#bamfsakura

[juliemaksimuk]

#sakuraharuno #bamfsakura

[vesperlionheart]

In the frozen north where spring never comes the white goddess Kaguya rules on high and all the eligible young girls in the city must be tested by her Rabbits to see if they are compatible with her magic. The lucky few are granted positions in her temples, as clerics to the Many Faced Moon. Sakura is a lower level cleric serving under the Hyuga matriarch, struggling to rise above in ways that seem to come so easily to those with noble blood and pearl colored eyes. It takes her twice as long to learn half as much because of her commoner blood, but what she lacks in magic she makes up for in a myriad of ways. Some said she was as keen as a devil and twice as pretty.

When she is caught tampering with a Hyuga’s branch seal she is saved from death only because the law forbids executions of those with the Kaguya magic, thus she is banished to the frozen wastes to die on her own from the elements. But Sakura doesn’t plan on dying. Someone managed to share with her the secrets of Kaguya’s progeny and the source of her powers. Now Sakura has to find these grandkids and their tribe to help her bring down a tyrant in white.

AO3 Link

[heymessyjessie-blog]

Chimera

I have been reading a whole lot of fanfiction across the net, and i have fallen in love with a lot of stories and writers that it inspired me to write my own.

Here is my first and hopefully not my last.. I would like to dedicate this one to @vesperlionheart because i simply adore you and i am a big fan. This story may remind you of Pompeii because of the fantasy set-up.. (I do love that series.)

And as a reference i did read The Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare way way back, there are similar themes.

And of course, disclaimer, i do not own Naruto or any of its characters.

—-

CHIMERA- a thing that is hoped or wished for but in fact is illusory or impossible to achieve.

She strode across the hotel room wearing nothing but gold jewelries and enchanted charms strewn across her body. Her red dress was lying on the floor more neglected than ever. She walked over near the windows, moonlight casting reverently on her. She sat down the chair, her legs crossed and chin propped on the knuckles of her hand. A mischievous grin that spelled trouble was plastered on her face. She was beautiful and enticing without even trying.

“Do you want to watch the sunrise with me darling? I’m pretty sure we could make ourselves busy as we wait for a few more hours..” She was mocking him. She knew their hotel room was located in the east and would have a pretty direct view of the sun come morning.

He smirked and nodded his usual reply “Hn.” It was laced with amusement and Sakura can’t help but chuckle at her own joke.

“Itachi, I was trying to be romantic and that’s all you ever say?” She feigned hurt but seriously, she wanted to elicit more reaction from him. It didn’t really surprise her that it didn’t irk him. She has yet to be on his bad side.

“You consider seeing your lover burned to ashes romantic, Sakura? Just ask of it and I could simply make you see it through my Tsukiyomi.” He replied nonchalantly.

“Is it in your power to make me see all my lovers burn to ashes then?” Her emerald eyes shone with dark glee. Oh she really wants to get a reaction from him…

His face was stoic as ever but his chest suddenly constricted with a pang of jealousy. She definitely noticed despite his mask. She was like shark smelling blood, more ferocious when enticed.

“What’s the matter, Itachi-kun?” She purposely drawled out his name. “I’m pretty sure you’re familiar with most of them, having been in the same coven and clan after all… Oh and how is your younger brother? Is he still looking for me? I do miss him…”

All of a sudden, he was towering over her. His arms were gripping the armrests of her chair, caging her possessively. His body hunched over as his face were inches away from her, gaze steady with hunger and longing. “Am i not good enough?” Itachi had always been the sensitive and melodramatic one but she’s heard that line more than once.

“That’s what Madara and Sasuke-kun said. When will you understand that it is simply in my nature to have you enamored with me? You’re all so wise and intelligent but you can’t seem to grasp my point.” Her playful tone was now replaced with a hard icy tone.

“And when will you grasp our point, my queen?” It surprised her that he addressed that point as a collective one, shared among themselves.

“This chase has been going on for far too long, I’m saving you the trouble of spending the lifetime in this complicated arrangement. Consider this cautionary advice as an act of kindness. It is rare for the Seelie Queen to be honest… and brutally frank.” It is true, the Seelie Queen has always been known to be mischievous, playful and sometimes deceiving. However, underneath that reputation, she did have a kind heart. The string of men currently vying for her love and attention was causing more chaos than fun. She has since decided to make them see that she was a dangerous fire to be playing with.

“Uchiha men are jealous, but we’re willing to share when it need be. I’m pretty sure, we aren’t your greatest worry. I have heard news of chaos stirring because of a certain Seelie Queen’s beauty and perfection. I understand why you feel the need to give your cautionary advice and be brutally honest… But I assure you, we would never behave in such way and cause you trouble… ”

“Madara is on his way to wreak more havoc than pleasure. Don’t be so sure of your clan being less troublesome.” Itachi flinched at having heard the words “Madara” and “pleasure” together in the same sentence but he understood that Sakura just meant Madara could be out of line if not dealt with.

“I will make sure that my coven doesn’t do anything foolish when it comes to matters involving you, my queen.” He kisses her lips to seal the argument. He kisses gently at first and then paces hungrily. He was still careful of not unleashing his fangs. He has tasted her before and it drove him near to insanity. She was too delicious with her unique golden noble blood. It made him intoxicated and high, his ultimate bliss. He wouldn’t do it now though, just to prove his point about being in control and rational. Some other time he would do so, just ravage her body and her blood, and he wouldn’t care if he lost his sanity then.

He carried her off and brought her to the bed. Before there lips met, Sakura whispered “And if it is no longer within your power, remember what I can do myself. It wouldn’t matter if you and your men are my favorite.”

Despite the threat, he gave that awfully sexy smirk again and breathed into her ears, “Yes, my love. I know you can destroy worlds with a flick of your finger. It makes me all the more obsessed with you, to be honest.”

Sakura felt lighthearted once again. After several lifetimes of being together, Itachi just knew the words to make the Seelie Queen giggle like a girl. She was powerful, innocent, mischievous, graceful and fiesty all rolled into one. However complicated she really is, Itachi saw through her all. And quite frankly, he just loves her all the more for it. Sakura realizes that the perks of having an Inner self just proves to be more useful than annoying, in more ways than one.

“Before anything else, you should close the windows.” She whispers seductively which elicits a low groan from him.

“Oh, i thought you wanted to see me burn?” He smirks, this time mocking her with her previous statement.

“I change my mind. I’d rather we burn together in the flames of desire.” She knew she sounded cheesy, but Itachi was amused.

“How about the Tsukiyomi then?” He hints at his desire to see all her other lovers burn. Sadistic really, considering his clansmen were part of the Queen’s long list of suitors.

“No matter how psychotic you could be, I’m sure you wouldn’t really want to conjure the image of your brother burning.” She just wants to rile him up and remind him of his foolish brother who was just as equally obsessed with her as he is.

“I’ve done far more worse things in reality.” It was true, but he didn’t need to remind her of committing mass murder once in his human lifetime.

“Hmm.. Anyway, like i said, I do miss Sasuke-kun, I’d like to summon him soon. Do you mind having a ménage-a-trois?” She cocked her head and asked nonchalantly.

“You already know I’m against it but who am I to deny the Seelie Queen of such requests if you demand of it?” Itachi sighed, he was frustrated now. “I know of my place my Queen. I also wouldn’t want you disappearing on me for centuries for being too possessive of you… I would have preferred having you exclusively, but until then, All i could do is please and enamor you until I could have you all to myself.” His eyes bore into her as if persuading her to finally become solely his.

She did like Itachi, loved him even but she had to constantly push her feelings away by reminding herself she is the Seelie Queen and it is simply in her nature to have creatures fall in love with her. She is first and foremost a queen of the the seelie court who runs half of the fae kingdom. She could never simply be a woman who would be bothered with romance. She instead, tries to play along with her suitors and have fun once in a while. Sometimes however, she would enjoy tormenting them and break their hearts by disappearing. She did run away from Itachi’s younger brother for centuries…

“Oh Itachi… Maybe in another reality, I could be yours and only yours.” She spoke with distant longing in her voice, a tone she rarely used. It sounded more… human of her.

“We’ll have to wait for that other reality then… Even if it takes an eternity.”

[juliemaksimuk]

Terrifying. Part II.

#sakuraharuno #sakuraart #sakuraharunoart

[vesperlionheart]

Part 6 Update

"Don't stare so much, we'll likely be stationed here a while, I doubt this is the last you'll see of her," Shikamaru said.

"Wh-who was-no, is, who is she? Did you know her?" Choji flustered, still feeling heat on the back of his neck.

"No, I didn't know her, just her reputation. She was one of the few who was issued a full pardon after the war ended, partially because she was a contracted solider. You remember hearing about the battle at the ruins of Zamok.”

Choji recalled the memory easily. He had been there, after all. It had been a mess and a miracle all at once because they shouldn't have survived. Text books were already citing the incursion as an example of how easily a force could deteriorate without their commanders.

Before the Niebieski knew what had happened, all their generals were dead in the snow. The soldiers panicked as the chain of command became a death sentence, allowing the Brzoza time to execute a tactical retreat.

"She was one of our snipers. The one they called the Snake Skinner."

Choji remembered the wonder shared between fellow Broza survivors when the news of her pardon rolled out along with several others. She had killed too many important people, the Niebieski people hated her for how she robbed them of their war heroes. But she had been a contract killer and folded easily, swearing a new allegiance and submitting the story of her humbling for their delight.

Or so the stories went…

Full Chapter links....  AO3  &   FF.Net Entire Work: AO3

[vesperlionheart]

Gas Station-Fluff Friday

Sakura glared at the crack in her rearview mirror and reached for it again, angeling it to see higher into the back of her skeleton rig. She was supposed to be empty, towing nothing, but the back still dragged with an extra weight. She felt it in the drifts, when she turned into the winds and expected to fight the gusts, her backend stayed down like it was filled with fuel, and now she was hearing things from back there.

Marauders from the dunes? She hadn’t stopped since the Avalon Alcove, an oasis colony hidden deep in the earth, but knew that passing through the dunes was to risk an encounter with the sand riders and the sand people. She didn’t doubt some of them were talented enough to sneak up behind her rig and attach themselves to her rear with a little help.

Of all rides to pick up trouble!

Sakura turned hard to the side and then countered to send her back end careening sideways, nearly tipping. If someone was hiding in the back fuel tank they would be sorely tossed. 

Parked, she ripped out the wheel to her rig and latched it onto the back of her belt buckle, clicking it into the komodo dragon armor that moved over her backside like living scales. She slid from the driver’s seat like her armor’s namesake and stalked around her rig like a snake.

She leveled a sawed off double barrel with her left hand and kicked off the latch. The metal came away shirking on hinges until it banged into the side and bounced before settling. A pair of blinking eyes stared up into the light of the afternoon sun, haloed around her hooded face, while a third face turned away entirely.

Sakura had been right about the stowaways, wrong about the sand people theory.

One of the males groaned and shrank further back, hiding his face behind gold shackles. Sakura’s eyes went to what little was left of their clothing and cursed out loud when she recognized the court attire of seraglio boys and the gold ink tattoos.

“Shit.”

Sakura kept her gun close to her hand, set across her lap and she reclined against the base of a ruin while the boys ran out to stretch their legs. The blond one had too much energy and, like a mutt, needed to be walked regularly. She called him mutt in her head, even though he had told her his name after their discovery. She hated to admit how quickly she had forgotten it.

Off to the side the one with teased black hair, styled in a way that set him aside from the common, starving boys, crossed his arms at Mutt’s excitement and scowled. Beside him the other dark hair lad smiled in a stiff manner and offered some words of advice? Sakura couldn’t read lips, but even if she could she wouldn’t have cared enough to eavesdrop.

“Sakura!” the blond screamed for her across the dirt. She tensed on reflex and readied her shotgun, eyes roving behind the vizor she hadn’t removed since the day before when she found them.

One of the two boys hit the blond and cursed at him. “You’re going to get shot that way.”

“What?” Sakura gruffly interjected, standing from her crouch under the shade of the ruined wall.

She kept her gun in hand never the less, just in case they decided they could drive her rig without her. Just because she had let them live and agreed to take them where she was going didn’t mean she trusted them to not slit her throat in her sleep. She wished she had Karin with her as a second.

“I’m hungry. When do we get to eat again?” he chirped, sounding more cherry than the other two.

“We just ate.”

“Y-yeah, but that was breakfast. What about lunch?”  His smile seemed to dim as he looked behind him at the other two only to see their blank stares. There was no back up there. “Whhhat?” he whined, dragging out the sound of the word.

“Where do you think the food is coming from, idiot?” the boy with the chicken butt hair hissed.

“B-but I’m hungry.”

The mutt’s blue eyes had the audacity to waste water in emotion.

“You should have thought about that before you decided to joyride in the back of my rig for a jaunt.” Sakura took a half step back adjusting the weight of her body so that it was more evenly distributed and balanced. She could spring any direction in a moment If she needed to.

The blond looked down, rightly chastised. It was enough to make her almost regret her stern tone, so she looked away, off to where she parked her rig. Shielding her eyes through her visor with a hand above her covered brow she muttered under her breath. “I don’t swing by the oasis for weeks. How do you think you’ll get back?”  

“We’re not going back,” the last boy stated, hearing her when she was sure none of them would. His words made the others perk up.

“That’s what you say,” Sakura groused, stalking off towards her rig. The three started to trail after her. “But I’ve never heard of this Kakashi fellow you’re all looking for and I’ve a living to make. You should have planned better.”

“There will be someone who knows. He is skilled. He will find us.”

Sakura looked back, trying to match the voice with the face. It was hard to tell them apart sometimes even though they looked so different, but she was sure it was the stupid hair boy that said that last part.

“What the hell are your names again?” she asked, hoping she would remember this time.

“Naruto!” the blond cheered before either of his companions could open their mouths. He jumped up and pointed to the other two. “This is Sasuke!”

“Hn.”

“And this asshole is Sai.”

“You can call the blond dickless, he’s still a virgin.”

The blond turned bright red and started to squawk and yell while Sakura rolled her eyes behind her visor and turned back to her rig, not caring how they treated each other. Sasuke was the first to follow her, but Sai and Naruto were close behind, the latter running ahead of them all.

.

Sakura kept the bottom part of her mask up as she traded for the food with bullets. She watched the hands of the trader and the hands of his companion.

“Can’t say I’ve heard of a Kakashi, but there are several nomad types that come through here. One eye you say?” The older man with scars down his chin and tattoos down his throat looked back over his shoulder before nodding. “But there are one or two that sound like they could be him. One has a glass eye, blown clean out in a raid, the other has a red colored eye. Accident leaked blood into his eye and it never turned back, or something like that.”

“Did either of them come through here recently? He owes me money through a mutual friend and I’m starting to think I got swindled.”

“Eh, well the first one with the glass eye goes by the name Hoi and I’ve not seen him in a year or so. The other freak passed by before the last dust storm and he’s pawned things from the aviation boneyard, so that’s a good enough guess for where you might find him.”

A heavy breeze made Sakura brace, pinning the cloth against the side of her face with her right hand, but it was the hand holding the food and the cloth flew free for a second before she could turn her head back around and hide her chin and lips again.

The desert was in her teeth, small grains just as rough and gritty as the sky. Sakura wanted to spit.

“Damn storms,” she cursed, feeling the change coming. She looked back over at the man and nodded. “Boneyard then.”

The man grabbed a cloth to wipe over his head, keeping his eyes on her the entire time. “They’re both freaks if you ask me. Better off with company that appreciate what they see.”

Sakura tensed at the drop in tone and drew faster. The man in the back fell with a hole through his face while the one in front of her reached for her mask, holding a needle thin dagger in the other. Sakura felt the elastic snap as she reeled back and pulled up the butt of her gun to knock across his face. Sakura screamed, bringing her gun down again and again, digging it into the man’s skull until it was just as empty as the one she shot.

Heaving a breath, Sakura picked up the gun and box of bullets she had meant to trade before stacking them on top of her food. Her mask was hanging open, but her hands were filled. If someone was alive to see it they might have caught the black ink, but there was only blood and dust behind her.

She climbed back into her rig and deposited her goods on the seat next to her and pulled her vizor back in place, clicking on the secondary attachment that looked like a vulture’s beak, hiding the lower half of her face from view.

There was shifting in the back and it was Sasuke that eventually peeked out from the trap in the back floor. “I heard shots. Are you okay?”

“I’m sitting right here. Of course I’m okay.” Sakura reached over and grabbed one of the packed nutritional bars wrapped in old paper. “Give this to the mutt if he’s still hungry. It tastes like shit and should kill his appetite for a while.”  

“Doubtful,” Sasuke snorted, catching the food with ease.

Before he retreated and closed the latch behind him Sakura caught sight of Sai in the dim, watching her. The door closed but Sai’s stare never wavered. Sakura had the suspicion he saw or knew something by the way he stared at her, but then again, he always looked at her like that.

Sakura reattached the wheel and put the gear stick back in place before revving the engine. She started to pull back onto the road but heard a muffled, ‘I love you Sakura!’ from below the metal.

She grumbled something, making sure her mask was in place before revving and accelerating.

There was plenty of road between here and there.

To the boneyard.

It was late into the night when she finally pulled over and parked. It was getting too hard to see the road in the moonlight and half her lights didn’t work anymore. Sakura turned the seats around and spread out her spare cloak of feathers and cotton, sleeping with her wheel hidden under the cushions of her driver’s seat.

Just when she thought she was ready to lay down and sleep the hatch creaked. She growled in warning and the hatch quivered, but raised regardless.

“Sakura?” Naruto whispered. “Are you still awake?”

“What do you need?” she grumbled, pulling her mask back on before sitting up and looking over the edge of the chairs.

“What was the gunshot for?”

“Ignore it. Go to sleep.”

The hatch creaked and Sakura sighed, thinking that would be the end of it, but then there was the sound of scampering as Naruto pulled himself out. Sakura reached for the knife under the dashboard and tensed, but Naruto didn’t come close enough to stab or attack. He seemed to be sensitive to her need for space. In the moonlight his blond hair seemed silver, and the frown even seemed deeper.

Sakura hated how her heart wrenched a little at the sight of his melancholy. “What?” she hissed, sitting up.

“Is it because of the food, because we ate so much?” he asked.

“Sasuke and Sai don’t eat that much, just be clear and ask if it was because of your extra food,” Sakura answered.

Naruto flushed, even in the silver light, and teetered from one foot to the other. “Was it because you had to stop for me? Was that the reason?”

Sakura pushed herself up the rest of the way and put the knife back under the dashboard where Naruto couldn’t see it. “No, your food actually had nothing to do with it this time. I think I was recognized after asking about your Kakashi friend. You ever hear about an aviation boneyard from him?”

“The gas station?”  

That would make sense. Sakura thought back to what she knew about the surrounding area. There were several pit stops one could pull a rig into, and may of them had stations for gas. When she had heard about the aviation boneyard she had forgotten about the gas station it sat next to. It had been dry for a while, and the well it tapped into hadn’t functioned in years. When was the last time she tried going that far out of the way?

If she went that far and found no fuel she could be stranded. Losing a rig was second only to death in the wastelands. If she took them there she would need to refuel before, and that meant another venture with a trader who wasn’t from the clasp. Anyone else was just as likely to turn her in for her bounty.

“It’s a little out of my way and I need to refuel before then, but we’ll check it out.”

Naruto seemed in inflate with energy. “You will?”

Sakura glared through her mask, forgetting how the gesture was lost on the boy. “Don’t keep asking for pit stops. It has already slowed me down more than I think I can make up with your flimsy bracelets.”

“Those are gold, though.”

Sakura waved a hand between them. “Gold doesn’t feed anyone and it doesn’t move my rig. Only a few idiots are stupid enough to think it’s of any real value in the dead, dry world.”

“You sound like one of those old world paladins or a veteran from the first wars.”

Sakura raised a brow from under her mask and almost moved it off her face to look at him better. “Excuse me? A paladin? What the hell I look like to you? In case the gun and bloodstains didn’t give it away, I’m a criminal, kid.”

Naruto seemed to reel at the nickname and pulled himself up. “It’s not a stupid guess, and I’m not a kid! Th-there are criminals who used to be important people in the old republics.”

“And they’re all as young as me?”

“I can’t tell how old you are, you’re always wearing a mask.” He inched closer. “I don’t even know what you look like and we’ve been traveling with each other for days now.”

Sakura pulled the knife from under the dashboard out to flip over her wrist and lay across her lap. The handle was the color of bleached bone. “Maybe, but I only pulled you out of my back four days ago. You’ve been stowing away an addition two. And blame me if you want, but I’ve learned to not trust anything that moves, even if they are pretty to look at.”

There was silence between them for a full minute, full of sixty painful seconds that felt so much longer in the silence. Sakura realized her mistake after about the first half of that minute and panicked for the other thirty seconds. Naruto’s blush was back, but this time his eyes seemed to glow with new vibrancy in the moonlight.

“Heh, you think I’m pretty to look at.”

Sakura grimaced. “Don’t let it go to your head, kid. You’re from the president’s harem, of course you would be pretty to look at. It’s not a big deal.”

“Do you like me, Sakura?” Naruto hummed, grinning wide.

It was Sakura’s turn to flush. Underneath the mask no one could tell, but when she sputtered she was sure Naruto had an inkling. “Do-I-what a stupid question. Go back to sleep.”

Naruto’s voice was little different than a song as he rocked back on his heels. “Sasuke is going to be jealous when I tell him you have a crush on me.”

Sakura picked up another ration and tossed it at his head. “Go back to bed!” she hissed. She didn’t want to ask what he meant about the other boy being jealous-of what?-she just wanted him back down the hatch so she could sleep in peace.

Naruto snickered but did as he was told, scampering back over to the hatch an easing himself back down into the dim cavern below. 

“Let me go with you this time.”

Sakura turned around in her sat at glared at Sasuke. “No.”

“Let me go.” 

His face didn’t change and his words were just as strong and unyielding. He didn’t sound like he would change his mind after hearing her answer just once.

“You look like a skimp. I’m not taking you to the refinery to barter. What do you think you’ll do, distract me?”

Sasuke narrowed his eyes but quickly turned around and reached out for something left behind in the lower chamber. He pulled out one of her old cloaks with the leather apron front and dropped it over his harem skirt. The gold tattoos were hidden and with a  hood even his good face was partly obscured.

“Still no.”

Sasuke was pulling on a spare set of boots and reaching for some old gloves. He looked like a mess of random items, and she guessed that’s what he really was. He didn’t stop assembling accessories even after she told him a second time.

“Sasuke, put that all back. You’ll only be a distraction in there. I don’t need another liability to look out for.”

“Then give me a gun. I can protect myself.”

Sakura’s voice was shrill in spite of her intentions to remain calm. “No! I don’t trust you to not pull it on me.”

Sasuke almost looked upset by her reply, which was the first time she saw any other emotion on his face all morning. “We’ve been traveling almost a week together. What do you mean you don’t trust me?”

“Did I stutter, asscheeks? I don’t trust you and I don’t need to. I don’t trust anyone but me.” Sakura jabbed her thumb at her own chest and waved her shotgun between them.

Sasuke almost flushed. Almost. “Asscheeks? Where did that come from?”

Sakura rocked back on her heels, crossing her arms. “You bend over in a short skirt and people notice things. Sai was the first one to call you that.”

“You were looking at my ass.” He said it like he was proud of the accusation.

“You’re as bad as Naruto,” Sakura hissed. “Go back and wait down below with the others. Or stay up here and guard the rig. I don’t care. You’re not going in there with me.”

Sasuke leaned in closer, eyes narrowed once more. “You’re not going in there alone. Last time someone tried to kill you.”

“Someone is always trying to kill you in the wilds. What did you think it would be like when you jumped ship from one of the only stable oasis communities in the red world? Brats, all of you!” Sakura reached for the door to her rig, intending to jump down but paused, hand on the handle. “I don’t want any more eyes on me. Watch my rig for me, don’t let her get picked up. That’s how you could help me.”

“What if you need help?”

“I’ve been doing this for years, punk. I’ve not needed help yet,” she lied. There had been plenty of times she needed help and plenty of times she had used help or asked for help. But Sasuke didn’t need to know any of that. He was already enough of a brat on his own without the added information.

“How long?” Sasuke asked through narrowed eyes.

“What?”

“How long have you been doing this?”

Sakura felt like she needed to leave. He wasn’t going to let her disengage unless she just powered through and ignored all his questions. “I don’t know, just years. I’ve done this long enough to know things. I’ll be fine, I’m not buying much. I’m not worth the trouble of messing with.”

Sakura turned the handle and opened the door a crack. Sasuke started to move towards her but she pointed the barrels of her gun at him. This only seemed to further provoke him.

“You were nearly shot last time.”

“Not even close. I’m not that slow. Back off, watch the rig, keep the others safe.”

Sakura pushed open the door and dropped down, feeling the scales of her armor shift and her lower face mask clink in place. She didn’t look back, but trusted that the boy in her extra armor would do as she asked.

She heard the door close behind her and it was enough to make her smile when no other footsteps followed her. She crossed the parking lot to the old refinery where kegs and metal barrels were being sold alongside other goods.

As she said it would, the meet went fine and she paid more than it was worth, but got the fuel she needed. When she came back to the rig Sasuke was waiting eager and tense in the driver’s seat. He left the rig behind to hop out and meet her, assisting in carrying the barrel to the fuel chamber.

“I told you it would be fine,” Sakura said as they closed the hatch behind the barrel.

Sasuke watched her with half lidded eyes until she turned to face him. Then he looked away and muttered under his breath something that sounded like, ‘hn.’

The aviation boneyard was what she remembered it being from years ago. The old flying boats still stuck out of the ground with their wings and tails a broken mess. There was an old substation and the office for the refinery, but no activity.

Naruto ran ahead and Sai hung back when Sasuke took off after the blond.

“What will you do without us?” Sai asked, voice half it’s usual volume. He watched her with the same unwavering eyes that seemed to always find her in the dark, even when metal came between them.

“I have work. More deliveries and transportation runs to make on the roads.”

“Isn’t that dangerous?” Sai asked.

“So is life.” Everything in the red world was built up to kill them. Nothing was easy. Danger was everywhere from the dust to her bones to the teeth of the men and women of the road.

“Will you leave us here and go on your own, alone again?” Sai asked. He still watched her and Sakura couldn’t help but feel his stare was different than others. He was rude and used the language of an adult, but sometimes he felt like a child beside her.

“Let’s see if this Kakashi guy is here first. I’ll decide after that.” Sakura nodded at the two boys running ahead of them and started to walk. Sai fell into step behind them. It was minutes later, when Sakura was close to the first substation house that she heard Naruto calling for her.

She didn’t run, but quickened her pace a bit to follow his trail. Inside the building there was a net filled with boxes, cut open by Sasuke. Naruto waved a note.

“What day is it? What month?”

“Who keeps track of that?” Sai asked, glancing to Sakura.

“It’s the middle of the Sick Season. We’re a few days away from the Dry Season, and then comes the Storm Season, then the Dust Season.”

Each of the seasons lasted 28 days and were named after the 13 evil gods of the old world. Sakura didn’t track the days, but the seasons were easy enough to pick out from the stars. Travelers and traders needed to know such things.

“Why do you need to know this?” Sai asked.

Naruto waved the note again. “Kakashi said he would be coming at the end of the Sick Season for us. If we wait we’ll meet him. And look, there’s food here for us to live on!”

Sasuke was opening a book and skimming the pages. “It’s the directions for working the refinery again. Kakashi thinks there’s enough to pump.” He looked up from the book. “You could help us with this!”

“A pump? Sakura asked, wrinkling her nose. “You don’t know if I could do something like that.”

“You fix your rig and know more than we do about how machines work. Wouldn’t this make you money if you could process your own gas?” Sasuke asked, stepping closer to her with the manual. “Just until the season is over.”

He wasn’t wrong. Sakura would make more money than she’d know what to do with if she could get the pump working again to pull out her own oil for gas. It would be the thing that frees her from the cycle of poverty and survival. Wasn’t that what she dreamed about? That and true freedom.

“Please, Sakura!” Naruto whined. “Without you we’d not make it. Just a little more. Please, it’ll be good for you and we’d treasure you. We’d pay you!”

Sai reached out for her hand to hold but didn’t say anything. Sasuke offered her the book.

Would the road be enough for her, or was it time to leave it behind?

Sakura reached up with her free hand and found the latch on the side of her mask and helmet. She loosened it and grabbed the underside before pulling the mask up over her face and back across her skull. The stray pink bangs fell across her face again, free from the scalp braids that kept her hair hidden from sight.

Naruto, for once, was speechless.

“Until the season is over,” Sakura said, taking the manual in place of her mask.