Chapter 7.

Sakumo stares at the screen.

It's been about twenty minutes since they last showed his son on the holo-screen. He was starting to fall asleep then, his familiar and well-loved features slowly relaxing. The cameras have moved away from him and Rin since then, as even the most fervent watchers couldn't possibly be interested in watching them sleep. The camera does like them, though; their partnership is interesting enough for the cameras to return to them every now and then. Sakumo wants to be glad, but he knows that if the audience were to dislike the two, the game makers would probably activate some awful trap or unleash some genetically mutated animal to kill them off.

Over the years, Sakumo's met a lot of people who said it didn't feel real when their loved ones were reaped. By now Sakumo's two favorite people in the world have both been reaped, so it feels very, very real.

Sakumo can't relax. He can't. More than anything, he wants to run into the arena, pick up his boy, and run back out. He also kind of wants to die, just so that he doesn't have to see this. His son is out there, just as his girlfriend once was, but Sakumo has to believe there will be a better outcome this time. Even if that feels impossible.

"Sakumo..." A voice says. A heavy hand lands on his shoulder. "Sakumo, you have to go home and get some sleep. The whole district will be keeping an eye on your boy, but you need to sleep. You can't watch it all night. You'll go mad."

Sakumo doesn't want to budge, but the last word touches something in him. He turns half-way to meet the other man's face. Maito Dai has a kind face, tanned from the sun, covered in hair, and with warm, dark eyes. He's eccentric and accident-prone, which is why the district doesn't like him much. After the reaping, Dai's son (whose name, for some reason, rhymed perfectly with that of his father) had practically dragged the mustachioed man over to Sakumo, and together they had taken Sakumo back to their home. They forced some food into him, talked of courage and hope, and escorted him back to the townhouse, where the peacekeepers were keeping Kakashi.

They'd barely left his side since then. Sakumo isn't sure how he ever deserved such treatment, but he's grateful for it nonetheless. The only people who will still talk to him are the shopkeepers, who want his money, and occasionally the district's only female Victor- when she manages to leave the house.

Dai shakes his shoulder again. "Sakumo, please-"

"I'm not mad," Sakumo says, before he can stop himself. "I'm not mad." He gets up, feeling a little woozy. He didn't breathe right for hours after the fight at the cornucopia. He still doesn't feel very well, but he's just had a thought. That female Victor. Tsunade, or something. If anyone could help, it would be her.

He has to do something.

He looks for his jacket and pulls it on. It's threadbare and doesn't offer much warmth, but it's better than nothing. Besides, why should he be warm when his son is shivering so very far from home? He pulls it on anyway, because he feels a little bit less naked without it.

Dai gives him a relieved look. "You can sleep at our place, if you want."

"I'm not going to sleep," Sakumo says. He's shaking a little, and he wishes he had some booze on him. He knows he's better off without it, and for his son's sake he keeps the stuff out of his house, but it's so tempting. He shakes the thought off. He doesn't know Tsunade very well, but she's the only person who knows how the games work. If he gets drunk, he won't be able to function. He certainly won't be able to be of any use to his son.

Dai has probably figured that Sakumo is going to his own home, but for some reason the man insists on following him. His own son is safe, at home, where he'd gone to get some sleep after the worst of the danger to Kakashi and Rin had passed.

Nights are usually less eventful in the games, emphasis on usually. It gives the district a moment to breathe and, Sakumo remembers, the mentors a chance to look for sponsors. Technically, anyone is allowed to sponsor the tributes, even district people. Sakumo doesn't have the money, though. No one does. No one, except for Tsunade.

He walks faster than his tired body likes, but this is not a time to be cautious. He's hungry, yes, but he's a young man in his thirties and he should be stronger than this, damn it. He paces onward on shaky legs that haven't been exercised in a while.

Dai doesn't stop following him until he's already reached the Victor village, at which point even he has to realize what Sakumo wants to do. "Sakumo," he says, "she doesn't talk to people. There's no point in trying."

"She will damn well talk to me," Sakumo snarls. There's a fire in his chest that wasn't there before. If he can reach Tsunade, maybe he can reach his son.

Dai trails after him as he marches up to Tsunade's house. It's pretty, and bigger than anything Sakumo has ever lived in. It's one of the victor's rewards; a pretty, luxurious house on the outskirts of the district, with access to modern technology and plenty of food. There are about twelve houses, but only three of them are currently occupied. Tsunade is in the house opposite Sarutobi's, but where Sarutobi's is neat and well taken care of, Tsunade's is neglected and looks even worse than the empty houses.

Sakumo's courage briefly fails him, but then he marches up to the door knocks.

No one answers.

He knocks again. He can hear the sound of glass breaking inside. She's in. Not that he doubted it, she almost never leaves the house. He knocks again, and calls her name.

Eventually, he sits down on her porch. She's in there, she's just not responding. In that case, he'll sit here for as long as he dares to go without watching his son's progress. If she doesn't open the door this night, he will try again the next.

He will try, because if he sits back and does nothing, like last time, he thinks he might actually go mad.

Kakashi sleeps uneasily, waking up every few hours feeling like he's suffocating. One time, he dreams the big boy from waterfall finds them during the night and chokes them both to death. He wakes up gasping. It's gone warm again. The air feels stifling. His mouth is terribly dry, and before he knows it he's already had several sips of water from the canteen.

A cool hand reaches out to touch his own. "Not too much," Rin says. Her voice sounds hoarse. She's crouched next to him. Once she's sure he's awake, she crawls back to the window. She turns her face to him and puts her finger over her lips. "There's people nearby," she whispers.

That wakes him up very effectively. He caps the bottle and puts it back in the backpack, slinging it over one shoulder in case they have to make a run for it. They have to be careful at the window not to be seen themselves, so he only peeks out briefly.

There are people nearby. From the look of things, it's the boy from rock as well as a boy from the steam district. They are walking through the streets, glancing from one building to the next in perfect view. It's almost as if they're begging to be killed, a sarcastic little voice in the back of Kakashi's head says.

Not that he actually could. He doesn't have the weaponry, and anyway, he still has a sick feeling in his stomach every time he thinks about the boy from sound. He's not sure that he killed him, but he knows the wound he dealt the other boy probably contributed.

"What do we do?" Rin whispers. The two boys are getting closer, scoping out the area. They are armed, too; the boy from rock- Kakkou?-has two long blades, whereas his companion is holding a lead pipe.

They amble forward slowly, carefully-then there's a whisper in the air and suddenly the boy from steam goes down clutching at the arrow embedded just above his hip.

Shit!

Kakkou dives for safety through a door opening to his right. Kakashi almost ducks away as well, but then he sees the direction of the arrow. It's hit the boy from the front, which means the archer is either somewhere to Kakashi and Rin's right, or behind their building. Rin is pulling at his arm, but he ignores her. The archer probably can't see him, but if they fire again, Kakashi might be able to figure out their position. Either way, they're way too close for comfort.

The boy from steam rolls over the ground moaning. He tries to get purchase on the sand and clamber after his companion, even calling out for help. Kakkou has to hear him, but he doesn't move an inch. That's what an alliance gets you, Kakashi thinks; someone to watch you die from a safe distance.

His guess is proven right a moment later when another arrow whizzes through the air from somewhere just to the right of Kakashi's building. He watches as the arrow catches the boy in the back. The boy twitches for a moment, and then goes still. Idiot, the part of Kakashi's brain that isn't screaming says.

He could probably see the archer if he poked his head out of the window, but he's not about to lose an eye for such a stupid reason. Instead, he crouches back down next to Rin and tells her what he's learned.

She watches him wide-eyed. "Could the archer be in our building?" She whispers back.

He shrugs. "Probably not, or we'd be dead by now." Somehow, his tone sounds dry, almost amused. She looks a little startled by it, and he's not sure he likes it himself. He still feels like he wants to scream, but somehow all that comes out is sarcasm. Then again, he's seen more dead bodies in the last twenty-four hours than in the fifteen years before that. Maybe this is his coping mechanism. Or maybe he's just an asshole.

"We shouldn't stay here," Rin says. "We're sitting ducks."

She's right- stuck as they are in a single little room, they can only see what's right in front of them. Anyone could sneak up on them from behind. They need a place that's better hidden, and allows for a better overview of the arena. Right now, they can only see the cornucopia and the alley right next to them. Up until the archer started shooting, Kakashi had thought they were alone.

That said, moving around while that archer is still there is not exactly a good idea either. He or she could just pick them off from above-which Kakashi can't help but think is a brilliant strategy. "I think we have two options," he says. "Number one, we stay here and try our luck. We move when we run out of water."

Rin looks about as doubtful as he feels, so he keeps going.

" Number two, we move to a better location. With luck, the archer doesn't know we're here. He does know there's a target right there, in that building. He'll want to take him out first. We could sneak out of this building right now, while the archer is focused on him. The downside is that we don't know if we will find a better place."

"We could try to get to the roof," Rin says. "Maybe we can see a better place from there, and if that archer is still focused on the doorway where Kakkou hid..."

She doesn't have to say anything else. It's the best plan they've got, so Kakashi nods and starts to crawl towards the door. He stops briefly before opening it, wondering what would happen if someone was waiting outside for them. His heart starts to pound painfully fast and he grabs his knife. Rin, who is still limping a little, stands on the other side of the door and grips her spear with both hands. That way they can attack from both sides at once. Clever.

Kakashi reaches out and slowly opens the door. The knob is searing hot, but he bites through the pain. The door cracks painfully slowly- and no one comes storming through. He dares to look. There's no one there. He nods at Rin, feeling a little foolish, and then they leave their safe room and go towards the stairs.

They move slowly, crouching whenever they pass a window so no one can see them. They have to practically crawl up the stairs, because it's not fully enclosed by walls like the rest of the building-there's only a waist high stone parapet to keep them from falling off. Fortunately, as they are on the top floor, it doesn't take them long to reach the top.

While the roof is flat it does have a low wall around it, just enough so that when they crawl on their bellies hey can't be seen by anyone below them. Unfortunately, the heat is almost unbearable. The sun burns down on them from above, and the stone that they practically have to crawl over so as not to be seen could probably be used as a makeshift frying pan.

Kakashi thinks his hands will probably be raw and red by the time he goes back downstairs. Behind him, Rin hisses in pain, which somehow only enhances the bizarre idea of the two of them being eggs frying in a pan. Do eggs hiss because they are in pain? Or has Kakashi gone delirious with fear? The latter seems more probable.

The sun burns down on the back of his neck, so he moves the scarf to cover the back of his entire head. It's a little bit better, if only just.

They finally reached a ledge on the right side of the building and carefully look over. Kakashi's heart jolts. The archer is standing on the roof of the building next to theirs. The building is a little shorter, perhaps it for so below them, so they can see the archer well. It's the girl from rock, Suzume-something. She's a bit older than they are, with a tall forehead and short pale brown hair. All Kakashi remembers from her interview is that she was kind of rude, but she didn't give much away of her strategy or abilities, which means she's not an idiot. Her grade hadn't been particularly good, but she's obviously a dab hand at archery.

She's also looking in the other direction, and they have a spear.

Rin has obviously had the same thought. She clutches the spear tightly enough to turn her knuckles white. She gives him a look. She could probably throw it far enough, she has a good arm. She slowly rises up to her knees, weighing the spear in her hand. She winces a little at the movement as it jars her injury. She gets up to her feet as quietly as she can, and holds her spear in a throwing position.

Her knees wobble. She whispers, "no," and then she sinks back down behind the parapet. "No, no, no. I can't do it. Not like this. I'm sorry," she whispers, tears in her eyes.

The archer probably wouldn't return the favor, but Kakashi can understand anyway. He still feels weird about the boy from sound, and Rin is much kinder than he is. She is meant for healing, not killing. He puts a hand on her shoulder to show he understands.

Kakashi's brain goes into overdrive. The archer would have gotten her weaponry at the cornucopia. Her position on the roof means she won't be able to retrieve her arrows, which means she only has a limited supply.

They also have no way in hell of knowing how many she has left. They've only seen her use three, and Kakashi has no idea how many arrows a normal quiver holds. Still, a bow and arrow do not give her the same offensive abilities a long-distance gun would give her. She can't stay up there forever. Not to mention the incredible heat up on the roof.

That said, if they're not going to kill her they have to use this information to get the hell away from her before she kills them. Kakashi wonders if killing her wouldn't be the better option, but then he sees the minute shake in Rin's hands and knows it's not an option. She would never be able to live with it.

He peeks over the edge of the roof again, but this time with the intention of looking at the buildings. They are in one of the tallest buildings themselves. Most of the others are much lower, and close enough together that you could leap from one roof to the next, if necessary. The city doesn't spread very far either; it's positioned in a half-circle around the cornucopia, but beyond that there is only the desert again. Kakashi can see far enough to see what's on the other side of the cornucopia, but he doesn't think there's another town.

He lies back down and thinks. That probably means the smarter kids will be in the town to stay out of the sun- but if everyone thinks that way, they'll all be in the town. There's not an awful lot of town to go around for thirteen kids who have to murder each other for their survival.

The line this town ain't big enough for the both of us comes to mind. Except, of course, they don't have fancy hats, horses, or guns. Of course, Kakashi is rather relieved about the latter. He doesn't mind the lack of cheesy accents either.

Right now, though, there's not an awful lot they can do so they returned to a room in the corner of the building, where they can see both the street and the archer's roof. It feels risky, but so long as they stay down, they can manage. They have something to eat and a sip of water. There's not as much left as Kakashi would like. He wonders whether anyone has tried going back to the oasis yet.

The next few hours are pretty uneventful. The boy from rock doesn't show his face again, and the archer, probably overcome by heat, ends up taking shelter in her own building. Basically, they're stuck in a stalemate. Kakashi eventually dozes off, trusting Rin to keep watch.

By the time he wakes up, it's going dark and his stomach is growling painfully. Rin offers him a cracker, which is only slightly less horrible to eat when you're thirsty than beef jerky. His head is pounding. He'd give anything for a bit of water, even if it was just dew off a leaf. At least it's a little colder now, but the stone walls are still giving off heat.

"We can't stay here for much longer," Rin says. "We need water."

She's looking out of the window at the cornucopia, where the oasis with its fresh and clear water is. There's a fire burning near it, which means the careers still have it. Kakashi can spot at least five figures around the fire.

It's not until much later that night that he remembers Kakkou and the archer are from the same district. Not for the first time, he's glad that Rin is such a kind girl.

Although the previous day ended with only one death, the next one starts off more spectacularly. First, there's the shouting near the cornucopia, quickly followed by a cannon shot. In the early morning light, Kakashi can just about make out four figures. They must've had an argument, and killed the fifth of the group.

Kakashi remembers seeing this quite often in the career groups. His father had once equated it to a group of wild dogs, where there is a dominant individual and a subordinate one. If the subordinate crosses a line, the others take him down.

Kakashi and Rin spend it taking turns to go to the bottom floor of the building and see if there is a cellar. There is, and it's much cooler than the top floor is. Unfortunately, it's not very well hidden so it doesn't make for a very good shelter, and it would be too cold during the night. The upside is that there are cracks in the concrete floor, through which one of them Rin manages to dig up a little bit of ground water. It tastes exactly like what Kakashi imagines much taste like, but it's relatively clean and that means they don't have to empty their canteen quite yet.

Rin also says they might try looking for cacti, strange, prickly plants that are supposed to contain liquids. Obviously though, there aren't exactly any cacti inside their building. The girl from rock is back on her rooftop. There's no way of knowing whether the boy from her district is still holed up in the tiny shed where he'd hidden last night.

Sometime in late afternoon, a lightning storm starts up. There's no rain, somehow, but the winds are fierce and the thunder is deafening.

"It's awful that girl from Rock would hunt one of her own district teammates," Rin says conversationally, when they've gone to the cellar for shelter.

"Maybe they didn't really know each other back in the district," Kakashi suggests, although he's not sure that makes it any better.

"Even so. Being from the same district creates a kind of kinship, doesn't it? It means you've lived through the same experiences, and in the same culture."

He shrugs. "Still gives you a bit of leeway." he says. Something cracks up above, immediately followed by thunder. "I didn't know you could have thunderstorms in the desert," he says.

"My dad says they have thunderstorms in the sand district as well. Apparently, the water just evaporates before it hits the ground. It's called a dry thunderstorm." Rin says.

"What does your dad do? I never see him with the other lumberjacks," he asks.

"Metalwork. Lightning conductors, amongst other things. He puts them on the tallest trees and on the buildings. Lightning tends to go towards the highest point, and is attracted by metal," Rin says.

Kakashi hadn't known that. They never talked about it much in school, even though storms in their district were long and harsh, often striking down trees, or even setting fires in the woods. Then again, the stories his dad used to tell him about his childhood make the storms look much worse, and the fires far more common. "How does it work?"

"I guess Shi would know," Rin shrugs. "His district works with electricity, doesn't it?"

"I wonder what they want to achieve with it."

"What do you mean? It's a storm."

"It's a storm in a man-made arena intended to kill people," Kakashi points out.

"...oh."

"Yeah."

"The cornucopia is made of metal," Rin says thoughtfully. "It might attract the lightning. I don't think it will work as a Faraday cage either. Then again, our buildings are tall."

Apparently, she isn't going to explain what a Faraday cage was. Not that it really matters. "Either way, we're safe inside the buildings. The Careers are not," he says.

They draw their conclusion at the exact same time. "If they are not safe at the cornucopia…"

"They're going to come here," Rin finishes.

AN. Thanks for reading! Please let me know if you enjoyed it, you'll make my day!