Sacrifices for Peace

Part Two: Arrival IV

The cool water of the river bit at her skin, but Sakura didn't care. She needed to feel refreshed after the last day and a half, to clear her head and feel clean again. The only problem was that she didn't have a change of clothes, so she would have to dress again in the dirty, smelly, torn clothes she'd arrived in. Even washing them wasn't really an option, since neither she or Itachi had anything else to wear. If only that acid ocean hadn't destroyed her sleeve and jacket, she wouldn't be quite so cold. Well, she couldn't be that mad about the jacket, since it did save Sasuke from the desert dimension in the end.

She sighed and submerged herself completely in the river, running her hands through her hair to brush out the knots underwater. She wanted soap. It was nice, being under the surface, letting reality wash over her and away downstream. She kept her eyes closed and allowed herself to relax more than she had in the last few weeks. Her shoulders were stiff and sore, her legs hurt from overuse. She concentrated, letting her chakra run through her body to ease her pain a little. Satisfied bubbles came out of her nose and mouth as her air started to run out, and she reluctantly resurfaced.

The sun was growing warmer as the morning grew later, but she didn't want to get out of the water. The Uchiha brothers would be returning soon and so would Itachi. Probably, she thought with some amusement, it would be better not to greet them totally naked.

She waded out of the river, trying not to feel vulnerable in her nudity as she was fully exposed on the banks of the river walking to her clothes. It wasn't that Sakura was ashamed of her body (she'd worked damn hard on it) or of being naked, but it wasn't something she often did; frolic nude in the wild. She was a medic and she'd seen thousands of bodies, but being a shinobi was about secrets, mystery and hiding. Nudity was the opposite of that, everything was exposed. She wiped down her arms and legs, trying to shake off the excess of water, and then bent to pull on her underwear. She cringed slightly, she really wanted a new pair. Days old underwear wasn't pleasant. Her pants weren't in much better condition. The hems were in tatters from her battles with Madara, the ten-tails and Kaguya. She held them up and sighed in disappointment. She really needed some new clothes.

Her shirt was barely a shirt at all anymore. Before the war, it had been new and pristine. Now, it smelled of sweat and dirt. An entire sleeve was missing, her other sleeve ripped, and the neck and hem was just as tattered. It was ruined.

Sakura was so distracted by her clothes that it wasn't until she was about to put her shirt on that she felt the faint trickle of chakra close to her. Very close to her.

Her eyes drifted to the right and her body prickled with shock, fear and embarrassment. And then she screamed. Loudly.

She almost ripped her shirt with the force she used to pull it over her head, covering herself quickly and stepping backwards and away. Red-faced and embarrassed, angry and shocked, she turned to face the stupid moron standing not five meters from her, his eyes still stuck on her previously exposed body. She let out a strangled noise of barely disguised rage and disgust and humiliation. At his sheepish grin, Sakura felt the cap of her rage pop off and it took all her training as a medic to remember he was injured and a patient and she couldn't punch him into the ground.

"What the hell do you think your doing?" She screamed instead.

That sheepish grin remained, though his ears and neck were red. Izuna Uchiha gave a little shrug, his eyes finally lifting from her chest to her face.

"Sorry?" He said, not really meaning it.

Sakura stared at him in disbelief.

"That's not an apology! You were watching me - you saw me!" She spluttered. "How long have you been there?!"