Day 37: Arts and Crafts Room

[host_club_honey]

Honey was relieved when breakfast was over.  Even though there'd been plenty of sticky-sweet french toast to be had, the company left him feeling a little inadequate.  Usually girls fawned all over him, but Callisto had been downright mean.  Had he done something wrong?  What kind of girl wanted to fight rather than play?  It'd only been a few days

Comments

[tsunagari]

[Dammit, you beat me by mere seconds.:P]

When given the option to participate in a shift with this focus, it was difficult to pass it up. He'd told Sakura he'd pick an obvious activity, hadn't he? She wouldn't be able to doubt he'd be anywhere but Arts and Crafts.

While he still saw no ink and brush of the sort he preferred (the sort he had hidden away in his room) it was still a chance to take his mind off things. Even without using it as a means of expression, he'd always found art to be a reasonable pastime.

It looked as though the explanations would be starting sooner than he'd hoped. It would be good to speak to Sakura again, though, even if she didn't stay. Taking some crayons as they were offered, he began drawing abstract patterns across the paper.

[for Sakura]

[see_my_back]

[haha, I win! ;D]

Sakura didn't feel a whole lot better after breakfast, but at least she was pretty sure she'd be able to meet with someone she actually wanted to see rather than, well, someone like Itachi. She let herself be led by the nurse into a smaller side room which was actually somewhat empty. It looked like a play room for children.

However, sure enough, there was Sai, sitting at one of the little round tables and doodling with colored sticks. Sakura sighed in an only slightly over-dramatic fashion, and sat down.

[tsunagari]

Sai smiled but didn't look up as the other ninja sat down. Instead, he plucked a pink crayon out from the others and began adding it to the design. "Good morning, Sakura," he greeted. "It looks like you're still confused about this place."

That meant he'd have to do most of the explaining, which he supposed was okay. He had the basic spiel down by now. "Is there anywhere you'd like me to start in particular?"

[see_my_back]

It wasn't surprising that Sai was so focused on his drawing. She relaxed slightly, eyes following the crayon as it moved over the paper.

"That's putting it lightly," she frowned, putting her elbows on the table and cupping her chin in her hands. "I got here last night and I was following Jiraiya-sama, but then I woke up this morning and Itachi is here too. I haven't even seen Sensei yet, but I saw his writing on the bulletin." Not to mention Naruto and Sasuke.

"We're not dead, are we?" she asked, half joking. With all these ghosts of the past popping up, it was really hard to be sure.

[tsunagari]

"I don't recall dying," Sai answered simply. "There are those here that do, however. Though I haven't seen Zabuza-san for some time, both he and Haku are here." He assumed Sakura would recognize the names as the others had. Her mention of Itachi caused him to frown only slightly, and he added "Itachi-san didn't project any hostile intentions, did he? We have a bit of a truce, but there's enough anger between others that it hangs by a thread."

His attention had soon returned to the drawing again. "I've heard of some people arriving at night. I was luckier myself, so you have my sympathies." Or what sympathies he was capable of offering.

[see_my_back]

"I don't either but-" she looked at him strangely when he mentioned Haku and Zabuza. Those two were here too?! Just how was this happening? Jiraiya and Itachi they could chalk up to poor information, but she'd seen Haku and Zabuza die with her own eyes. There was no mistaking what'd happened that day.

"I kind of threw my breakfast at his head and tried to stab him with a pen." She had no regrets, save for the fact that the pen hadn't hit its mark. If she'd upset any truces, it wasn't like she'd known about them. "If Sasuke-kun is really here, I don't see why he'd have a truce with Itachi. That just doesn't make sense." If it was all as simple as that, Sasuke wouldn't have been so obsessed that he'd left the village just to seek power to kill Itachi in the first place.

"I'm fine. I was with one of the Sannin, and the only dangers we came across were really slow."

[tsunagari]

At the mention of Sasuke, Sai's smile became a bit strained. "Sasuke hasn't included himself in this truce, for obvious reasons. He has, in fact, done his best to distance himself from anyone from our world." This shouldn't come as much of a surprise to her.

He looked up at her. It was good to be remembered this time, and he hadn't yet questioned it. "What time were you pulled from? What's the last thing you remember?"

[see_my_back]

It didn't surprise her that Sasuke would refuse a truce, but the other part was still hard to hear. "But, that can't be right. Jiraiya-sama said that he and Naruto had gone together last night. He wouldn't just..." she couldn't finish the thought aloud. He wouldn't just forget about us. Wouldn't just push us away. But she knew he would, he had, after all, done it to them before. Her hands balled into fists as she tried to solidify her resolve. Nothing would change. Just because it was a different place didn't mean she wouldn't still try to go after Sasuke.

"I... Naruto had just left to train with the frog sage," she explained. "It was shortly after we'd heard about what happened to Jiraiya-sama." The news hadn't sit well with any of them, least of all Naruto, and she supposed she couldn't be sure if even Sai knew about that much.

[tsunagari]

A genuine look of confusion cam over Sai's face as Sakura answered his question. He was so used to being the one ahead of everyone else that the thought that she might be ahead of him this time hadn't even crossed his mind. "The... frog sage?" He blinked. "And what happened to Jiraiya-sama?" He shook his head.

"Last I remember was a couple days after the defeat of two Akatsuki members - Kakuzu and Hidan. Then I was here." The drawing was moved lightly to the side. "This place can pull people from any time and place, it seems."

[see_my_back]

Though she hadn't known Sai all that long, it was rare for his real emotions to come through so clearly. However, the confused expression didn't seem like one he'd been practicing. In her mind, Sai should already know about all this. But if the last thing he remembered was when they'd fought Kakuzu and Hidan... there were some fairly imporant things that'd happened between then and now

[tsunagari]

Sai's frown of confusion only deepened as Sakura went on. Orochimaru and Itachi? That would have to have been a fair amount of time he'd been away. ...But then he wouldn't really have been away. That was the way this place worked, wasn't it? That was a confusing thought, as it left him wondering what the self still left in that world had done during this time.

He was going to have to try not to thing about things like that.

"The first time I saw you here, you were from a time before you'd even met me." He shook his head again. There were more important matters. "You didn't mention this to Itachi-san, did you?" he asked carefully, still frowning.

[see_my_back]

Before she'd met Sai? But that'd been so long ago! Or seemed like it at least. Still, all this time stuff was getting kind of confusing. Somehow things still went on as always back home, but they were all from different timelines somehow. Shadow clones could only do so much and this was way beyond something like that. Chakra could do a lot of things, like speed someone up or slow them down, but it couldn't affect time itself. At least, not so far as she was aware.

At Sai's question, Sakura looked away guiltily, "I uh- I might have said something... in- in the heat of the moment."

[tsunagari]

So she'd told him then. He sighed. If it really had happened then he supposed Itachi was bound to find out sooner or later. No one even knew for certain if, and this was assuming escape was even possible, one would be able to return to their world at the same time they left.

"Ah, well..." The smile returned. "I apologize for being behind, then." Though he didn't know how he could help it. It seemed proper somehow. "Have you learned much else about the Institute yet? I can attempt to help you further."

[see_my_back]

He seemed disappointed, but was it really that bad that she'd told him? She didn't know the details of what Itachi had done to his brother, but if it was enough to make him pursue his own flesh and blood so venomously, for him to forsake all his friends just to destroy him, didn't Itachi think that Sasuke might actually do it? She supposed it might just be inherent for all Uchiha to be so arrogant that they believed themselves untouchable, that was certainly a sound theory, though she'd probably punch anyone else who said so.

"Don't worry about it Sai-kun, that's not something you need to apologize for." She was probably the one who should be apologizing for leaking that kind of information. "I saw what was written on the bulletin. And I arrived at night, so I have a pretty good idea of how things work. It's just... the weirdest situation I could ever imagine. I'd probably think I was crazy if everyone else wasn't so calm about it."

[tsunagari]

Sai nodded. "It's hard to believe it all." The issue of multiple worlds was one that he hadn't been able to get past at first. It was something one came to accept after spending a while here, though.

"If you arrived at night then you must already know the limits to our abilities." The ninja reached over and grabbed another blank sheet of paper. "Most of us have been unable to access our chakra at all.

[see_my_back]

"I've got a general idea," she said in relation to the chakra problem. She hadn't even been able to climb walls and that was one of the basics once she'd become a Genin!

"I can use it a little bit," Sakura frowned, watching Sai ready another piece of paper. "But only just." Jiraiya had mentioned that stuff too. That they were all kind of 'evened out' or however it was he'd phrased it. It had to be true, otherwise Itachi would've smeared her across the wall for dumping her breakfast on his head.

"Do we even know why they're keeping us here?"