Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Loveless Suna ❯ Chapter 57

I don't even want to know how long it has been but here is a new chapter AND AND, it's beta[Author ID1: at Sat Apr 23 18:54:00 2011 ]'e[Author ID1: at Sat Apr 23 18:55:00 2011 ]d[Author ID1: at Sat Apr 23 18:54:00 2011 ] by my wonderful new beta sangoran_21. She did one hell of a job![Author ID1: at Sat Apr 23 18:55:00 2011 ][Author ID1: at Sat Apr 23 18:55:00 2011 ]

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or make money from this.[Author ID1: at Sat Apr 23 18:56:00 2011 ][Author ID1: at Sat Apr 23 18:45:00 2011 ]

We were checking through all the scrolls we could find in the Earth Country the whole night; only when the first rays of light fell through the cracks in the ceiling did Sasuke order us to get a couple hours of sleep. Honestly, I didn't think I would be able to sleep with my thoughts running back to Gaara every second I had time to think. `By now, he's probably positive I betrayed him.' I pouted at nothing in particular before letting a sigh slip through my lips. `He'll find out where we are when he interrogates Temari,' and I was certain he would. The blonde was lucky she was pregnant, making it lucky enough so that the redhead couldn't perform most of the techniques he would have in mind.

I could feel Gaara's chakra under my skin, and knew I had to let it go; it was too much of a risk to keep it, and I do remember him telling me that his chakra was the reason he could locate me when Eho had kidnapped me. I raised my hand and focused on gathering the foreign chakra. Because it wasn't my own, it seemed more eager to leave my body; after an hour, I release the last of it into the air. Sighing, I rolled onto my side, suddenly feeling a lot emptier, and looked at Sai; he was sleeping like a statue. I had to smile when I noted pink hair resting on his chest. `He must be uncomfortable.' My eyes moved upwards to the door where my daddy had disappeared through. I could already guess he wasn't coming back until it was time to leave and wondered how long he could go without sleep. `If I'm still awake in an hour, I'll join him.' I promised myself, even if I could only guess when an hour has past. I could never keep my promise; sleep took over me before the hour was up.

-

“Does everyone know the plan?” Sakura asked, and all three of us nodded; we were standing before the library ready to leave.

“Let's go,” Sasuke ordered, and we left in a run. I lost count of the days we have been gone from Suna, but I was certain a search party would be after us.

“We'll avoid main roads,” Sakura said from beside me as if she was reading my mind. A nod and a small smile was my response. It seemed to take forever-and when I would look back at it later on, it would have only seemed hours-before we reached the border and Sasuke stopped us.

“We'll rest here and make our aliases,” he said, turning to the rest of us. It took me awhile to come up with a decent alias that could walk around a town unnoticeable.

`I blame the rich and famous,' I pouted to myself, and nodded to my daddy that I was ready to leave again. With a beating heart, we entered the first village we came across. I kept glancing around but nobody gave us any thought, and we reached an inn before I knew it; I actually bumped into Sai when he stopped all of a sudden. “Sorry,” I mumbled, and he smiled forgivingly at me.

We followed Sasuke who entered the inn and watched him reserve two rooms. We retreated to the one the boys will be using, and I settled myself in the middle of the room with Sakura while the two ravens inspected our privacy.

“What do we do from here on?” I asked, when my daddy finally sat down with us. From the corner of my eye, I noted how Sai leaned against a lonely desk.

“We need to find out as much as we can about the Rukkei War.” The ex-ROOT nin answered, and I nodded to myself.

“There's probably not a museum around, is there?” I asked jokingly, and got three odd looks back. “You don't know what a museum is, do you?” Sakura shook her head negative, and I sighed. “How to explain? It's a place that contains... only articles and information about a certain event.”

“Oh, like a library but then with only one subject?” The pink nin asked, and I nodded slowly.

“Something like that...” I wasn't in the mood for trying to explain it better. A pregnant pause settled itself around us.

“Once in the capital, we could go to the archives under the disguise that we're writing a book about the Rukkei War?” Sai suggested, and his girlfriend jumped up.

“That's a great idea; we already have an artist,” her hand gestured emphasizing in the ex-ROOT's direction. I looked at my daddy, who was carefully considering the cover.

“We could use a published book as reverence.” His eyes stared at Sai, who smiled back at him,

“That can be arranged.” Sasuke closed his eyes for a minute before opening them again and nodded,

“Tomorrow we'll look for clothes.”

-

The next morning, we entered the market, and made our way to a big stall that held a variety of different garments. With speed, we picked clothes to our tastes, and made our way out of the village. Sakura found a hidden stream that was perfect for changing, and we let the boys change first while we were scouting our surroundings. Once we were also wearing our disguises, the four of us continued our way towards the capital—it took two more days before we finally reached it, and I was ready to sleep for days, but of course, more urgent matters pressed for our attention. We found the archives in the middle of the village, and entered it with Sakura leading our way—we had decided she would be our spokesperson, Sai would of course pose as the artist, Sasuke would be the brooding writer, and I would be the fussing assistant. As expected, Sakura got us in, and we even got our own tour guide.

Like a good interested writer's company, we listened to the guide and asked the right questions at the right time. We did find out a lot about the Rukkei War; the war had been between the Tsuchikage and an underground organisation. When the Kage at that time had taken a sudden ill, the organisation had seen their chance, and started raising the villagers against him. It seemed that there had been a lot of protest against the Tsuchikage's regime for awhile, and the people only needed a leader to stand up against him. By the time the Tsuchikage's health was back to normal, his opponents had risen to a group with power. It took another month before the war started, and then a year before the final battle. At first, it seemed the rebels were winning until the Kage activated a hidden plan that gave him the upper hand; many scripts told that the Tsuchikage had been on the verge of winning until he suddenly got the news his wife had been killed—he lost his mind and his country. Another version of the story said his wife died before he suddenly activated his hidden plan, killing every enemy like a madman.

“No matter when his wife died, the hidden plan could be the chakra reserve.” Sakura mumbled, as I was returning a scroll to its place on the rack. After the tour we had retreated to the archives that were open for the public behind the small museum the guide had toured us through. The museum was nothing compared to the archives; the latter covered at least three times the area of the gallery.

“But nowhere does it talk about such an object,” I answered while turning towards her again.

“I think we'll need to get into the restricted section,” Sai said from beside his girlfriend, and I noted Sasuke eyeing the guards.

“Our cover story won't get us in there,” my daddy nodded, agreeing with me.

“We'll come back tonight; make a floor-plan.” He turned to Sai before looking at Sakura. “Find out which jutsus are protecting the place. Continue searching the books,” he ordered me as last and looked back at the guards. “I'll find out the guards' schedule.” I watched him walk up to the guard that stood most isolated while his Sharingan started to twirl in his eyes. Sai pushed the book he had been reading towards me before getting up and stretching his arms in the air.

“I'm going for a walk.” He announced as he leaned off the table towards Sakura. The pink nodded in understanding while accepting a quick kiss. I had to force my face not to fold in an expression of WTF.

`Those two should get an Oscar.' The corner of my lips turned upwards as the raven left.

“I'm going to the bathroom'” Sakura said, as she made her way out to find a more isolated space. I nodded and dropped my head back to the scroll in my hands. I scanned through parts until I couldn't read straight anymore. Getting up, I stretched my limps, popping my spine, and walked through the room, making it look like I was searching for another scroll. My eyes followed one roll to another, and moved to the next rack only to return halfway.

`No way!' I thought looking at the woman before me. I had only seen her briefly the last time, but I was certain Shizi's sister was standing before me. She seemed to feel my eyes and looked up questioning.

“Are you looking for something particularly?” She asked friendly and I felt confused. Gaara had done something terrible to her and I wanted to know what, badly, but at the same time I didn't want to break my redhead's trust even more than I already had.

“I'm looking for information on the Rukkei War.” The lie rolled from my tongue, and seemed to pique her interest.

“Maybe I can help, I'm Asura, the Tsuchikage's daughter,” she introduced herself without the slightest doubt about my intentions. I forced a smile, and introduced myself as the assistant, Masana. My guilt started to surface as she helped me towards interesting scrolls; she also told me everything she knew about her ancestor.

`For a position that isn't given down from parent to child, a lot of Kages come from one family.' I realized it was the same in Konoha and Suna.

“...I think that most articles from that time are still hidden somewhere in the attic of the tower.” Asura apologized and I blinked before catching up.

“Ah, and there would be no chance of looking through them?” I played my part. Asura's face got pulled into uncertainty.

“I could get you and your partners access, but I doubt you'll find what you're looking for; it's a mess.”

“We would sure appreciate the chance'” I pushed and she was wavering. “Maybe we could order a part of the attic in the process,” I offered and saw her bite her lip.

“I'll ask my father, but I'm not promising anything. There could be information there he doesn't want getting out.” I nodded.

“Thank you anyway, you'll be able to find one of us here or at our inn, the Roriri.” A smile showed her my gratitude and she sent one back before departing. “She's nice,” I said, knowing Sasuke stood behind me, I turned my body halfway so I could see him. “What did Gaara do to her?” I wondered aloud and noticed the onyx eyes flash left and right.

“Maybe best not to say his name, it isn't a common one.” I realized my mistake and nodded in understanding.

“And whatever he did...” he didn't continue, and I couldn't guess if he meant to defend my redhead or not. Lacking the courage to ask, I asked what he had found out instead. “Later at the inn.” He almost whispered, and I watched how he picked a random scroll from the shelf: a sudden spark announced an ANBU guard walking by with a single glance at us. With a couple more scrolls, we returned to our table, and found the couple waiting for us. Both seemed to move simultaneously away from each other when they saw us, and I couldn't suppress my smile; they were so cute together.

-

We continued searching through scrolls until darkness fell and we returned to the Roriri. “What did you learn?” Sasuke asked once he had checked the premises.

“There were a lot of jutsus, but they're old, and haven't been reinforced; they shouldn't be a problem to bypass,” Sakura answered first while her boyfriend pulled a map out of his pouch. “I'll add the jutsus,” she continued, as the map got spread open on the only table present in the room.

“What about the guards' schedule?” she asked, looking from the map to the Uchiha. “There are three shifts, each one of them eight hours long; they switch at eight in the morning, four in the afternoon, and at midnight.” Letting it sink in, I sucked on my lower lip before addressing my daddy.

“How many?”

“At night there are six and in the day four.” I frowned at this.

“But in the day there are also tourists like us who are looking things up.” The other three nodded thoughtfully, and a heavy silence settled over us.

“Did you learn anything from the girl?” Sasuke broke the silence, and the other two exchanged glances from the raven to me.

“I met Asura, the youngest daughter of the Tsuchikage; she would try to convince her father to let us scope around in the attic for more information on the Rukkei War.” Sakura's eyebrows rose in surprise.

“How did you manage that?”

“She seemed honestly interested in helping.” I shrugged.

“Better watch out that she doesn't have a plan of her own,” Sai said with a frown on his face.

“She probably could just really want to help,” I tried again. I couldn't help myself, a part of me wanted to defend her like that would make up for whatever Gaara did to her.

“Whatever her intentions, it gives us access to the tower.” My daddy decided to end the conversation.

-

While waiting for Asura to show up again, Sakura and Sai made preparations to infiltrate the restricted section; we had decided to go at night, but only two people to minimize the chance of capture. The two guys would go in disguise, while Sakura and I stay behind; if they were found out, the Earth ANBU's would be looking for two men, not for a group of four. Also, we realized that there was a chance we would be screened before being allowed inside the tower. Sakura and I would have to play our part even more in private now. I watched the guys leave, and sighed; I tried to sense if there was anybody on the roof, of course nobody was there. The ravens would never have left otherwise, but still, I wanted to feel useful. That night, I didn't get a lot of sleep due to all the thoughts running through my mind, but no ninja came close to our room long enough to be a threat.

-

Impatiently, I watched Sakura huffing over a scratch Sai had received from a fight with a book. I shook my head but couldn't deny they were cute. The way the ex-ROOT's eyes followed every movement his girlfriend made with a studying expression made me forgive them.

“What did you find out?” My curiosity won and I turned to Sasuke who was also eyeing the couple's interaction with an unreadable look on his face.

“We think it's a jewel.” He answered while his eyes moved towards me. In the corner of my eye, I saw Sakura and Sai stop being flirtatious and listen to us. “There are a lot of references to a gift the Tsuchikage had received from his wife only days before the final battle.” I nodded for him to continue with a frown on my face. “It had a big red stone that glows when chakra is stored. If the stone is also red without chakra, we don't know. There are different descriptions, but none good enough to give a clear picture.” My daddy looked at Sai, who pulled a couple of drawings out of his pouch.

“These are the sketches that were given.” He divided the papers between the pink nin and me. One showed a necklace, and the other I was holding a brooch.

“I can't really imagine a Kage running around with a brooch in his hair.” I said sarcastically.

“Maybe that's why he was too late to save his wife.” Sakura suggested and I blinked.

“You've got a point.” I mumbled and blew up my cheeks while taking in the sketches. Letting the air escape through my lips, I switched my papers with Sakura's. One had another necklace with much more decoration, and a bracelet that was connected to a ring.

“I guess when we're permitted to enter the tower we'll have to keep a look out for jewels.” The pink nin decided in the end, and I nodded reluctantly.

`If we get permission?'

Stephke23: No action yet, but it's coming. They are trying to keep a low profile as the[Author ID1: at Sat Apr 23 18:58:00 2011 ]y don't want to be the cause of the war. R&R.[Author ID1: at Sat Apr 23 19:00:00 2011 ]