering in her chest, and two long breaths went by before Sasuke’s expression broke into his normal demeanor when he was with her… a sort of patronizing disgruntlement. She loathed that face. Inner Sakura called to her from deep inside her mind, screaming for her to retaliate, but she pushed the voice away. He glanced off to the side, quickly slipping his kunai back into his satchel and rolling off her body. “Sorry.”

‘He doesn’t sound very sorry.’ Inner Sakura sulked. Sakura threw up her cheerful façade, though it was strained. “No, it was my fault, Sasuke-kun. I shouldn’t have startled you like that.” She realized how dangerously close that had been. Even if Sasuke’s kunai hadn’t halted, her body had landed a breadth away from the fire. She sat up, rubbing the spot on her neck where the blade would have fallen if the blow had followed through. “You were dreaming…”

He twisted and looked at her angrily. “I was not.”

She looked abashedly at the eggs as they hissed and popped. “Oh.” There was a long awkward silence. “Well… I made us breakfast… dinner?”

He shuffled over to the pan, scraping half of the steaming eggs out into the only plate he had packed. He handed it to her wordlessly along with his pair of chopsticks. Brooding, he scooped the rest out of the pan with his fingers and ate. “So I bet you think its pretty funny, don’t ya?”

She looked up at him with saddened eyes. “I don’t understand.”

His eyebrows furrowed. “Don’t you think its funny that I still have nightmares about him?” She looks at him wordlessly in shock, her eggs untouched. He ate the meager meal with a ferocity, his eyes gleaming with anger. “If you tell anyone what you saw…”

Sakura’s eyes shone with anger of their own. “I wouldn’t do that to you, Sasuke-kun. I’m here to help you.”

He kicked at the dirt absently. “My life is killing Itachi. It’s not your cause to take up.”

She bit her lip, her expression determined. “That’s my decision to make, Sasuke-kun… not yours. I’ll make my own paths.”

His eyes darkened. “And you honestly think you can help? To succeed where I’ve failed? You’re not in the same league as me or Itachi, not by a long shot.”

His wounds cut deeply into her, but a flash of anger replaced the hurt just as quick as it came. “If you thought that low of me, why did you bring me in the first place?” She instantly regretted the angry tone in her voice. The emotional strain had shortened her already short temper… the aspect of herself that she normally kept buried deep inside herself around Sasuke.

He looked at her measuringly, her reaction uncharacteristically resolute. “Why… why did I bring you?” He looked troubled. The question wasn’t rhetorical, and it wasn’t directed at her. He sounded as though he really didn’t know himself.

Sakura’s breath caught in her chest. “Loneliness.”

His head snapped up again, but this time without the anger. “Loneliness?”

She looked at the empty pan he was using as a plate, and scooped a portion of hers into the pan for him. She took a bite of her egg and chewed as she considered how to phrase what she wanted to say. “I won’t pretend I understand what you feel. But I know that you’re going to need someone there for you while you do this.”

“I can’t afford to have friends, Sakura. Even the danger aside… I need to be ready to throw my life away at a moment’s notice if I see a chance to kill my brother. How can…” He trailed off for a moment, looking up into the sunlight cutting through the tree cover. “If I let someone in… let myself really start caring about someone… I might hesitate when my chance comes.” She watched his expression, staying quiet. He scowled for a moment, then offered her a wry grin. “Why? Why after everything… everything that I’ve done to drive you away… why are you still so nice to me?”

She considered him carefully. “Because you… more than anyone else… need a friend.” She finished her meal with a kind smile, setting down the plate on their canvas pack, and moved to sit beside Sasuke. She gently wrapped her arms around one of his, snuggling against his shoulder.

He shifted uncomfortably before leaning into her embrace a small bit. “I told you… I don’t need anyone.”

“Maybe not…” came her distant reply as she watched the fire dance and snap in the evening light. “But now you have someone.”

*****