Otokage

November: Part 2

Day 16

Konan frowned as she watched Pein stand out on the ledge of the tallest tower, basking in the rain and undoubtedly thinking about how "brilliant" his plan was. She was beginning to think that she should've protested his plan from the very start. He was growing exponentially unhealthy and obsessive in advancing the plan to such a degree. The more she thought about it, the more she found herself disagreeing with his stance.

The well being of her childhood friend in mind, she devolved into sheets of origami paper.

'Perhaps it's time I met Haruno Sakura.'

Day 17

Sasuke stared and pressed his lips into a thin line. He still couldn't believe that the gravestone in front of him was real. He just couldn't. It was just a prank to make him feel guilty and hurt as part of the payment for leaving everything behind all those years ago. Yes, that's what it was. They all would jump out and break into smiles at any second now and laugh and tell him how bad he fell for this joke. Then Sakura would emerge from some hiding place and hug him and tell him how long she waited for him to come back home. To come back to her.

And so he lingered, ANBU watching his every movement from the trees. One of them made themselves visible. "Your time is up."

He complied and turned to follow the shinobi towards the Uchiha family estate. Sasuke took one last, somber look over his shoulder.

... If he never left, would this still have happened?

Day 18

It was a calm morning.

Kisame was staring intently at the cards in his possession, wondering how he managed to get such a good hand. This rarely ever occurred for him. And if this was what he had, Sakura must have that absurd diamond royal flush that she always seemed to get. He placed his cards down.

"Royal flush. Spades," he said. Sakura blinked down at them before silently showing her own. A two of clovers, four of spades, ten of hearts, nine of clovers, and king of clovers.

She lost. With a junk hand.

They played six more games with each being a little more frantic than the last. But every single time, Sakura would lose with absolutely nothing of value, and Kisame kept winning with the rarest sets of cards. At the end of their seventh game, Kisame slapped his cards down and rubbed his face with his palms.

"Goddammit," he groaned. "Someone's going to die. Or an entire economy's gonna collapse. Better yet, the whole world's gonna fucking explode!"

Last time she consecutively lost a card game or another sort of gambling game, five teams of Otogakure chuunin were attacked and sent to the ICU. Another time, a virus spread and affected a third of the village. If Sakura had gotten just plain terrible cards every single round, something very bad was going to happen very soon.

All in Kisame's constant moaning about an inevitable disaster, she noticed a sheet of origami paper flutter outside her window.

Day 19

This had to be one of the worst headaches she'd ever experienced. He heart was in her brain, pounding relentlessly. It felt like a scalpel was carving into her skull, making her clutch her head and send jolts of healing chakra into her head. It wasn't getting better, and Inner's chanting wasn't helping one bit.

'Traitor! Traitor! Traitor! Traitor! TRAITOR! TRAITOR! TRAITOR! TRAITOR!'

She couldn't think of anything else. She couldn't hear another thing besides that cursed word. At this point, she couldn't even remember where she was. Kabuto set down his things and moved the hair out of Sakura's face to feel her forehead. Her face was burning hot and beads of sweat dripped down her cheeks. He grimaced and gently pulled her hands from the sides of her head. The chakra she was forcing into her system was doing more harm than good.