Blinded by Fear

Finding a Friend

After a long trek through the woods and away from the village, Suigetsu stopped abruptly by a clearing which held a small lake with a waterfall pouring into it. Considering they had been jumping through the trees for quite some time, Sakaria had been lost in thought and almost collided with her new friend as he landed on the ground but managed to stop just before impact. Sakaria looked at the peaceful area they were in inquisitively. "Why did we stop?"

Suigetsu, who had walked over to the lake and was filling up his water bottle turned to her. "Well, we can't run forever, girlie. It's getting dark." Sakaria looked up, noticing the light orange hue that had begun to tint the sky, signifying that evening was approaching.

"Do you think we're far enough away from the village, though?" Sakaria asked, biting her thumbnail nervously.

"Do you think someone will come after you?" Jugo asked, suddenly serious. The last thing he and Suigetsu needed was to be caught lurking in the outskirts of Konoha. Sasuke might actually kill them if they interfered with any of his plans. Sakaria lowered her head in thought for a moment.

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"Hey, Sakaria!" Shikamaru shouted as he walked up to her while she looked at fruits at a market stand. It wasn't often that Sakaria was seen around the village and she didn't shop much because many of the vendors wouldn't sell her anything after learning who she was. It turned out, this was one of those cases as well because, upon hearing her name, the vendor snarled slightly and turned his open sign to closed, eying Sakaria suspiciously. Sakaria set down the apple she was looking at and sighed, looking toward Shikamaru, then walked away. "Sorry about that," he said, noticing his error. "Hey, I was thinking, a few of us are getting together later and going for a swim! I thought maybe you could come too!"

"I can't swim," Sakaria said flatly, declining his invitation just as she always had.

"Oh..." Shikamaru's voice trailed off for a moment. He wasn't used to putting forth much effort toward anything after being rejected. In fact, most of the time the rejection was welcomed because it meant he wouldn't have to follow through with any plans. In that moment, Sakaria's stomach growled. She didn't have much to eat at her apartment since she wasn't able to shop, and she was never sent out on any missions to earn money to eat out. Most of the time, her finances came from doing odd jobs for the villagers who would allow her to, but those were few and far between. "Well, we could go get something to eat!" Shikamaru said, trying once again to sound cheerful.

"You just said you had plans to go swimming," Sakaria replied. Her voice was unchanging.

"Yeah, but," Shikamaru moved to walk in front of her so she was forced to stop and actually engage in the seemingly one sided conversation they were having, "I'm okay with just getting something to eat and heading home. Swimming around for no reason isn't really my style anyway." This was true. Shikamaru really didn't see the point in going swimming, but whenever his friends got together, he had made more of an effort to go so that he could at least try to include Sakaria. "C'mon, let's go out and get some barbecue. My treat!" Shikamaru forced a smile, trying his best to get the girl before him to agree.

Sakaria looked up at him, searching his face and pondering why this boy, the laziest of all his comrades, was putting forth so much effort to include her in everything they did. "Would it just be you and I?"

"Sure, if you want." Shikamaru said, knowing she was usually more comfortable just spending time with him as opposed to all of his friends. This made integrating her into the group more difficult, but he didn't want to try and force her into anything that she didn't want to do. In the end, that would only harm his cause rather than help it. "Or, I could invite Choji, too. He's always down to eat. Especially barbecue." He tried his best to sound warm when talking about his friend, but the thought of his wallet being drained by Choji's insatiable appetite loomed over him. Still though, introducing her to one other friend was better than no one. The last time Sakaria had been around Choji was months prior, when they had captured her.