The Way Through Stone Village (Naruto)

37: Suzushi Senses Trouble

Day 44:

The next morning, early, no one was upbeat.

Since they couldn't sleep much, they got up and got ready. They were mostly packed.

Ino still was willing to go get more supplies, and Camie and Sai said they'd go with her.

Tsunade then said Suzushi should join them. She wasn't sure if she'd have to leave after all, despite her assertion that she wouldn't the day before. She wanted him to be ready.

No one much wanted him along, but they didn't put up a fight. Bakugo joined them after that for more security.

"One thing's been nagging at me." Wally told Shine. "That stuff we found outside the village and that one person we saw on our way in. If we end up leaving, we don't want to run into trouble. Maybe we should scout out our possible routes."

"Not a bad idea," Shine said. 

"Me and some of the teens can do it," Wally said. "One of us should be here to watch things, right?"

"I think so... Gaara doesn't seem like he's in the mood to supervise," Shine sighed.

Gaara had not even appeared at breakfast, though not many people had eaten it anyway.

Sasuke was brooding on the roof and watching the guards suspiciously.

"Hey." Sakura climbed up there using her chakra. "Just so you know, West is taking some people to check the perimeters of the village, and some of them are going to market. Likstar wants everyone to stick close to the house. They might be watching us."

"They are." Sasuke was past caring about Sakura's current grudge with him. He was watching the guards. "There's more of them than there were yesterday."

Sakura was also perhaps not in the mood to care about her current issue with Sasuke--not when a real crisis was preoccupying her.

"Which ones?" She peered down.

"Two over there." Sasuke only moved his head to the right so that the guards wouldn't see him pointing at them. "One back there." The far left. "Probably more. Karin would sense it better."

"She's going with West," Sakura said tightly. "Do you think they'll stop them from leaving?"

"They can't stop West from leaving--or Likstar. Probably not most of us either. If they try, they'll regret it," Sasuke replied flatly. "But it's a bad sign. Also, more people have walked by this house than usual. They stopped and stared at it and pointed and then left."

"Okay...? What does that mean?"

"Nothing good."

Sakura sighed and crossed her arms. "Ten to one we're leaving anyway. And good riddance. Something about this place was never as comfortable as Mist Village...but then the mission will probably end. Cloud won't let Gaara go there, not after this kind of impression. We'll all have to go home."

Silence.

"So where are you going to go?" Sakura asked.

"It doesn't matter," Sasuke said. "Not to Leaf."

Sakura knew that was coming, but she still winced. "I figured."

She frowned. "I won't waste time begging--I'm sick of it. But you'll probably die. Maybe you should just go to Sand Village or something... Gaara would let you."

Sasuke was shocked that she didn't beg. Was Sakura's anger really that bad that she wasn't going or pull her usual stunts?

The truth was Sakura was still pissed at him, and that was part of it, but also she had finally realized that it was never going to work. She really had known that before--she'd just done it because she had no other ideas. Her anger was preventing her from tossing aside her pride enough to do that this time. That was the only difference.