Between a Rock and a Hard Place

...

A rustle.

A flash of red by the foot of her bed. Sakura did not pounce like she wanted to, but instead made a show of stretching amongst the sheets with her eyes fixed on the intruder. She had always been taught the importance of putting on a good show, even if she felt frightened, or uneasy. Red eyes regarded her cooly despite the flaming colour.

"What? She grumbled, stretching her arms until her palms flattened against the wood of the headboard.

He said nothing, but Sakura thought she saw the beginnings of a sneer forming on his pale features. She sat up, abruptly, and let the sheet fall deliberately to pool at her waist. Her bare breasts stood were revealed without ceremony to his gaze, her pale pink nipples hardening in the air despite its warmth. Predictably, a light blush formed above his defined cheekbones and his steady gaze wavered a little.

"Are you sleepy?" Sakura slid back the covers, and cocked a coral eyebrow at him,"Please join me."

The one called Uchiha Sasuke looked downright mortified at this point and his furious scowl reminded her almost painfully of Tatsuo.

"You're annoying," he grumbled, and her amusement reached his zenith. She didn't even bother to hide her smirk."We need you to plot out a route on the map because - "

"- Another urgent messenger hawk has come through and the team needs to split up," Yamato finished, as he slid back the reed screen to step into the small room.

He froze as soon as his brown eyes fixed upon her. Sakura could feel herself beginning to shake with pent-up laughter. Now, she wanted to go to Konoha, if only to walk bare-breasted through the streets for her own amusement. In the hot months of summer, Iwa women though nothing of going topless, just as the men did. The Konoha reaction to her was just plain precious.

"Of course, Yamato-san, I would be very happy to do so," Sakura said, as she twisted out from beneath the sheets and ran a hand through her tangled hair. It was so hot and humid, she had to peel the fabric back from her skin.

She absently adjusted her Susoyoke where it hung at her generous hips. It was one of the nicest things she owned; a mint green half-slip, with embroidered pearl thread designs that extended down to mid-thigh. She had kept it out of sentimentality, but would be quick to beat anyone who dared suggest that fact. The heat had caused her to forgo any other clothing; she hadn't thought that would be a problem and Kakashi either hadn't noticed last night, or didn't care, or didn't want to comment.

Yamato swallowed heavily; she watched his adam's apple bob up and down before his eyes slid back up to focus on her face. She knew that her Susoyoke was just the wrong side of sheer, but had never really thought about it before. It had never been a problem before.

"Where is the map?" She asked, advancing on them both,"I can get it done right away if you tell me where it is you want to go?"

"Perhaps you,"Yamato swallowed again, Sasuke remained silent" should put something else on, Sakura-san?" His voice almost sounded pleading, this was starting to get more annoying than funny.

She tossed her head in a contemptuous spray of pink strands. "Nonsense. We are a team now, no? Kakashi told me that leaf teams change all the time, so now you are my team and I will treat you like my team until you are not."

"I don't know what you mean by team, Sakura-san," Yamato said, sounding as though he was choosing his words carefully,"but, uh..." His familiar brown eyes flickered to the bed, and suddenly Sakura was caught with the urge to laugh, or to scream.

"If you're implying what I think you're implying, then you should just stop right there, Leaf-boy."

"Excuse me? Sakura-reifujin? May I taidan with you?" The heavily accented male voice emanating from the corridor momentarily paused the tirade of threats she had been about to unleash, and she smiled, before striding out into the corridor with an assenting shout of 'zehi'.

She bowed deeply to the village Elder's first son - she could tell who he was because of the woven reed sash slung around his wide set shoulders - and chimed a pleasant greeting. He bowed to her in return and reached over to kiss her on her cheeks. They exchanged a few more pleasantries and he proferred a basket of food supplies, while thanking her profusely for the herbal remedies she had mixed up for the village the night before. Neither Yamato, nor Sasuke said anything.

"See? It is only you who thinks skin is obscene. It is normal," she announced, after the first born had left.

"And sleeping with Kakashi, is that normal Iwa behaviour as well?" Sasuke said, in a measured tone she knew he thought would sting. Just like Tatsuo.

She saw in Yamato's face that he wanted to intervene, but also was curious as to her answer. That they thought so little of her was no great surprise. Konoha's own always did think so much less of all who were not them.

"Sleeping beside a team-mate you respect is, yes. But I don't expect a Leaf like you to really understand that. You only respect yourself. You do not trust anyone with your bare back. Are not brave enough to trust anyone with your bare back, yeah" she bit out, remembering how he had slept at the far end of the cave, facing the entrance - how if he slept any closer to the wall he would merge with it.

"That is weak," he hissed, eyes flashing back to that bloody red that matched Kakashi's damaged eye.

"Alone is weak." She turned and strode down the corridor, strutting proudly in only her Susoyoke and her skin.

She felt less triumphant and more unsure the moment she rounded the corridor. Everything was so different with them; the way the spoke, the way they acted, even the way they ate... Deep down, Sakura had been considering Kakashi's offer even though it brought her great guilt and pain to do so because, really, what did she have left?

She could stay somewhere like here - in the heart of the marshes - and eat the roasted swamp-rat that those Konoha ones refused to touch, and lounge on low slung branches that just skimmed the brackish water, and let the rasping chirp of all the crickets lull her into sleep every night. She could marry someone like the first-born and cast off her armour in favour of the woven cloak of his family, and beads of precious stones woven in her hair; sit by his side at the many gatherings and festivals, sleep in his bed, bear his children... all under the full, watery moon that lingered above. She wondered if even the stars in Konoha were different.

When she had turned a few of the sharp corners, sure that she was alone, Sakura raised both hands to her face. She listened to the low hum of the marsh wildlife for a long minute and palmed a few, hot, shameful tears from her face. She hadn't cried in years.

"If you want to be accepted, you may consider following a more Konoha-style of doing things. After all, as you said, alone is weak." Kakashi's voice was low, and rolled over her like fog cresting a hill.

Of course she wasn't alone. She didn't turn to look at him where he stood very close, but she could feel the heat from his body even over the heat of the air.

"You were watching?" She said; voice cracking slightly, like varnished wood in a fire.

"Yes."

Sakura dragged her palms across her face once more to scrub away the last few tears that had dribbled out, and rubbed the silky fabric at her hips absently, to comfort herself.

"He reminds me of Tatsuo, that Uchiha boy," she said, finally turning to look at Kakashi.

He was silent for a long moment before leaning on the wall. She thought about telling him that these reed structures were not very stable, but decided that seeing him plunge into the weed strewn water might cheer her up a bit.

"That's nice," he muttered, instead of addressing the Tatsuo issue, gesturing to her Susoyoke.

Sakura felt a smile curling at the corners of her mouth despite herself,"My dorm-mother made it for me as a special present when I left the dorm after I graduated. It is the colour of my chakra, for luck, and" she noticed that he'd stopped looking when she held it up to the light, but kept going anyway," the designs mean lots of things."

"Lots of things," he echoed, looking at her face so deliberately she knew he was straining not to look elsewhere.

"The usual; good fortune, good health, happiness, abundance of fertility -" Kakashi spluttered a little at that, as though he had chocked on his own saliva.

The sound of a zipper made her start slightly when he shrugged off his green jounin vest and pulled off the tight, black shirt beneath it. With a slow, almost bored gesture he made her lift her arms and she did so because of how distracting his torso was encased in nothing but that silly net material the Leaf loved so much. Perhaps this was how he felt when he saw her bare.

The material was weird; clingy and close. She pulled at it and it snapped back to her skin immediately. It would be almost ineffectual against the warm, humidity of the marsh. It would do very little against weapons either.

"Your clothes aren't good for this climate," she said.

"Your lack of clothes aren't good for our team climate," he replied, slinging back on his vest and zipping it up.

She found her eyes following his skin as it was covered and snapped, "That doesn't make any sense."

He shrugged in a long movement that seemed to start at the tip of his toes and end at the quivering point of his silver hair and Sakura felt a lot of the tension drain out of her body without knowing why. The Leaf way would be another challenge to learn, and she had never failed at challenges - if she had, she'd have been long dead by now.

"I am going to have to take notes about the Konoha-style of doing things; so far all I have is - be a prude and wear stupid clothes that hug you tighter than a leech."

He didn't answer - just turned and led her down the corridor. She knew he was a letch and thought he would rise to her accusation; she had seen that damned orange book all those years ago. He didn't though - just sauntered down the thin path like he owned the place.

"And you must explain to me what you have instead of a dorm-mother," Sakura said, still pulling at that stupid shirt; it was so tight she became strangely more aware of how her body moved within it, how it clung to the contours of her form.

"How do you know we don't have them?" Kakashi had already brought out one of those hideous books - she recognised the mark on the back.

"You did that thing with your eyebrow when I mentioned mine. That Iwa-are-freaks twitch. It makes me want to tear your face off."

Down the corridor, she saw the sleek, dark head of the Uchiha and knew that he had slowed his pace to listen to what they were saying; just like Tatsuo. She pointedly ignored his presence and did not call out in greeting. Despite the emergency change in plans both him and Yamato had mentioned, none of the team seemed to be in a particular hurray. Lazy Leafs.

"Well," Kakashi dragged out finally, as though each word was pulled unwillingly from his mouth," we generally stay with our parents, or family, if we have any left."

"That is not conductive to team spirit. Not good for the collective." The words dashed from her without thought; part of the entire principle of Iwa. One family, one unit, one collective, one goal, one...

She stopped herself and tried, painfully, to think the Konoha way. She may as well start now. It was like turning rusty gears in her head. She thought of the cheerful, smiling face of her dorm-mother, and then her ferocious scowl, when angered, and all of her dorm-sisters squabbling at the mirror for space and giggling in heaps of pigtails, and clean skin as they talked about boys. She couldn't imagine a small, sterile dwelling with just a few people. Her heart felt empty as a balloon with all the air let out.

"I'm not saying the Iwa way is wrong -"

"But you're thinking it," she cut across him.

"But in Konoha, I suppose we think a few people are maybe all you need. That individuals are more than just small parts of a whole, but entities in themselves." Kakashi waved his hand as though it didn't matter to him, but she knew it mattered to his very core.

"A wolf without a pack starves when winter comes."

"Then maybe you should try summer in Konoha," Lightening quick he cupped her chin with one, gloved hand, and she knew in an instant that he could destroy her just as easily as he could have done all those years ago. He let her go only to rub a strand of hair between his fingers; the garish pink that she had once shaved off in order to prove herself strong, not vain. She could see that Uchiha had given up all pretences of walking and had paused to watch them with eyes narrowed like splinters of rubies.

"Spring colours suit you much better than Iwa ever did."

She could think of no retort, and stood a long time after he had left without another word. There was something about that man that ripped her entire world view in two.

...

"So, what's the change in plan?" Sakura asked, forcing herself to place a gentle hand on Yamato's back.

God, this integrating with the Leafs thing was hard. It was much easier when she could just break them to pieces with no thought as to their culture, or them as people.

He started as though she had shocked him, though she hadn't snuck up on him, but smiled a little after a moment. She let her hand fall casually and muscled her way into the space between his chair and the wall.

"We're sending Naruto, Sai and Sasuke to this village in order to -"

"What! We're splitting up again! And I'm stuck with teme!" Naruto's yells almost shook the whole structure, and Sakura mentally wondered if she would have to raise her voice about five octaves to fit in.

"You'll do as you're told," Yamato growled, voice deepening and tilting his head so that the light fell strangely on his strong features.

Naruto back-peddled immediately, and she could tell that this was an often repeated occurance.

"But I'm sure Sakura-chan would like to spend more time with the better members of the team." He waggled his blond eyebrows at her and she found herself amused rather than infuriated. In Iwa, she would have tackled him to the floor and twisted his fingers until he screeched for mercy. Perhaps this change would be easier than she thought.

She stuck her tongue out at him and he seemed inwardly delighted despite the fact that he pouted. His eyes sparkled like the clearest, mountain spring.

"So, if you could plot a course, Sakura-san?" Yamato looked at her expectantly, strange expression gone.

She nodded an affirmative - she knew that area fairly well - and quickly scribbled in a route along with a bunch of instructions, and penned a back-up route just in case they got cut off or had to divert. She didn't bother to ask why they were going. It was none of her business. Up close, she saw the slight redness of Yamato's skin that she had noticed before and realised that she had forgotten to see about his allergies.

"You forgot to remind me to help you," she admonished, curling her fingers under her headgear after Naruto had been sent off with the plans.

"It's not important."

"Shut up," she replied, exposing his entire face. He looked younger.

She flexed her fingers, mindful of how he flinched and pressed them to his skin. There was a faint sheen of sweat - which she had noticed on all of the Leafs except from the other dark haired one, Sai. They really weren't used to this humidity. He didn't relax despite how gentle she made her chakra, but she didn't expect him to. If anything, she was surprised he let her heal him at all.

"How does that feel?"

He nodded rather than answer and strapped his headband back into place. She felt him relax minutely when it was clear she wasn't going to gut him now that they were alone. Some deep part of her suggested that she should - for Kazu - but Sakura had to remind herself that Yamato had just been doing his job and it wasn't personal.

She liked his bracelet though, even if it reminded her of those vines he used, and she told him so.

"Well, I can make one for you," Yamato said, looking away from her as he said it.

"Please."

Sakura watched, faintly amazed, as the vine seemed to come from his palm.

"Was your mother part tree?" She asked, pleased by the slight tilt of his mouth, though he didn't answer.

She felt at ease to watch it at liberty now that he wasn't trying to strangle her with them. At least, she hoped not. It slithered up her fingers and twisted around her wrist in a sinuous movement; sealing itself like a snake eating its own tail. He flicked his hand when he was done, as though getting rid of something on it.

She clasped it gently and rubbed it around her wrist.

"Just ask me if you want it off."

She kissed him on the cheek as a 'thank you' because she didn't know how Leafs expressed a gratitude that bloomed inside like a flower under the warmth of the sun.

...

Sakura left Yamato to his final checks to go and find Kakashi and see where they were headed. She paused at the doorway when she noticed the lantern hanging above it; a teardrop of glass with vivid marsh-fire inside. A rarity. Tatsuo had gotten one for their team compound, and he had never told them where he had got it, just smiled and -

"So -"

She whirled around at the deep voice sounding behind her, half in memory and half not,"Aw, just leave it, Tatsuo-ai!"

It was the Uchiha again. He just seemed to be hanging around her like stink on a swamp-hog. In that moment all the acceptance she had begun to feel melted away like ice on a hot day. She deeply regretted her outburst and stayed silent as he looked at her closely. Perhaps he wanted to get back at her for embarrassing him by asking him to get into bed with her earlier.

Iwa men were simple. She didn't know where she stood with this one.

"Tatsuo-ai?"

"Tatsuo was my teammate. You are very like him." She didn't bother to lie. He stepped a bit closer, movements sinuous and silent. Up close his hair was more blue than black.

"And the ai?"

"Is none of your fucking business."

He made a soft 'tch' noise and his eyes lightened slightly. She supposed that was him using what they referred to as the Sharingan, but not wholly. At that moment, she very much wanted to break his nose in several places - the most she had ever managed was four, but she thought she could beat that record. He moved even closer, and Sakura was very ready to fight; she wondered what his hair would look like when she held his head under the marsh water. But, then he backed off suddenly, as though satisfied with whatever he had seen.

"I just came to ask you about the plans, have you completed them?"

She jerked her thumb over her shoulder, glad to change the subject. "Yamato has them. 'pparently you're supposed to leave in about an hour."

When he moved to go past her, he deliberately brushed against her in a way that made her hackles raise ferociously.

Just like Tatsuo.

Then, another voice, "Ai?"

Sakura twitched slightly and scowled at Kakashi. "You are lucky I am used to having no privacy."

Then, rather than dance around words with him - she didn't feel up to it - Sakura just told him,"He was my lover. It is usual to select one of your team."

"In Iwa," Kakashi said, lending a strange note to that she didn't entirely like.

"And who was I supposed to sleep with? Enemies?" She looked at him sideways from beneath a fringe of pink lashes,"Old men I found in the grass?"

That seemed to diffuse the tension between them, and he just tilted his head as though he was entirely innocent and had no idea what she was talking about. He grasped her wrist and tugged at the new bracelet there.

"Yamato?"

"It was nice of him."

He nodded - almost distracted looking - and then produced her backpack as though from nothing. She slipped it on, glad that she had already gotten dressed in her full field gear. She was quite glad that they were leaving - being in one village for too long always made her antsy - but she was also quite nervous because -

"We're less than a day from the border of the Fire Country."

Sakura swallowed heavily; the weight of his expectation like a tombstone. But she wasn't a coward, and this was clearly the only real option she had left.

"I know. I'm ready."

Kakashi didn't say anything, but she saw the slight crease of his one visible eye and knew that he had understood her decision.

...

...

As usual, thanks to all my readers and reviewers; you're brill. I know this update has taken ages, but I'm very busy being a student who avoids their work until the last minute and then panics and has to cram at 3 am. I especially love hearing where all of you are from; it's so weird and cool. Man, the Internet is just mind-boggling. We'll soon see how Sakura manages in Konoha. This should be interesting, don't you think?

Thanks for Reading!

Silver ~ x