Blinded by Fear

The Unknown

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"Hey, girlie," Sakaria's eyes shot open as Suigetsu nudged her with his foot, "You get enough sleep?" Unlike the night before, he was fully clothed except for his akatsuki robe that was still hanging on the makeshift canopy he had created. Sakaria sat up, rubbing her eyes, almost sad that the memory playing in her head of hanging out with Shikamaru and the others at the bar was only that; a memory.

"Where are we going?" Sakaria asked, yawning tiredly from the lack of sleep.

"Well, Jugo is heading out ahead of us to make sure those Samurai who locked us up before are still busy with the war..." Sakaria started to interject, confused by what he meant, but Suigetsu ignored her and continued, "You and I are going to stay here, and you are going to learn to swim." At this point, Sakaria stood up, shaking her head violently.

"After last night, I'm never getting in water with you again!" She shouted, causing a small animal somewhere in the trees surrounding them to skitter away. "You're out of your mind!"

"Look, fireball, I'm not having you drown before I can get you to your brother, alright? And if you're gonna be around me, you're gonna be around water, so don't even try to give me some excuse as to why you don't need to learn." Suigetsu was firm in his decision. "Besides, what happened last night, happened. It's over with."

"Yeah, but I don't have anything to swim in," Sakaria said, raising an eyebrow, "and I don't exactly want part two of the peep show to occur."

"That's on you," Suigetsu shrugged, walking back toward the lake, "The way I see it is, you can either decide what you're going to swim in, be it your clothes or your birthday suit, or..." He unsheathed the sword from his back, "I can get you in the water the hard way."

Knowing she was no match for him currently, Sakaria trekked up the hill slowly, and gazed into the lake. "These are the only clothes I have," She mumbled as if Suigetsu didn't already know. "and I don't want to ruin them..."

"I've never understood people like you, worried about getting your clothes wet," Suigetsu said, taking a sip of his water bottle.

"I'm sorry," Sakaria replied sarcastically, "I forgot. Everyone can just transform into water, clothes and all."

Suigetsu grinned, and set down his sword and water bottle, then pulled his shirt off. "Would it help you out if I was naked too?"

"How in the hell would that help me!?" Sakaria asked, burying her face in her palm.

"I dunno..." Suigetsu said, thinking hard, "Isn't it like, less embarrassing if someone else does it with you?"

"NO!" Sakaria yelled. She stood, frustrated and looked into the water. "Do we have to do this right now? I mean, I just woke up and-"

"No, No," Suigetsu said, reassuringly, "We can wait until Jugo gets back... Then we'll only have to let your brother and Karin see you naked before everyone in the group has!" Suigetsu grinned sarcastically. This did not cause Sakaria to give in, however, and she only crossed her arms and looked away.

"I'm just not going to learn to swim, then. You won't hurt me... Sasuke would kill you in two seconds if you did." She said decidedly.

Suigetsu raised an eyebrow at her spoiled tone, then chuckled quietly and sighed. "I guess you're right." Sakaria shot a surprised look over at him.

"I am?"

"Sure," Suigetsu mused, "In fact, you're not even worth the time it would take to teach you to swim." Sakaria's eyebrows furrowed as she listened to him, sure he was just trying to piss her off enough to make her jump in. "It's sad, ya know... you might be a pretty useful kunoichi if you weren't such a stubborn, stuck up little bitch." Her eyes shot toward him. "But, I guess it's to be expected... I mean, from what Sasuke tells me, you were an accident... you weren't even supposed to be born... so it's no surprise that the last living woman of the Uchiha clan is a waste of space. It's not like you'll be able to carry on your name. You'll get a husband, change your surname and lose the last interesting thing about you...Then nobody in the world will even care that you exist..."