Fandom Redemption [Closed] [Graverobber141/arbus]

[Graverobber141]

The way in which she gently brushed her fingers against his palm, cradling his hand with care, made his lips tug upwards softly, brought a tinge of a feeling forth from his subconscious that was much more warmer than the fire licking at his back. For a moment, he almost forgot the purpose behind this facade, became focused solely on her, and how her chakra flowed into his skin. Funny, how such a simple act was able to displace him in time.

Yet just as quickly as he slipped away, the world filtered back in around him at the sound of her voice declaring she was finished tending to the wound, and his original intentions slowly planted themselves back into his mind. Still, as he withdrew his hand into his lap, their contact breaking, his thumb gently gazed the dip of her palm, offering a silent thank you, and something within him told him it was for much more than simply entertaining this coy, little tactic of his.

Turning his attention back on the boy, Sasuke offered him a small smile that he hoped was reassuring. "Not at all. I told you--" His eyes slowly drifted toward Sakura's as he declared, "--she's the best." His smile lifted, spreading into the gleam within his eyes, before he looked back towards the kid. "If I'm going to teach you anything, you're going to have to be in peak shape, you know. And, naturally, I'm going to have to know your name if you're going to be my student."

 

[arbus]

With Sasuke turning away from her, Sakura sat up very straight, enclosing her hand with the other and pressing both in her lap. Her heart had plummeted into her stomach at that tiniest of grazes, because she was sure it had been intentional. She had no idea what it meant, this sudden benevolence, tenderness accumulating in tiny gestures that could not just be coincidence. She ignored the feeling, trying to focus on the exchange between Sasuke and the insolent boy.

Was ... was Sasuke ...

She put the thought, more an unformed idea than an actual realization, more instinct than intellect, firmly out of her mind. She would not allow that, and she would not fret over it now. She saw the softness of his gaze, the lightheartedness she had wished to put there for so long, and felt as if everything was slipping out of hand. In his care and gentleness the world had titled, and though it was a subtle shift, she suffered from whiplash.

Lost in her thoughts, her shock, she overheard the huff that marked the end of the boy's lengthy consideration. He shifted his weight uneasily, as if sure that what he was about to agree to was a bad idea - but he wanted to learn the "katon jutsu" so badly, and so he took a deep breath, and then, very hastily, as if speaking quickly could somehow diffuse the information: "I'mAriandI'mpleasedtoomeetyou. Please heal me so you can teach me how to spit fire as I want to learn it very much. I'm a good patient and a good student and I have more firewood stored in the back of the cave if you need more. Alsowhendoweeat?"

He exhaled sharply, twisting his fingers into his yukata-shirt and shuffling his feet.

Sakura blinked, astonished that a person was able to talk at such a fast pace and not insignificantly impressed. She stood and rounded the fire, sure to keep some distance between herself and the boy - Ari, if her ears hadn't betrayed her in that spitfire of words - and crouched down. "Nice to meet you, Ari", she offered, waiting.

Ari, who had the air of someone riding into battle, raised his chin in a gesture of childish defiance and then, dragging his feet, moved over to stand in front of Sakura. What followed was a lengthy exchange, consisting of gentle words on Sakura's part and a variation mulish faces she got in return. It took about ten minutes until Ari put down his yukata, and beneath was the frail body of a very young child, malnourished but apart from a few scratches unharmed. To make sure, Sakura performed an examination, using medical jutsu to search his body for any internal damage. She did not touch the boy once, yet he flinched away from the green light. It was strange - most people found it comforting, that light, naturally drawn to its nurturing properties. Somewhere in the middle of the examination, with Ari sitting cross-legged on the floor and her kneeling next to him, her hands hovering over his back and she was sure he would not up and run at any moment, she suggested without looking at Sasuke: "The bentos are in my backpack. With some luck they are still edible."

 

[Graverobber141]

Sasuke's left brow quirked upwards, listening to the boy, who informed them his name was Ari, speak as if he was already spitting fire. Part of him was holding out on the hope that Ari's interest in his jutsu would eventually tether out after a meal and conversation, but that idea was quickly beginning to slip from his mind as a possibility. In a way, he had to admit, he found it endearing, the enthusiasm and bravado Ari displayed, and the sigh that fell quietly from his lips might have been enervated, but also held some amount of warm-hearted humor.

Judging it would take a while for Sakura to examine Ari and not being one to waste time, Sasuke used the opportunity to slip away from the fire as soon as he felt like she had the situation under control, heading towards the front of the cave. He was grateful for the opportunity to organize his thoughts in relative silence and solitude.

The first time he left on these travels alone, he had spent a majority of the time surrounded by nothing but nature and his own thoughts. He had used the chance to start reaching inside himself, pulling things onto his surface so he could examine the reflection of who he was, discovering how deeply the cracks in that mirror ran. Out of all the battles he fought, all the challenges he had faced, the mountains he had crossed, facing his own inner demons had been the most difficult, painful. Understanding his own emotions and motivations was still strikingly, incomprehensibly hard, because of how far he went to bury them him in his unconscious, of how unaware he still was of them.

And yet he could sense something underneath it all, scratching lightly at his surface, a realization he wasn't capable of fully understanding yet. But he was becoming more aware of when his body moved by itself, reaching for Sakura in those discrete moments like he was searching out sunlight.

Coming to a stop before his own backpack, which he flung over his shoulder, followed by his discarded cloak, and then gripping Sakura's in his hand, he mulled over those thoughts, before heading back toward the small camp they'd created.

He needed to get ahold of himself. This trip wasn't about his wants, and the last thing he expected--

The thought trailed off as he felt the warmth of the fire once more grazing his body, and his gaze trailed over Sakura and Ari. The boy, judging from his condition, had to have been out here for a while, and he could only imagine the fear (something tugged within him mind, a relation he tried to ignore, tearing at that select word imagine), based upon his earlier reactions, he had to have been subjected to. He didn't know how, or what it would entail, but that didn't matter to him: he felt compelled to help this kid.

Giving Sakura a small nod, he gently placed their belongings down, before rummaging around in her backpack to retrieve the bentos. Thankfully, the bag was composed of resistant material, and perhaps because of a little luck on their side (or some omnipotent presence taking pity on them), the bentos appeared to be intact. Stacking them on top of each over so he could carry them more easily, he brought them over to Ari, placing one by his feet in offering, the other next to Sakura, before stepping around the fire.

"Eat as much as you want. I also have some dried meat with me," Sasuke told him, placing his sandal to hold his discarded scabbard on the ground. With as careful of a movement one could pull off while drawing a weapon in such a manner, Sasuke freed his katana, and immediately stuck it vertically in the ground near the fire. Shrugging his cloak off his shoulder, he shook the fabric free of dirt, before draping it over the weapon's grip so it could dry more quickly.

Lastly, he disappeared toward the back of the cave, returning with firewood tucked under his arm, before feeding a few more logs into the flames and laying down the rest for later. Satisfied in his work, Sasuke finally settled in, cross-legged, a few paces away from his cloak-and-katana.

Resting his arm on his knee, tilting his chin in the child's direction, he softly asked, "How long have you been out here, Ari?"

 

[arbus]

The moment Sasuke reappeared with the bentos Sakura was sure Ari would jump up and out from under her hands, but to her surprise he remained seated and perfectly still. He was ogling the lunch boxes with barely concealed greed, though, and his weedy upper body leant precariously into the direction of the food, until his neck was long and his thighs quivering from the strain of keeping himself from toppling over. With an exasperated sigh that concealed amusement, she ended the jutsu. The green light on her palms died down. With a smile, she proclaimed: "All done!"

She had only mended the bigger cuts - she suspected scratches from branches and thorny bushes - to limit the risk of infection, and left the insignificant ones for his body to heal; it was important not for the immune system not to deprive the body of such tasks, a thing she had learned very early on in her training. When Ari didn't make a move, she reached over for the bentos and took off both lids. The aroma of the teriyaki sauce was mouth watering; cold rice and a vegetable-heavy meal should provide him with the nourishment he obviously needed.
As the smell spread around them, Ari's stomach gave an audible growl and a gurgle. His eyes that had been fixed on the food shot up with a startled expression, and Sakura could not help but laugh at the surprise she read in them.

"Eat slowly", was all she said, and she handed him a pair of chopsticks attached to her bento. He took them delicately into both hands, and surprise was replaced by confusion. "You'll get a belly ache if you gobble it all down at once", she clarified, thinking the confusion stemmed from her words. But Ari just turned the chopsticks in his hands instead of breaking them to eat. He blinked, and the moment it dawned on Sakura that he actually might not know how to use them, he smashed them down vertically to skewer a piece of chicken. Stuffing it into his mouth as a whole, sauce dripping from his lips and cheek bulging with the amount, he looked at Sasuke, who had settled down at the fire next to them, chewed lengthily and then said between munches: "Three-and-a-half full moons." He gulped laboriously, only to repeat the action, stuffing himself with the content of their bentos.

Sakura cast a glance at Sasuke, seeking help. She made an aborted attempt to grab the bentos, but Ari was sitting bent over them, back to them as if afraid they would take the food from him. Her warnings remained unheeded, and with her hands hanging in the air, she had no idea what to do. Ari's head popped up after what could have been only a minute. "Istheremore? Can I have some meat Ilovemeat?"

 

[Graverobber141]

It was an almost feral, animalistic response; guard the food, devour it quickly for fear another might take it away. The look within Sasuke's eyes softened, watching Ari eat. Three months. It was a long time for a kid to spend out in the wilderness. Without survival training, or some way of reasoning to come up with solutions to life or death scenarios, and a strong since of perseverance, Sasuke suspected he wouldn't have made it this far. The majority of children in the same position wouldn't have made it this far. The storms, which hailed through this region often, the cold, the hunger, the predators, the maddening solitude: certainly not an easy endeavor, physically, and psychologically, the challenges only became harsher.

Eyes drifting over to catch Sakura's pleading look, Sasuke offered her a small shake of his head and a bare smile, discouraging her from trying to control the kid's eating habits. Some lessons just had to be learned the hard way. He distinctly remembered him and Naruto, during one of their senseless competitions in the Land of Waves, being hit hard with that harsh realization, after the both of them had puked out what they had gulped down so quickly.

Yet, he did suppose he had a way of trying to slow him down a bit now. Reaching into his pack, he dug for some of the packaged, dried meat he had prepared for the road, in case of circumstances like this, being driving into shelter by a storm, and offered Ari a few pieces, while letting the rest sit in his lap. If he dished it out in portions, perhaps the kid would take his time eating. And answer some questions while he did so.

Sasuke considered how he wanted to proceed. He didn't exactly know how to approach the topic; talking to people had never really been his strong suit, and his preferred way of communicating through bluntness hardly seemed appropriate to use in these circumstances. But if he wanted to help this kid, he had to know, so with an exhalation of air, he asked softly, "And why are you out here, Ari?"

 

[arbus]

Sakura let her hands sink, then, and relaxed her posture. Sasuke was probably right. She did not want to take the food away from Ari, did not want to risk a scene, to rekindle his mistrust. Maybe a bit of stomach-ache was a small price to pay, but she still felt uncomfortable watching the kid gobble down such quantities of food when he clearly had not had anything substantial for a long time. Three months, three and a half ... now it seemed like a miracle that he had not sustained any worse infections, and she had no idea how he survived out here. He must have been scavenging, and if so, his digestive system certainly would not thank him for stuffing himself with such huge quantities of cooked foot right now. So while Sasuke started to engage the kid, she got up and went to her backpack, which Sasuke had brought the the fire, to rummage for some herbs she could make into a soothing tea.

Ari's head had popped up again, a rice corn sticking on his cheek, his chin smeared with sauce. He eyed the meat Sasuke was offering, then the rest which was kept back, assessing. Then he robbed towards Sasuke, bento firmly in his grip, until he could stretch out his arm and take the meat, stuffing it into his mouth immediately. It was tough and took time to chew, though. But his belly felt full already, and although his greed had not subsided, he indulged in the piece of meat, which was plain but delicious, more so than the overcooked rice and the soggy vegetables.

"I lost mom", he informed Sasuke, who seemed a terribly curious fellow. But it was nice talking, and as he was going to learn "katon jutsu" from him, it only seemed reasonable to be polite first. "I'm waiting for her to come get me." He was leaning, sprawling his fingers for another piece of meat. His eyes dropped down to the stash on Sasuke's lap, but although it lingered for a moment, he made no attempt to steal it.

 

[Graverobber141]

Even with the fire warming his body, slowly drying off his clothes, Sasuke felt a chill in the back of his mind, spreading to drip down his spine like melting ice, at Ari's words. He had to look away from the boy, gaze shifting into the fire, even as his hand offered another piece of meat. Three and a half months. His mother wasn't coming. The thought drifted around Sasuke's mind, seeping into his stiffening posture. He didn't know the circumstances, but that intuition gnawed at him, and he was stricken with the dilemma of trying to decide whether to inform Ari of that fact or not.

Eye lids half-closing, Sasuke inhaled deeply. He should ask for more information: where Ari's home was, if he had any other relatives, things he could use to figure out what to do with the boy once the storm lifted. Wasting time, after all, was something Sasuke simply didn't know how to do. Yet he found himself slowly opening his eyes, scooting a little bit closer to Ari, and angling himself to allow his back to begin to dry as thoroughly as his front.

"Shinobi use hand signs to focus their chakra, which allows them to perform jutsu," Sasuke explained. "However, these signs normally require both hands to make them, and seeing as...hm," Clearing his throat, he pointed toward the sleeve of his shirt that hung loosely, empty from his forearm. "I'm going to require Sakura's help to show you. If she doesn't mind demonstrating." He turned his head to lift his brow in question, a weak smile on his lips.

There were things he should be doing instead, things that could get to the bottom of this situation, but he felt compelled to do this instead. In a way, he was trying to reach out, even if it was simply by fulfilling a request that seemed to bring Ari some form of child-like excitement and joy.

 

[arbus]

Ari dropped the half eaten bento box, the other licked clean by now and forgotten, and crawled to bridge the distance between himself and Sasuke. Taking the tip of his tongue between his lips, he nodded, eager and ready to absorb every bit of information Sasuke offered. But when Sakura's name fell, so did his expression, and he looked over at her turned back, sure she would decline.

The noise of Sakura puttering around with the travel-sized pot she brought along ceased for a moment. Then, the round end of the kunai continued crushing herbs against a smooth rock. She pressed them until they were mush, scraped them into the pot, which she then filled with water of her canteen. After that was done, and with Ari fidgeting impatiently at Sasuke's side, she got to her feet and walked over to them.

"I don't mind", she said, placing the pot next to the fire as she settled down on Sasuke's other side. She had listened to their conversation, to Ari's words, and she thought she read something akin to sorrow in Sasuke's flat smile, that almost imperceptible twerk of his lips. He was thinking the mother was dead. That was what that smile meant. Her eyes traveled to Ari, who bobbed back and forth and seemed completely unperturbed at the moment, at his circumstances and his loneliness. She wondered if he really had been here for such a long time. Maybe someone had taken care of him before? The inn was not that far away, half a day's travel.

What if the boy didn't tell the truth? Maybe he read the moon cycles wrong, maybe he just guessed. He was so very young. Could a child that age really survive for such a long time all on its own?

"But I want something in return."

Ari narrowed his eyes, and he gave a huff as if to say he'd known it all along, of course there was a snag to it. And of course it was coming from her. She had been banking on this reaction, and offered a grim smile. "If you want me to demonstrate the hand signs for your little lecture, then I want you to take a bath in return."

"A bath?!", Ari shouted. He jumped to his knees. "That's not fair!"

"Why is that not fair?" Even while she said that, Sakura felt herself channeling her mother, and she shuddered inwardly at the thought.

"Because you already asked me for something in return", Ari replied slyly. "I gave you my name."

Well, he was technically true. But that had never kept her mother from being relentless, either.

"Do you want to learn the jutsu or not?"

"Ah ... Yes! Of course!"
The pickering went on for another couple of minutes, in which Ari switched between throwing pleading gazes towards Sasuke and finding one nifty argument against basic human hygiene in general and him being bathed in particular. Sakura, unimpressed, defused one point after the other, until finally, Ari crossed his arms with a harrumph and sulkily conceded in washing himself after he mastered the hand signs for spitting fire.

Sakura's smile turned sugar sweet as a sense of accomplishment and triumph settled over her, much like when she succeeded in reasoning with Naruto. With a nod at Sasuke that they were ready, she went through the signs in her head - she never used them, because she was unable to change her chakra nature into fire - then demonstrated them first at a normal pace, then slower. Snake. Ram. Monkey. Boar. Horse. Tiger.

How often she had seen Sasuke perform that particular sequence of hand signs as a twelve-year-old. More times she could count.

 

[Graverobber141]

Sasuke couldn't help but find it comical, even with that sense of dread and sorrow for the boy tightening like a serpent in the bottom of his stomach, listening to the exchange between Sakura and Ari. Caught in the middle of the two, Sasuke shot Ari a look, eyebrow slightly lifted, trying hard to keep his amused smirk from being too noticeable, that read 'Sorry, kid, you're on your own'. It was followed by him slightly leaning back, as if to clear the path between them, displaying that he certainly wasn't getting involved in this little dispute of theirs, even though, as the longer it dragged on, the wider that smirk of his became.

Upon the fight's conclusion, and Sakura's signal, he spoke the names of the signs out-loud as she showed them to Ari. It wasn't a surprise to him that she had memorized the hand gestures, even if she didn't possess an affinity for the fire style; out of the three of their squad, she had certainly been the quickest to catch on to anything chakra related, and was the most intelligent one among them. While he had relied solely on his sharingan and Naruto had simply passed on dumb luck and guts during the written portion of the Chunin exam, she had been able to solve the difficult questions on her own.

With a nod in thanks and a soft smile in her direction, his hand reached out toward her, that tick asserting itself again, yet he caught himself just in time to instead place his palm in the dirt, leaning back against his elbow as if that had been his intention all along. It obviously hadn't been, as a moment later, he was correcting his posture as he shifted his eyes quite quickly back onto Ari.

"Now, let's see you try them individually," Sasuke said. And as Ari would begin forming the signs, his fingers would gently reach out to help correct any mistakes, or straighten the sign out more, giving advice as they went through each one.

Snake. Ram. Monkey. Boar. Horse. Tiger.

When he felt that Ari had a basic grasp of the signs required, Sasuke rested his palm against his knee, once more shifting the angle at which he sat to allow another side of him to dry. "Now you just need to practice enough that it becomes muscle memory. First, focus on going from one sign to the next in the sequence, over and over, until you stop thinking about it. Then move on to the next pair. When you can smoothly do all the transitions, that's when you start threading it all together."

 

[arbus]

Ari sat, focus drawing his fair eyebrows together, the tip of his tongue protruding from his lips, and formed sign after sign after sign, first very careful and deliberate as he wanted to make sure that he got it right. His ability to spit fire depended on it, after all. His body was angled towards Sasuke, his whole posture speaking of a trust that crossed the border to naivety. He did as he was told, patiently listening and clearly eager to take in every word of advice. It did not take long for him to get a grasp of it; though his dexterity was obviously lacking, as if this was the first time he formed hand seals at all, he was quick on the uptake. Soon, he performed every sign flawlessly, and started to do them in sequence with ever growing pace.

As he did so, the frown of concentration lifted from his face, and soon he was beaming in delight as he was watching his own hands:
Snake. Ram. Monkey. Boar. Horse. Tiger. Snake. Ram. Monkey. Boar. Horse. Tiger. Snake. Ram. Boar. Horse. Tiger.

"Shoot!", he cried, frustration and laughter on his lips, "I forgot the monkey! Again."

And so it went for a good twenty minutes, until Sakura had boiled the water by holding the pot by its handle over the fire, prepared tea and poured it into the heat-preserving jug of bright pink, a present from Ino upon her departure. Said jug sat now next to her backpack, ready if needed, and she disturbed Ari's practice with a slight cough and a meaningful glance towards the soap she held in her hands.

She would not have thought it possible, but Ari's face grew even paler - and then, very quickly, red with indignation, as he screeched:
"Soap?! You never said anything about soap!"

She took it upon her to explain to him the common consensus that washing oneself meant to use soap, which was met by such a fierce resistance it brought forth another argument, which then almost escalated in chasing him around the cave with a washcloth and the bar of soap. Before they could reach that low point, however, Ari's eyes lit up in what Sakura slowly came to understand was an idea for further shenanigans (she knew this expression intimately from a certain knuckle headed idiot).
A moment later, Ari had made way to the entrance of the cave, and before she could do much more than follow to the brink he was outside and stripped down to a pair of dirty socks, otherwise naked and dancing as the rain drenched him. The little squirt even had the nerve to stick out his tongue at her!
So it came not really as a surprise to her as she felt her feet move on their own accord, and sacrificing the comfort of recently dried clothes she stepped out into the rain to catch up to him. It ended with Sakura scrubbing Ari's hair, which, when not caked with dirt were the same light shade of blond as his eyebrows and lashes. Under much bickering and quite a few of Ari's squeals she managed to get him reasonably clean, so when they re-entered the cave (startled by another crash of receding thunder), her face was set with stubborn satisfaction. Her narrowed glance at Sasuke just dared him to say something. She refused to see the ridiculousness of that whole ordeal.

Ari was shaking himself like a wet dog, and, drenched herself, she dug the only towel she carried with her from her belongings in the backpack, and threw it over the boy's shivering frame.

"Can you lent him some clothes?", she asked Sasuke in a rather dignified tone, as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.

 

[Graverobber141]

Kami, how hard it was to keep a straight-face: watching Ari throw a temper tantrum, rebelling in what little capacity he could, and Sakura chasing after him like the second coming of Sasuke's own mother. A distant memory rose to the surface of his mind: a time when a younger version of himself, fresh out of a swaddled blanket, had proclaimed freedom, running around the Uchiha compound with nothing but his lack of dignity, his elder brother on his tail, towel in his hand.

At times like these, Sasuke found himself more wise than brave, and simply kneeled by the fire, waiting for their return, though propped on his feet, in case if he was needed: the storm was still flashing in the sky, after all, and he kept his eyes opened for danger. As they made their way back inside, Sasuke met Sakura's threatening gaze, and found he did not need a single word, not with his cocked eyebrow and the sly smirk twerking his lips upwards. It took every ounce of willpower he had to keep his chuckle down, in fear that he might be the next one chased out into the storm.

With a affirmative hn and nod, he gently ruffled Ari's hair, almost apologetically, as he passed him on his way to his backpack. While his slacks were way too large for the kid, he supposed a shirt, underwear, and new socks would do the trick. Gathering up the clothing, he passed them along to Ari, before moving to retrieve his cloak. After inspecting the material to make sure it was dry enough, and upon Ari's dressing, Sasuke would drape the cloak over the boy's shoulders for extra warmth, and then take a seat by his side.

And with an almost inaudible, dread-tinged sigh, the hard features of his face softening considerably, Sasuke came to the conclusion that it was time. They had to know, if they were going to resolve the situation. "Ari...How did you get separated from your mother?"

 

[arbus]

After Ari had started to dry himself off and change into Sasuke's clothes, Sakura vanished into the darkness with her backpack - she'd have to move slowly, and use the only set of spare clothes she had taken on the trip, but she had it with being soaked to the bone. She already felt a tingle in her nose, a slight lump in her throat, and took the counter measure of letting chakra course through her system. If Tsunade knew, she would never hear the end of it.

When both Ari and herself were dry and comfortable in front of the fire, Ari cuddled in Sasuke's cloak and with a steaming mug of tea between his hands, she allowed herself to get drowsy. Time was impossible to grasp; the storm and the darkness it brought destroyed all sense of it in her, and their unexpected company only contributed to that floating sense of timelessness. It was almost soothing to find herself in such a state, the world shrunk to the confines of the circle of fire that provided them with light and warmth.

Her head perked up as Sasuke spoke, his words and the implication sinking in. Of course - what had she been thinking, drifting off like that when there were important matters to attend to. She rubbed her eyes - inconspicuously, she hoped - and looked at Ari, who nibbed from the tea more out of some compulsion for politeness than anything else.

He looked tired, the skin under his eyes tinged blue. His hair had almost dried already, that thin down that shimmered like silk in the flickering light. Flames licked at a piece of wood she had shoved nearer to the heart of the fire with her foot. Ari gave a one-sided shrug, looking lost for the first time.
"I'm not sure. I was with her, and then I wasn't." He fiddled with the rim of his mug. There was still residue of dirt under his nails. He added: "She told me to run", and Sakura's heart clenched unexpectedly and violently.

 

[Graverobber141]

That serpent of dread curling within Sasuke's stomach sunk its fangs deep into his flesh at Ari's confession, and that shadow at the back of his mind drifted to his conscious. His mother was dead. Sasuke had no doubt, no trace of hope. He had seen too much of the world to allow himself to think otherwise, not when he needed to focus on the possible, on what he could do for the kid. He tried his best to hide the sorrow within his dark gaze, but it floated to the surface, lingering.

He should continue, find out if he had relatives they could take him to, or, at least, where he hailed from, but something within himself prevented him from pressing onward. The boy was tired. Probably had not slept decently since he had been on his own. He wanted to give Ari one night, at least, to sleep in peace. Everything else could wait until the morning, thought the man who had once huffed under his breath when he had been forced to tag along with Team Kakashi on missions he believed to be a waste of his time.

"Listen, Ari," he began softly, walking toward his backpack to retrieve his bedroll. Spreading it out a safe distance away from the fire, near Ari, he continued, "Why don't you get some rest? I'll keep watch." He padded the blankets, a gesture to encourage the boy to take advantage of bedroll, before traveling to where his sword was shoved into the ground. "And I'll drive off any intruders with the katon jutsu." Offering a small, weak smile, he picked up his scabbard, placing it between his teeth, and pulling his katana free from the dirt, sheathed the blade before slinging it around his back.

Turning his gaze onto Sakura, he tilted his head slightly in her direction. "Mind helping me set up a perimeter?" And while he certainly had the intention of setting up some sort of defense, as his paranoia would allow him to do no less, the look he gave her suggested he merely wanted to use it as an opportunity to discuss their options.

 

[arbus]

It did not take much to convince Ari to go to sleep - he was exhausted, from the sudden storm and the roll of thunder, from their unexpected encounter and his fear, from the joy of company and his eagerness to proof his worth. And the bedroll looked heavenly comfortable, a luxury he could barely belief he was allowed to indulge in. He positively sprang into the bed, the half-emptied mug forgotten by the fire. Cuddling under the blanket, soon all that could be seen from him was the top of his head, then short strands of hair poking out as he curled up further.

Sakura, who was aware at Sasuke's intent to talk, in fact had wanted a minute of private conversation for some time now, walked off to the back of the cave. She used standard motion sensor seals, tweaked to react to the slightest movement, as she had done since she started traveling as a shinobi. It allowed the team a sense of security, and while it did not replace vigilance, they could at least relax their senses to a degree and prevent an unnecessary chakra strain. She took her time, longer than she normally would have needed, to make sure the bundle in Sasuke's bedroll was motionless, the breaths deep and regular, before she joined Sasuke. Stooping low, her fingers touched the earth to place a last seal, closing the wide, irregular circle she had drawn around the fire. Nothing in the world short of a real emergency would get her to go out into .the rain again, so that would have to do. She had manipulated the seals in a way that they would register Sasuke's and her own chakra signature. That way, they could pass the circle without raising havoc.

She crossed her arms over her chest, listening to the rain for a bit, and sighed heavily.
"What are we going to do with him?", she asked in a low voice, and then added immediately, as if his expression, the droop of his shoulders did not speak for volumes: "Do you really think his mother is ... you know ...?"

 

[Graverobber141]

As Sakura set up her own defenses, Sasuke began with his. Near the mouth of the cave, but far enough back to make his wires difficult to see, thanks to the darkness, he set up a tripwire. Throwing shuriken into the roof attached to wires, he arranged for them to drop, flying toward the intruder, upon the occurrence the wire he ran along near the flooring of the tunnel was triggered. While not fatal, it would give whoever tried swooping in on them quite the scare, and enough time for him to turn the tables.

Once satisfied in his work and after Sakura had joined him, he gently placed his hand on her shoulder, before tilting his chin in the direction of the tripwire he had set up to point out its location. Afterwards, he took a seat at her side, slightly closing his eye at her question.

Do you really think his mother is...?

Sasuke, after slowly stealing a glance at the bundle hidden underneath the warmth of his bedroll, turned his gaze onto Sakura. His dark irises said it all, sorrow and pain at the loss, the incapability to leave a strand of hope left within himself. Exhaling a breath of air, he merely gave her a small nod in response, partly afraid to speak the words, incase if Ari suddenly awoke from his slumber. There was a need forming within himself to protect the kid, and perhaps because he related with the situation all too well, if he should overhear...he did not want to risk the boy running out in a blind rage, intent to prove Sasuke wrong.

"The way I see it, we have two options," he stated softly, after a moment of silence that seemed to stretch on for hours. "We backtrack to the inn, or continue onward. Try to see if we can find information about a missing woman, any recent attacks, and prioritize finding out if he has any living relatives. I would offer to send out a few hawks, but...--" He let out a mildly irritated sigh, gaze shifting to narrow at the storm still raging outside. "Perhaps when this dies down."

 

[arbus]

The flames shot high at a particularly dry piece of wood, obscuring the vision toward Ari and his bedstead for a moment. Over the crackling of fire, it was impossible to listen to his breaths, which Sakura used as indication of the depth of his sleep. It covered their conversation, too, though, their voices hushed and conspiratorial.

Against her shoulder, underneath the fabric of the sweater she wore, she felt the faint buzz of Sasuke's touch ghosting across her skin. She wondered if he ran around charged with static without realizing it. What other explanation could there be for the way she perceived his chakra. She had never thought to ask anybody if they experienced the same thing when they where around him, and it had never happened with anyone else before.

She waited for him to speak, patiently letting him work through the grief she read on his face like a discomfort, something he would rather not touch but had no choice not to. She understood that he must feel an obligation, in the way he talked to the boy, the way he so obviously cared.
"The storm won't last forever - you can send a hawk to the inn then. I'll set up a letter to the innkeeper. She's accomodating enough, I think she'll respond." Sakura smiled grimly. She had talked to the innkeeper quite a bit. That woman was a nosy old hag. Lucky them. "If she knows Ari, or his mother, she'll tell us." Her eyes traveled to the bundle, like Sasuke's, drawn to what had become their responsibility. "Before we move on, we should ask him more questions. He seems willing enough to answer. Maybe that way we will know where to head next."

She paused a moment. She knew Sasuke was hurting, as if by proximity, and that facet of his being, that sort of empathy he so desperately tried to cover up since the day she had met him, made her ache and smile all at once. It was fuel to the impulse to reach out, and for the first time since their paths joined, she was the one touching him, her hand gently covering the back of his. "He seemed confident that his mother was still alive. Don't you think?"

 

[Graverobber141]

Listening to Sakura expand upon the plan, Sasuke gave a small nod of his head, even if he grimaced at the thought of how long of a message they would get back from the innkeeper, which would probably include requests for updates on the progress of their journey and the health of their closest friends and relatives. In the back of his mind, Sasuke made a mental note to make sure he sent the hawk from this morning, the one that enjoyed making a fool out of him; perhaps the added weight would give the bird a little humility and respect for its master.

But mostly he was considering how much he wanted to avoided the conversation that awaited him in the morning. And it was an odd sensation, because he had always been one to face everything head-on, choosing his words often with bluntness because he would rather be direct than considerate. The parallels, though, even if self-imposed, were gripping at the memories buried inside the iceberg of his mind, ripping free the feelings, sharp, short-lived, fleeting shards, he tried so hard to forget he had ever felt. Fear. Pain. Loneliness.

Why? He had wanted to know why. Because he could not understand. The horror spread before him, blood, so much blood that he had been able to smell it, and the demon holding the sword: the demon with the face of his brother. Why?

It took him a moment to register her touch, her question. He had drifted into a blank stare, eyes gazing seemingly at nothing, staring past everything into the darkness of the night in front of him, a thousand miles away. He came back from whether he had been abruptly, feeling as if he had been held underwater and just allowed to break for the surface to breathe. His throat felt dry. His heart was constricting in his chest. His skull felt as if it was cracking.

Without thought, his fingers spread apart slowly, just so he could feel hers slip between them. A subconscious effort to remind himself that she was there, that he was here. To ground himself in the present.

"He's a kid..." He finally replied softly to her question, once he had found his voice, even if it was slightly uneven, "who, before now, was incapable of understanding how the world could allow such a thing to happen." He paused, closed his eyes, and spoke the last part as if it made his conclusion fact instead of assumption, "Three months, Sakura."

 

[arbus]

Sasuke had a look about him, one she was familiar with from after the war. Rows and rows of tents with men and women, staring into nothingness, into a void only visible to their own eyes. Trauma, she knew, and the cold, sinking feeling of sympathy, of a pain not shared but seen, recognized. She allowed her fingers to entangle with his, and in the face of his pain, she did not allow herself to feel doubt, to fell trepidation or conflict. Instead, she gave his hand a light squeeze.

I'm here, she wanted to say. She wanted to say many more things, cooing, soothing things that did not matter and would not make a difference, would not help. It was a stupid instinct, though she recognized it as a human one. She wanted to take away the pain that made his shoulders sag, that made him look so unfamiliarly small. Underneath the stoicism, the shell of his confidence and the remaining ruins of his arrogance, he was broken into a thousand tiny pieces. He was just a boy, much like Ari, helpless and floundering in a darkness of someone else's making.

She did not see him like that often, but her gaze was keen, schooled.
His words were like little stabs to her heart, which felt clenched and restricted and, in the same, paradoxical instance, expanded to double its size. His words ruptured like broken bones. She felt wistful. She knew it was the right thing to do.

Softly, slowly, without force, she pulled him into her body until his forehead bumped her collarbone. The angle was slightly awkward, but her free hand slipped to the back of his neck easily enough. She steeled herself for rejection, maybe even anger, as she breathed, once, against his hair, her cheek hovering over the top of his head which smelled very intimately of him beneath the odors of wood smoke and dried rain.

 

[Graverobber141]

At first, his body tensed slightly, unused to such unexpected, gentle contact; his muscles were far more accustomed to violent movements that made them recoil, following the rhythm of the careful dance called combat and conflict. Yet the resistance--if it could be called that--fled from him almost as quickly as it came, and he simply let himself be embraced by her, his body limp, a distant want at the back of his unconscious buzzing with all the things he had never allowed himself to think before.

Face pressed against her collarbone, he took in her distinct, pleasant scent mixed with a faint remnant of rain and soap left over from her battle with Ari, and became keenly aware, with his cheek pressed against her skin, of her heartbeat, her very presence and existence. And it opened something that he did not know existed, a crack within the wall he had built around himself, and slowly but surely, all those things he had imprisoned began seeping out.

He felt vulnerable and bare. He felt terrified and broken. He felt a sense of calmness underneath, a relief, a wanting sensation he could not explain. All these things, twisting and intertwining, and he was at a lost to understand them. All he knew was that she was unmistakably warm and welcoming against the cold that was the inner demons of his id.

Reaching out without thought, that tick that made his body move of his own accord--jumping in front of her to guard her, reaching out for connection--after squeezing her hand, perhaps a bit tightly, his arm moved to wrap around her back, to pull her closer, as to affirm that she was actually there.

And then the guilt reaffirmed itself, driving a knife straight into his gut, as it drove a chill down his spine, an assertion that rang hollowly in his mind that he did not deserve whatever this was.

"I never meant to--I never wanted to--" He started suddenly, stumbling over himself like a baby learning how to talk, because each time he tried to say what needed to say, that sharp blade of guilt twisted deeper into the core of his being.

To hurt you. They came back like blaring light, and he shut his eyes as if that could ward them off, but they were so clear in his mind's eye: all those instances he had tried to do what he proclaimed he never wanted to do, and the timely intervention of those that had stopped him.

His withdrawal left like a retreat, but he was leaning back, and it was only then he was aware of how wet his cheek was.

"I wasn't in control," his voice was uneven, and the dark gaze he searched her own face with was broken and tired, as if he had not slept for a lifetime. "And I wouldn't ever hurt you. Not now."

 

[arbus]

I know.

A stupid platitude, and still it sprang to her mind. There were more than two sides to everything. Becuse life, she had learned, was like a diamond; precious and beautiful and able to cut deep, to make you bleed and you clung to it still, even when, in that first instance, it made everything worse. She understood that on an intellectual level; she knew it in her heart. That things were never that easy. A shinobi must look underneath the underneath.

"I know", she said. She raised her hand to his cheek. Her thumb rubbed tears into his skin. She had never seen him cry before. She felt calm and centered, now that his shell had finally cracked in front of her, now that his pain had shown itself. She thought that he must have come a long way, to accept her touch, to reciprocate. He was not a good at hugs - stiff and awkward. Her heart grew a bit more at the thought, fond of this information.

She wondered if he could bear the truth - her truth. He looked so vulnerable like this, and her fingers twitched with the need to touch, to reaffirm his physicality to herself and to him.
He had been crazy, that day on the bridge, with blood on his face and a wicked grin ghosting the corners of his mouth. He had been lucid, too, though. Traumatized, hurting, confused. But capable of reflection, of memory, and he had chosen to taunt her, to play with her. Proof it, he had said and meant it. Karin sprawled next to him, helpless in the wake of his hatred.

She had been deceitful, too. Hadn't she?

His chidori would have melted her face, if Kakashi had not intervened.

His cheek was cold, as if he was freezing. She felt her own eyes burn. She understood that she was smiling at him - a thing full of sorrow, at the endless sea between them she did not know how to cross.

Because his kunai would have buried itself in her heart, while all this time, it had beaten to the rhythm of his pain.

"I know you don't want to hurt me know", she conceded. Emboldened by her own pain, she stroked his cheek, then let her hand fall to his once more, taking it into a tight grip. The urge to tell him was fierce. She did not know how to stop it. "If I could, I would take all the pain away from you." She did not tell him that she'd gladly bear it on her own shoulders. She had no idea how vast the landscape of his pain must be, but she would take it all and gulp it down like the mould it was. Let it eat away at her insides, instead.
Stupid, stupid.
She let go off his hand.

"I don't think you're right", she said with finality. She was getting to her feet, brushing off the dust of the cave floor from her knees. "I think we should talk some more to Ari before we jump to conclusions."

 

[Graverobber141]

He was left staring at her, frozen by her fingers caressing his cheek, wiping away the tears whose existence he was only just now becoming aware of, by her confession, by her fingers squeezing his own, by the smile that made his chest tighten, the strain in her eyes from holding back that sorrow, and it made him want to shield her from the pain he saw behind it. He was left letting her words seep in, through the cracks this exchange had left in his defensive shell, and for the first time in his life, even with so much distance still between them, he began to consider what might lay beyond silence and his sins.

I don't think you're right.

He made no move to stand himself, but his hand tenderly reached out to grasp her own: a request for her to stay a moment longer. Shifting his dark gaze upward to find her own emerald colored one, his expression softened, and a smile, sorrow-tinted and almost timid, tugged at the edge of his lips.

"You search for the good in situations and people." His voice was soft, and the statement was hardly an accusation. No, there was admiration in it, because he wished he had the strength to allow himself to hope, but such a thing was dangerous.

"...And thank you, Sakura." It was a shift backwards of the conversation, and he wished he had betters words to express how her truth made him feel, but a lifetime spent trying to feel nothing left him bare in these moments, unusually incompetent. "For everything."

A stretch of a heartbeat followed before his hand slipped from hers, thumb gently caressing her fingers, and his eyes slowly drifted toward the mouth of the cave to study the occasional streaks of lightning that flashed throughout the dark clouds of the night sky. "You should get some rest. I'll keep watch."

 

[arbus]

She halted in her movements when she felt his hand graze her arm, then slender fingers took her hand. For a mere heartbeat, time froze for her. To the steady thrum of the rain and the storm outside, a backdrop like a painting, she studied his features, allowed her eyes to meet his and held the gaze.

Another shift had taken place in the dark waters of their relationship; it was in the air between them, and in the subtle expressions of his face. She nodded once before she left him to make her own bedstead near the fire. Her internal clock suggested the day was drawing to a close, even though it was hard to tell with the storm. Curled up underneath the blanket that still had not lost the scents of home, of the fabric softener her mother used, her body certainly became heavy from an exhaustion she had not known she felt. Her eyes rested on Sasuke for a long time, a silhouette against the cave's entrance. Her fingers closed into a lose fist. Where he had touched, the faint tingling of his chakra remained, this electrical buzz that lingered. She wondered what it would feel like, to be held by him; if she would burst into flames, or if the electrical current would run all over her, through her.

A strange phenomenon. She did not feel the urge to look it up. It just was, and her body accepted it like oxygen, like the warmth from the fire.

Eventually she fell into an uneasy rest, words and pictures floating in the front of her mind that wanted to pull her back into consciousness, that required her to think all of it through.

And next to her, a tiny hiccup, as Ari turned in his sleep.

 

[Graverobber141]

Sasuke sat still, a stone guardian at the mouth of the cave, whose marble features were occasionally lit up by lightning. His gaze was vigilant, scanning the darkness sprawled before for any sign of danger; even though he did not expect for them to be hunted, even with a solid perimeter constructed, he could not let himself falter, because he would never lose anything precious to him again. It only happened a few times throughout the night, but he felt compelled to glance over his shoulder, to check on the bundles he was protecting, and as his eyes drifted over Sakura, he could feel her fingers ghosting his cheek, like a reminder that what had occurred between them--he was at a loss to define what exactly it had been--had, indeed, happened. In these moments, he felt his lips tugged upwards, ever so slightly.

He wanted to use the time to think, but he found that the emotions born of those cracks left within his defenses were the exact opposite of thinking, and for once, he simply took in their existence, let them drift around in his being, and occasionally tried to sort through them. One thing was clear, underneath the muddled waters of it all: he was starting to acknowledge his own humanity.

Eventually, he made his way silently, as to not to wake Ari and Sakura, back toward the campfire. Feeding more wood to the flames, he rebuilt its dwindling strength, before taking a seat in front of its circle to warm his chilling body, angled toward the mouth of the cave so he could still be aware.

He was not quite sure when it happened, because he had not meant for it to occur. His body, driven by an exhaustion settling within his muscles, began to succumb to the tiredness washing over him. His eyes closed with a struggle, his head dropping slowly against his shoulder. Amazingly, he remained up right, but the steady, deep rate of his breathing suggested he had drifted off for a few hours of sleep.

 

[arbus]

The early morning's sky was blue and cloudless, as if the storm of the previous day had been nothing but a bad dream. From the entrance of the cave resonated the soft trickle of rain water dripping from rocks onto the hard cave floor. Birds sang, and the sun was watery but visible already against the horizon, casting the near mountain range in an otherworldly orange hue. The whole forest bathed in the beautiful light of the rising sun.

Around Sasuke's sleeping figure, covered in his own blanket, the cave had come alive with the sounds of preparations. The smell of slightly burned sausages (the last of Sakura's provisions from the inn) lingered in the air, as did the herbal scents of tea. Clatter and tinker from pots and cups echoed against the vast walls. The fire smouldered peacefully against the remnants of wood, just enough to keep the freshly roasted nuts - courtesy of Ari - warm. When Sakura had startled from her sleep, only to realize that she had slept all through the night, immediate guilt had washed over her for failing to relieve Sasuke from his guard duties. But when she had seen him by the fire, snoring gently in his awkward sleeping position with a blanket thrown over his shoulders, a smile had come to her face unbidden. She had found Ari beside him, cross-legged and determined as he tried his hand seals.

Now, they were communicating in whispers, passing mugs and chopsticks between them.
"When's he gonna wake?", Ari whispered in a whiny tone. She could not muster annoyance, as his stomach had been growling distinctly for the last half hour.
"You can eat", she whispered back, but he shook his head vehemently.
"We have to wait so that we can all eat together."
"Then stop whining."

Apparently, Ari was not exactly fond of being told off. He stuck out his lower lip and demonstratively went back to his jutsu exercises.

Sakura felt a sigh rise from deep in her chest. She stifled it as not to draw more of Ari's disfavor. He certainly was well-behaved, that much was clear. Her conversation with Sasuke from the night before was still hovering near the surface; she sensed it like an itch. Daylight made her wary, though. The thoughts of last night were better kept cloaked in the dimness of a crackling fire and the howling of a storm; the surreal circumstances of their situation made it strangely bearable, that new insights, but kept them at a distance at the same time. As if touching Sasuke's tear-streaked face had been nothing but a dream.

 

[Graverobber141]

It was the soft sound of whispers, almost conspiratorial, that finally drew Sasuke from his deep slumber; their other sounds, even the tantalizing smell of breakfast, only knocked at his consciousness, so determined his mind was to have at least a few hours of rest. Opening his eyes, becoming aware of the stiffness of both his back and neck, it took a moment for him to realize he had even drifted off to sleep. Then he became aware that the sounds of the storm were no longer drowning out all others, that the cave was cast in a shine of morning light, and that he was no longer playing guardian at its mouth.

Guilt sunk into his already sore shoulders, and he ran his fingers through his hair, mentally chastising himself. In his mind, he had put these two at risk, letting himself falter in his duty. Dropping his hand down his face, he looked between the two, remembering the events of last night as his eyes traced over Sakura's features, and felt a tinge of embarrassment seep into his subconscious at the thought of how she had seen him crumble, all the while he found himself without regret at the occurrence. Yet he did not have much time to linger on the thought, as he noticed Ari looking like he was waiting on him for something, and his nose finally registered the tantalizing smell of cooked sausage.

"Hm, you should have woken me." He stood with a grunt and effort, his muscles complaining, wound tightly still in the awkward position he had mistakenly kept them in for such a long time. It was only then he noticed the blanket slipping from his shoulders, his arm quickly reaching out before it could fall on the ground, because he had not draped it over himself. Curious. It was definitely his own, the one he had given the kid last night, and he couldn't help but look toward Ari with a small smile.

For the boy's sake, his heart reached out, wishing that they'd find his mother, all the while his mind harshly bit down on that inkling of hope, firmly trying to reinstate reality.

His eyes softening, Sasuke set the blanket aside, stretching for a few moments to work out what kinks in his body he could, before he seated himself beside the two of them. "Did you two at least sleep well?"