Somewhere I Have Never Travelled, Gladly Beyond - Chapter 5
Title: Somewhere I Have Never Travelled, Gladly Beyond
Fandom: Naruto
Type: Multi-chaptered
Rating: Pg-13
Pairings: Deidara/Sakura
Word count: 3,009
Summary: Naruto had been bragging all day that his new jutsu was his best yet. Sakura and her new situation beg to differ. Post time-skip. DeiSaku.
A/N: This chapter was originally going to include the break-in too, but then it somehow ran away with itself and ended up way too long. Unfortunately not entirely pleased with this chapter, but I can’t quite put my finger on why. Er, it’s a transition chapter? The next chapter is mostly sketched out and shouldn’t take as long as this one to complete.
“This is more like it!” Sakura exclaimed as they came within view of the town indicated on the map.
After washing the grime off themselves as best they could in the frigid river, Sakura and Deidara had scarfed down some rations from the soldier’s pack, donned the extra clothes they’d found in it as well, and then headed off in the direction of the town. They’d decided against creating another flying clay bird in order to keep a low profile; the authorities were bound to be on high alert once they found the remnants of the unfortunate squad that Deidara had taken care of. After walking until late in the afternoon, Sakura’s feet had started to hurt and she had become increasingly irritated at her infuriating travel partner. Now, however, one look at the outskirts of the town swept all those feelings away.
Certainly much larger, cleaner, and overall cheerful-looking than the previous village, the town sprawled across all the visible landscape. In the middle, a castle set on a hill rose impressively above its surroundings. Even as the sun began to set, the shops and streets were still full of people. The buildings, made from bricks or stone blocks, were different from the cheap metal siding and hastily constructed houses Sakura was used to, but nonetheless, the ambiance of the town reminded her somehow of Konoha. She pushed those thoughts away quickly, swallowing down the feelings of homesickness.
Taking a deep breath, Sakura considered their next options. Her aching feet helped her settle on one fast enough. “Let’s see if that soldier’s money can buy us a place at an inn.”
Looking just as weary as Sakura felt, Deidara simply nodded in agreement. Thank goodness for small miracles; she was not in the mood to put up with anything from him.
Apparently the soldier that they’d snagged the pack from hadn’t been getting much in terms of pay. They were turned away from first few inns with crossed arms and ‘what are you trying to pull’ glares before ending up in a decidedly more sketchy area of town. This time, the man at the desk exchanged their coins for a key. Sakura’s attempts to indicate that she wanted two rooms were met with confusion and what she assumed to be demands for more money.
Finally giving up her efforts, Sakura waved the innkeeper away and turned back towards Deidara. “I guess we’ll have to make do with sharing a room. But I call shower first!”
Walking along the hallway to their room, a skitter of movement near the baseboards of the wall caught her attention. Sakura glanced down, but quickly redirected her eyes towards the room numbers peeling from the doors. Some things were better off not knowing, she concluded. Even with cockroaches or rats, as long as the room had a shower and a bed it was fine by her.
The state of the inn hadn’t escaped Deidara’s notice either. “You know, I haven’t paid for anything in a long, long time, yeah, and I didn’t ever imagine I’d be paying to stay in a hole like this.”
Rolling her eyes at him, she reached room number eleven and slid the key into the lock. “Akatsuki don’t pay for anything? Why am I completely unsurprised by that? Stop complaining, it’s wasn’t your money to begin with, and it’s better here than --”
As the door swung open and she flipped on the light switch, the sight of their room cut short Sakura’s commentary. For an inn that was probably populated by more rodents than people, it wasn’t bad. Not completely filthy, and bigger than a broom closet, at least. There was however, one glaringly obvious problem.
“Why is there only one bed?”
Unconcerned, Deidara walked past her, dropped the backpack on the bed, and started rummaging through it. “Why do you think, yeah? Two young people show up with no money and looking like they’ve been traveling for days? They probably get country kids eloping here like that all the time, yeah.”
‘Eloping’ echoed through her mind. No, it couldn’t be bad enough that she’d have to share a room with a notorious criminal, there just had to be only one bed too. And on top of that, to have people think they were... Ack!
As her inner self was in the process of short-circuiting, Sakura tried to keep outwardly calm. “I guess I’ll go ask the innkeeper for a different room.”
Pulling out the map, he didn’t bother looking at her. “Good luck hand-signing that one.”
Sense of defeat sinking in and anger rising, she crossed her arms. “Well I’m not sleeping on the floor.”
“Neither am I, yeah.”
“So you’d better keep your hands to yourself.”
Looking over at her incredulously, he snorted, “It’s not like I’m desperate or anything, yeah.”
Placing her hands on her hips, Sakura gave him the most unconvinced expression she could muster. “Oh right, cause I’m sure the whole having mouths in your hands deal is a huge hit with the ladies.”
Saying nothing, Deidara sat on the edge of the bed, his back turned towards her, and suddenly became engrossed in studying the map of the region.
Oops. Apparently that was a sensitive subject. Sakura made a mental note not to bring it up again. Although, on second thought... She re-filed it away for use the next time he was really pissing her off.
In the meantime though, perhaps changing the subject would be prudent. Settling beside him on the bed she peered at the map. “So... you got any ideas about how we’re going to rob that castle?”
“How should I know, yeah? We just got here.” Still a bit upset, apparently. He tossed the map onto the bed and stalked over to the other side of the room. “I’m taking a shower.”
Leaping to her feet, she rushed after him. “What?! No way! I called it first, remember!”
The bathroom door closed quite firmly in her face.
“Haven’t you ever heard of ladies first?” she yelled as she hammered her fist against the wooden door. She could bust it open easily enough, but that would result in an angry innkeeper, not to mention there’d be no door when she took her shower. Slightly counterproductive.
“Haven’t you ever heard that chivalry is dead, yeah?” His muffled voice responded to her before the spray of the shower started.
Heaving one last sigh of frustration and giving the door a final kick, Sakura stumbled over to the bed and collapsed onto it. The pillows were lumpy and the bedspread smelled like it needed a good session out in some fresh air, but sinking into the mattress after days of lying on hard ground felt so good. Tugging open the nightstand drawer out of boredom and curiosity, Sakura found a dark blue book with the image of a white cross on the front. Cheek smushed lazily against the pillow, she flipped to a random page and tried to make out some of the words. The alphabet appeared to be the same as the one she was used to, but at first glance none of the words made any sense. Too tired to inspect it further, she dropped it back into the drawer before flopping onto her back to gaze at the yellowing ceiling. With the tension easing from her shoulders and the sound of the shower in the background, she let her eyes drift closed.
Her half-sleep was interrupted a few minutes later by Deidara emerging from the bathroom, shirt in one hand and toweling his hair dry with the other. As she cracked her eyes open slightly in a glare, he sneered at her. “Your turn, although I think the hot water’s gone, yeah.”
It just wasn’t evil enough for him to steal the shower first, was it? Mumbling incoherent curses at him, she pushed herself up off the bed and staggered into the bathroom, closing the door behind her.
Moving towards the shower, something in the corner of her eye caught her attention. From the first mirror she’d seen in days, her reflection looked back at her.
Aie. No wonder they’d been turned away from all the nice inns.
The dark circles under her eyes stood out from her skin which was much more pallid than she thought was healthy from days with little food. A smudge of dirt streaked unflatteringly across her forehead. In the mess of tangles and odd flips that her hair consisted of, an orange leaf poked out. Of course Deidara had neglected to mention any of this to her, but she wasn’t sure whether she should be thankful or angry about that.
Shrugging out of the overly large military shirt and pants, she inspected the rest of the damage. The rest of her body confirmed the need to eat something with more substance than berries or bread, and there was a decent-sized purple bruise across her abdomen where she’d been kicked by Tobi days earlier. Along with the assortment of other cuts and bruises she’d acquired, ‘attractive’ was the last word she could apply to herself. Her only consolation was that her traveling companion resembled a poster-child for abuse and malnutrition too.
Self-esteem at a pitiful low, at least she was pretty sure she’d be safe from any unwanted attention that night.
Cranking up the shower to a temperature just under scalding, she stepped in and got to work with the cheap inn soap on the dirt that was stubbornly clinging to her body. With the water alternating between hot and cold, she didn’t take her time. Stepping out of the shower and trying not to look at her depressing reflection in the mirror, Sakura dried herself off and stepped back into the soldier’s clothes. There’d be no comfy pajamas tonight.
Emerging from the bathroom, her hand felt along the wall before finding the light switch and turning it on. Already in bed, Deidara mumbled curses at her.
“Some people are trying to sleep here, yeah,” he groaned and turned his face further into the pillow.
Sakura scowled at him. He was on the left side of the bed. That was her favourite side. What a jerk.
Grudgingly, she turned off the lights and slid under the covers on the other side. Facing away from him, she made sure to keep entirely on her half of the bed. He’d better do the same, she thought irritably, or he’d need to have his arms reattached again. As she imagined the many ways of making that threat a reality, she began to drift off to sleep.
“Just so you know, if you snore you’re getting smothered in your sleep, yeah.”
Under the covers, she kicked him.
**
To Deidara’s credit, Sakura awoke completely unharmed. Somewhere in the back of her mind she was almost disappointed; it was definitely time for him to start doing evil, Akatsuki-like things again, and she’d been so looking forward to getting the opportunity to take out all her anger and frustration on him. Instead, he was still asleep, one arm dangling off the edge of the bed and blond hair in complete disarray. Overall, he definitely didn’t look very threatening. If at that moment Sakura hadn’t known he was Akatsuki, she never would have guessed.
Not wanting to brave the cold of the room before she absolutely had to, Sakura curled back up under the blanket and tried to fall asleep again. Bored and hungry, she gave up quickly and pushed back the covers. Wincing as her bare feet met the cold floor, she wandered over to the window and drew the curtains back just enough to look outside. Blinking in disbelief, she opened them fully to get a better view.
As the light poured into the room, Deidara threw his pillow at her. “You’d better have a really good reason for waking me up this early, yeah.”
“It’s snowing,” she said softly, more to herself than in response to him.
Eyes wide and unable to turn away from the sight, Sakura felt him move behind her to look out the window too. “That hardly counts as snow,” he scoffed.
Sakura clenched her fists. He always had to go and ruin everything. Konoha rarely got even a dusting of snow, so the frosted ground and tiny flakes falling in the air were still a novelty to her. She turned to him, irritated. “What’s your problem? Can’t you just enjoy it?”
He tapped his hitai-ate, looking unimpressed. “I’m from one of the northern countries, yeah. Snow’s not all that great when you’ve got four months of it.”
The admission that he was from somewhere stopped her short. She knew that the Akatsuki were all from one hidden village or another, but for some reason she had a hard time picturing any of them coming from anywhere other than the depths of hell. Itachi was a special case, but the rest of them... Unconsciously biting her lip, she worked that thought for a moment.
Unaware of Sakura’s internal struggles, Deidara stretched, sat down on the bed, and tried without much luck to untangle his hair. “So what’re you getting us for breakfast today?”
Train of thought interrupted, she snapped at him, “Why’s it up to me to get us breakfast?”
“I got it yesterday, yeah. Now it’s your turn.”
Fair enough. “But we’ve run out of money.”
Deidara gave her that annoyed look she knew so well by now. “Are you actually a ninja? Go steal us something, yeah.”
The idea of stealing food from honest vendors didn’t appeal to her much, but the thought of slowly starving to death wasn’t so pleasant either. Mind made up, she slipped on her sandals, pulled on the backpack, and headed out the door. “I’ll be back in a bit. Don’t do anything too stupid while I’m gone.”
Shutting the door before he could respond, she made her way out of the inn and into the busy street. Crunching the frost under her feet, she explored the surrounding area. Luckily enough, there was a street market not too far away. Pretending to be an early morning customer like everyone else, Sakura examined the food up for sale. She didn’t recognize a good deal of the fruits and vegetables piled in crates and on tables, but they nonetheless made her mouth water and stomach rumble.
Blending into the crowd as well as she could, she waited until an opportunity presented itself. Passing by a stand full of something she recognized - apples - she slid two of them into the pockets of her baggy pants. After strolling casually through the rest of the market while ignoring the annoyingly fast beating of her heart, she turned down a small alleyway and transferred the apples into the backpack.
She’d done it. She’d stolen. It was thrilling in a way she didn’t want to admit, so Sakura clamped down on any thoughts and headed back out into the street. As she walked past the market stalls again, more items caught her eye. Her hungry stomach made sure she couldn’t ignore it. Bread wouldn’t be a bad idea. And those little sausages placed so close to the edge of that vendor’s stand would surely bring some much needed protein. Running a hand over some oranges, she figured she was in need of some extra vitamin C too. As a good medic, she reasoned, it would be such a disgrace if she ignored the needs of her body. And after all, they couldn’t rob a castle while malnourished, could they?
**
Arriving back at their room at the inn far later than she’d intended, Sakura ignored Deidara’s complaints and dumped the contents of the backpack onto the bed. As the food tumbled out, he stared.
Biting into an apple, she asked, “Is there a problem?”
He shook his head and grinned while picking up one of the oranges Sakura had stolen. “I just didn’t think I’d be starting you down the road to kleptomania, yeah.”
“You didn’t,” she said hotly, between bites, “We need all of this to recover our strength properly.”
“Right. I’m sure these little blue berry things have plenty of nutritional value, yeah.”
“Hey, who’s the medic here again?” She felt the tips of her ear go red, mumbled something about vitamins and minerals, and pretended not to see him rolling his eyes at her. “So what’s the plan for separating the local lord from his taxes? You had plenty of time while I was out to think up something better than ‘blast our way in through the front door’.”
He grinned in a way Sakura didn’t like.
She groaned. “Oh no...”
Deidara burst out laughing and threw some orange peel at her. “Don’t worry, yeah. What do you think I did while you were you gone, sat around here?” Switching into a more serious tone, he continued, “The castle’s got an average amount of guards. Those ninja we ran into a few days ago were definitely from around here. It’s nothing I can’t handle, don’t know about you though-” Sakura threw the orange peel back at him, “-but if we’re careful I don’t think we’ll have any problems getting in. I couldn’t find out where the money is though, so we’ll have to figure that one out once we get in, yeah. Then we just pinch what we need and get out of there.”
Chewing her food slowly, she absorbed what he was saying. It wasn’t the most detailed mission information she’d ever been given, but it was better than nothing. “So when do you want to do this?”
“Tonight,” he said as he unfolded the map of the region, pointing at a section of it. “Once we’ve got what we need, we’ll take off to one of these villages further east. We’ll be long gone before they figure out anything’s missing here, and then we should have what we need to get back home, yeah.”
Sakura sat up straight and nodded in agreement. Tonight it was.
++
Chapter 6
Fandom: Naruto
Type: Multi-chaptered
Rating: Pg-13
Pairings: Deidara/Sakura
Word count: 3,009
Summary: Naruto had been bragging all day that his new jutsu was his best yet. Sakura and her new situation beg to differ. Post time-skip. DeiSaku.
A/N: This chapter was originally going to include the break-in too, but then it somehow ran away with itself and ended up way too long. Unfortunately not entirely pleased with this chapter, but I can’t quite put my finger on why. Er, it’s a transition chapter? The next chapter is mostly sketched out and shouldn’t take as long as this one to complete.
“This is more like it!” Sakura exclaimed as they came within view of the town indicated on the map.
After washing the grime off themselves as best they could in the frigid river, Sakura and Deidara had scarfed down some rations from the soldier’s pack, donned the extra clothes they’d found in it as well, and then headed off in the direction of the town. They’d decided against creating another flying clay bird in order to keep a low profile; the authorities were bound to be on high alert once they found the remnants of the unfortunate squad that Deidara had taken care of. After walking until late in the afternoon, Sakura’s feet had started to hurt and she had become increasingly irritated at her infuriating travel partner. Now, however, one look at the outskirts of the town swept all those feelings away.
Certainly much larger, cleaner, and overall cheerful-looking than the previous village, the town sprawled across all the visible landscape. In the middle, a castle set on a hill rose impressively above its surroundings. Even as the sun began to set, the shops and streets were still full of people. The buildings, made from bricks or stone blocks, were different from the cheap metal siding and hastily constructed houses Sakura was used to, but nonetheless, the ambiance of the town reminded her somehow of Konoha. She pushed those thoughts away quickly, swallowing down the feelings of homesickness.
Taking a deep breath, Sakura considered their next options. Her aching feet helped her settle on one fast enough. “Let’s see if that soldier’s money can buy us a place at an inn.”
Looking just as weary as Sakura felt, Deidara simply nodded in agreement. Thank goodness for small miracles; she was not in the mood to put up with anything from him.
Apparently the soldier that they’d snagged the pack from hadn’t been getting much in terms of pay. They were turned away from first few inns with crossed arms and ‘what are you trying to pull’ glares before ending up in a decidedly more sketchy area of town. This time, the man at the desk exchanged their coins for a key. Sakura’s attempts to indicate that she wanted two rooms were met with confusion and what she assumed to be demands for more money.
Finally giving up her efforts, Sakura waved the innkeeper away and turned back towards Deidara. “I guess we’ll have to make do with sharing a room. But I call shower first!”
Walking along the hallway to their room, a skitter of movement near the baseboards of the wall caught her attention. Sakura glanced down, but quickly redirected her eyes towards the room numbers peeling from the doors. Some things were better off not knowing, she concluded. Even with cockroaches or rats, as long as the room had a shower and a bed it was fine by her.
The state of the inn hadn’t escaped Deidara’s notice either. “You know, I haven’t paid for anything in a long, long time, yeah, and I didn’t ever imagine I’d be paying to stay in a hole like this.”
Rolling her eyes at him, she reached room number eleven and slid the key into the lock. “Akatsuki don’t pay for anything? Why am I completely unsurprised by that? Stop complaining, it’s wasn’t your money to begin with, and it’s better here than --”
As the door swung open and she flipped on the light switch, the sight of their room cut short Sakura’s commentary. For an inn that was probably populated by more rodents than people, it wasn’t bad. Not completely filthy, and bigger than a broom closet, at least. There was however, one glaringly obvious problem.
“Why is there only one bed?”
Unconcerned, Deidara walked past her, dropped the backpack on the bed, and started rummaging through it. “Why do you think, yeah? Two young people show up with no money and looking like they’ve been traveling for days? They probably get country kids eloping here like that all the time, yeah.”
‘Eloping’ echoed through her mind. No, it couldn’t be bad enough that she’d have to share a room with a notorious criminal, there just had to be only one bed too. And on top of that, to have people think they were... Ack!
As her inner self was in the process of short-circuiting, Sakura tried to keep outwardly calm. “I guess I’ll go ask the innkeeper for a different room.”
Pulling out the map, he didn’t bother looking at her. “Good luck hand-signing that one.”
Sense of defeat sinking in and anger rising, she crossed her arms. “Well I’m not sleeping on the floor.”
“Neither am I, yeah.”
“So you’d better keep your hands to yourself.”
Looking over at her incredulously, he snorted, “It’s not like I’m desperate or anything, yeah.”
Placing her hands on her hips, Sakura gave him the most unconvinced expression she could muster. “Oh right, cause I’m sure the whole having mouths in your hands deal is a huge hit with the ladies.”
Saying nothing, Deidara sat on the edge of the bed, his back turned towards her, and suddenly became engrossed in studying the map of the region.
Oops. Apparently that was a sensitive subject. Sakura made a mental note not to bring it up again. Although, on second thought... She re-filed it away for use the next time he was really pissing her off.
In the meantime though, perhaps changing the subject would be prudent. Settling beside him on the bed she peered at the map. “So... you got any ideas about how we’re going to rob that castle?”
“How should I know, yeah? We just got here.” Still a bit upset, apparently. He tossed the map onto the bed and stalked over to the other side of the room. “I’m taking a shower.”
Leaping to her feet, she rushed after him. “What?! No way! I called it first, remember!”
The bathroom door closed quite firmly in her face.
“Haven’t you ever heard of ladies first?” she yelled as she hammered her fist against the wooden door. She could bust it open easily enough, but that would result in an angry innkeeper, not to mention there’d be no door when she took her shower. Slightly counterproductive.
“Haven’t you ever heard that chivalry is dead, yeah?” His muffled voice responded to her before the spray of the shower started.
Heaving one last sigh of frustration and giving the door a final kick, Sakura stumbled over to the bed and collapsed onto it. The pillows were lumpy and the bedspread smelled like it needed a good session out in some fresh air, but sinking into the mattress after days of lying on hard ground felt so good. Tugging open the nightstand drawer out of boredom and curiosity, Sakura found a dark blue book with the image of a white cross on the front. Cheek smushed lazily against the pillow, she flipped to a random page and tried to make out some of the words. The alphabet appeared to be the same as the one she was used to, but at first glance none of the words made any sense. Too tired to inspect it further, she dropped it back into the drawer before flopping onto her back to gaze at the yellowing ceiling. With the tension easing from her shoulders and the sound of the shower in the background, she let her eyes drift closed.
Her half-sleep was interrupted a few minutes later by Deidara emerging from the bathroom, shirt in one hand and toweling his hair dry with the other. As she cracked her eyes open slightly in a glare, he sneered at her. “Your turn, although I think the hot water’s gone, yeah.”
It just wasn’t evil enough for him to steal the shower first, was it? Mumbling incoherent curses at him, she pushed herself up off the bed and staggered into the bathroom, closing the door behind her.
Moving towards the shower, something in the corner of her eye caught her attention. From the first mirror she’d seen in days, her reflection looked back at her.
Aie. No wonder they’d been turned away from all the nice inns.
The dark circles under her eyes stood out from her skin which was much more pallid than she thought was healthy from days with little food. A smudge of dirt streaked unflatteringly across her forehead. In the mess of tangles and odd flips that her hair consisted of, an orange leaf poked out. Of course Deidara had neglected to mention any of this to her, but she wasn’t sure whether she should be thankful or angry about that.
Shrugging out of the overly large military shirt and pants, she inspected the rest of the damage. The rest of her body confirmed the need to eat something with more substance than berries or bread, and there was a decent-sized purple bruise across her abdomen where she’d been kicked by Tobi days earlier. Along with the assortment of other cuts and bruises she’d acquired, ‘attractive’ was the last word she could apply to herself. Her only consolation was that her traveling companion resembled a poster-child for abuse and malnutrition too.
Self-esteem at a pitiful low, at least she was pretty sure she’d be safe from any unwanted attention that night.
Cranking up the shower to a temperature just under scalding, she stepped in and got to work with the cheap inn soap on the dirt that was stubbornly clinging to her body. With the water alternating between hot and cold, she didn’t take her time. Stepping out of the shower and trying not to look at her depressing reflection in the mirror, Sakura dried herself off and stepped back into the soldier’s clothes. There’d be no comfy pajamas tonight.
Emerging from the bathroom, her hand felt along the wall before finding the light switch and turning it on. Already in bed, Deidara mumbled curses at her.
“Some people are trying to sleep here, yeah,” he groaned and turned his face further into the pillow.
Sakura scowled at him. He was on the left side of the bed. That was her favourite side. What a jerk.
Grudgingly, she turned off the lights and slid under the covers on the other side. Facing away from him, she made sure to keep entirely on her half of the bed. He’d better do the same, she thought irritably, or he’d need to have his arms reattached again. As she imagined the many ways of making that threat a reality, she began to drift off to sleep.
“Just so you know, if you snore you’re getting smothered in your sleep, yeah.”
Under the covers, she kicked him.
**
To Deidara’s credit, Sakura awoke completely unharmed. Somewhere in the back of her mind she was almost disappointed; it was definitely time for him to start doing evil, Akatsuki-like things again, and she’d been so looking forward to getting the opportunity to take out all her anger and frustration on him. Instead, he was still asleep, one arm dangling off the edge of the bed and blond hair in complete disarray. Overall, he definitely didn’t look very threatening. If at that moment Sakura hadn’t known he was Akatsuki, she never would have guessed.
Not wanting to brave the cold of the room before she absolutely had to, Sakura curled back up under the blanket and tried to fall asleep again. Bored and hungry, she gave up quickly and pushed back the covers. Wincing as her bare feet met the cold floor, she wandered over to the window and drew the curtains back just enough to look outside. Blinking in disbelief, she opened them fully to get a better view.
As the light poured into the room, Deidara threw his pillow at her. “You’d better have a really good reason for waking me up this early, yeah.”
“It’s snowing,” she said softly, more to herself than in response to him.
Eyes wide and unable to turn away from the sight, Sakura felt him move behind her to look out the window too. “That hardly counts as snow,” he scoffed.
Sakura clenched her fists. He always had to go and ruin everything. Konoha rarely got even a dusting of snow, so the frosted ground and tiny flakes falling in the air were still a novelty to her. She turned to him, irritated. “What’s your problem? Can’t you just enjoy it?”
He tapped his hitai-ate, looking unimpressed. “I’m from one of the northern countries, yeah. Snow’s not all that great when you’ve got four months of it.”
The admission that he was from somewhere stopped her short. She knew that the Akatsuki were all from one hidden village or another, but for some reason she had a hard time picturing any of them coming from anywhere other than the depths of hell. Itachi was a special case, but the rest of them... Unconsciously biting her lip, she worked that thought for a moment.
Unaware of Sakura’s internal struggles, Deidara stretched, sat down on the bed, and tried without much luck to untangle his hair. “So what’re you getting us for breakfast today?”
Train of thought interrupted, she snapped at him, “Why’s it up to me to get us breakfast?”
“I got it yesterday, yeah. Now it’s your turn.”
Fair enough. “But we’ve run out of money.”
Deidara gave her that annoyed look she knew so well by now. “Are you actually a ninja? Go steal us something, yeah.”
The idea of stealing food from honest vendors didn’t appeal to her much, but the thought of slowly starving to death wasn’t so pleasant either. Mind made up, she slipped on her sandals, pulled on the backpack, and headed out the door. “I’ll be back in a bit. Don’t do anything too stupid while I’m gone.”
Shutting the door before he could respond, she made her way out of the inn and into the busy street. Crunching the frost under her feet, she explored the surrounding area. Luckily enough, there was a street market not too far away. Pretending to be an early morning customer like everyone else, Sakura examined the food up for sale. She didn’t recognize a good deal of the fruits and vegetables piled in crates and on tables, but they nonetheless made her mouth water and stomach rumble.
Blending into the crowd as well as she could, she waited until an opportunity presented itself. Passing by a stand full of something she recognized - apples - she slid two of them into the pockets of her baggy pants. After strolling casually through the rest of the market while ignoring the annoyingly fast beating of her heart, she turned down a small alleyway and transferred the apples into the backpack.
She’d done it. She’d stolen. It was thrilling in a way she didn’t want to admit, so Sakura clamped down on any thoughts and headed back out into the street. As she walked past the market stalls again, more items caught her eye. Her hungry stomach made sure she couldn’t ignore it. Bread wouldn’t be a bad idea. And those little sausages placed so close to the edge of that vendor’s stand would surely bring some much needed protein. Running a hand over some oranges, she figured she was in need of some extra vitamin C too. As a good medic, she reasoned, it would be such a disgrace if she ignored the needs of her body. And after all, they couldn’t rob a castle while malnourished, could they?
**
Arriving back at their room at the inn far later than she’d intended, Sakura ignored Deidara’s complaints and dumped the contents of the backpack onto the bed. As the food tumbled out, he stared.
Biting into an apple, she asked, “Is there a problem?”
He shook his head and grinned while picking up one of the oranges Sakura had stolen. “I just didn’t think I’d be starting you down the road to kleptomania, yeah.”
“You didn’t,” she said hotly, between bites, “We need all of this to recover our strength properly.”
“Right. I’m sure these little blue berry things have plenty of nutritional value, yeah.”
“Hey, who’s the medic here again?” She felt the tips of her ear go red, mumbled something about vitamins and minerals, and pretended not to see him rolling his eyes at her. “So what’s the plan for separating the local lord from his taxes? You had plenty of time while I was out to think up something better than ‘blast our way in through the front door’.”
He grinned in a way Sakura didn’t like.
She groaned. “Oh no...”
Deidara burst out laughing and threw some orange peel at her. “Don’t worry, yeah. What do you think I did while you were you gone, sat around here?” Switching into a more serious tone, he continued, “The castle’s got an average amount of guards. Those ninja we ran into a few days ago were definitely from around here. It’s nothing I can’t handle, don’t know about you though-” Sakura threw the orange peel back at him, “-but if we’re careful I don’t think we’ll have any problems getting in. I couldn’t find out where the money is though, so we’ll have to figure that one out once we get in, yeah. Then we just pinch what we need and get out of there.”
Chewing her food slowly, she absorbed what he was saying. It wasn’t the most detailed mission information she’d ever been given, but it was better than nothing. “So when do you want to do this?”
“Tonight,” he said as he unfolded the map of the region, pointing at a section of it. “Once we’ve got what we need, we’ll take off to one of these villages further east. We’ll be long gone before they figure out anything’s missing here, and then we should have what we need to get back home, yeah.”
Sakura sat up straight and nodded in agreement. Tonight it was.
++
Chapter 6