the sister of an uchiha

protecting

After that little run in with Orochimaru, Sasuke and Sakura had to take Naruto and Tukiko to somewhere safe so that they could recover. The two walked around and found a large tree with a hole at the base, big enough for the four of them to rest in. Tukiko and Naruto were laid down on the forest floor side-by-side. Now all Sasuke and Sakura could do was wait until they both had awakened.

Sasuke sat by his sister's side, staring at her face. She was panting and sweat was on her forehead. Sakura had thought of using one of the cloths she brought along with her to use to cool down Tukiko's apparent fever with the water in their canteen. Sasuke didn't argue. Tukiko whimpered in her sleep and it broke Sasuke's heart.

Here he was sitting by his twin sister's side as she suffered through a fever and something else. All Sasuke could think about was how he should have been the one to been bitten. After all, that guy Orochimaru was after him and Tukiko had to jump in to save his life. He felt really awful now and guilty. What kind of brother was he? Wasn't he the oldest of the two? He was supposed to protect his sister, not the other way around! This bothered him, the guilt eating away at him slowly. As he thought of all of this, though, he couldn't help but wonder how Tukiko knew Orochimaru. Had they met before? And if they did, why did his sister hate the man and be frightened of him at the same time? And what did he mean by 'her mark will not disappear as easily as before?' Did that mean Tukiko had somehow gotten that mark before?

Earlier as he carried his sister, he had noticed that something was on her neck, near where Orochimaru had bitten him. It was some kind of three black tomoe marking. He frowned at it. He knew that wasn't there before so it must have appeared when Orochimaru had bitten her. The problem was what did it do?

Throughout the whole night, Sasuke and Sakura had to keep guard. They would switch at times so that they could get some rest. Sasuke couldn't sleep, however, as his thoughts always drifted to that mark. Every time he was on the verge of sleep, it always returned to him, making him worry about his sister.

This continued until morning (by what the two could tell). Sasuke was the one currently keeping watch. Sakura woke up from her small nap and yawned. Once rubbing the sleep away from her eyes, she stared at both Tukiko and Naruto. "They're not awake yet?" she asked.

Sasuke didn't respond, only staring at his sister's face.

Sakura sighed and grabbed the dry cloth. She poured water onto it and set it back on Tukiko's forehead. Tukiko sighed in relief in her sleep. Sakura frowned and gazed at Sasuke's worried expression (or close to it, by what she guessed.).

"Sasuke-kun...Tukiko-chan, will be alright," she said to reassure him. "You'll see."

Sasuke gave a small nod.

The two jumped when they heard a rustle in the bushes. Sasuke stood to his feet and took out a kunai. Sakura held her breath. Both of them thought that it would be some enemy trying to get their scroll. However, the two breathed a sigh of relief when seeing that the rustle was just made by a squirrel.

"Oh, it's just a squirrel," Sakura said in relief.

Sasuke tensed back up when seeing something on the squirrel's back. He threw his kunai at the ground near the squirrel. In surprise, the squirrel ran away, frightened.

Sakura gasped. "Sasuke-kun, why did you do that!?"

"Didn't you see what was on it's back? There was a paper bomb on it," he told her. Sasuke turned his eyes at the forest, glaring at it. "Someone's watching us. They thought that we would fall for something small like that."