The Camp
It was dark, still in the middle of the night, and the soft murmur of the rain and the dropping of thicker drops of water falling from the gutters were the only sounds that could be heard in the room of the Inn. A lonely figure lay huddled together on one of the two beds, clutching a pillow, while silent tears ran down the delicate face into the pillow. Not even two hours of sleep were granted to her when Sakura startled from one of her nightmares. The silence and emptiness in the room almost crushed her and a feeling of helplessness spread through her, making it impossible to fall asleep. Out of desperation she had taken the pillow and pressed it to herself, hoping it would comfort her, carrying with it a hint of Haku's scent. And it helped, at least a little, but it didn't calm her nerves significantly, and as time progressed mercilessly, the effect of the pillow on her diminished. She missed Haku and Zabuza. Near them she felt safe and protected, as if nothing and nobody could get too close. But she was alone and no one was there to comfort her after the events. Hopefully the two ninjas would be back soon.'Come on, Sak. Don't let yourself down and do something. Go out, train or get one of those hoodies, but stop wasting your breath. You can't rely on others forever and yesterday you spent the whole day lying in bed and feeling sorry for yourself. Get up and distract yourself and leave the uncomfortable memories for the day to me.' Barely Sakura reacted to her inner voice and instead buried her face deeper into the pillow. Everything felt too elaborate and exhausting and it was better just to stay in bed. 'Will you get up now!' In her head Inner raged. She could understand the reaction, for this reason she had done nothing the day before, but she could not allow Sakura to remain in her hole. The longer she would sit in her hole, the harder it would be for her to get out. For this reason Inner Sakura pushed and tried to encourage her to stand up.
Grumbling Sakura tried to turn off Inner and buried her face deeper into the pillow. Everything was better than facing the new day in her eyes. For this thought she also got a metaphorical slap in the face from Inner. As soon as she had awakened from her nightmare, she had started to convince her and no matter what Sakura tried, Inner didn't keep her mouth shut. Dissatisfied, she opened one eye and looked over the edge of her pillow. The darkness of the night had disappeared and a dim light fell into the room. A moan escaped Sakura's throat. "Did you actually talk hours to me and not shut up once?" It was a rhetorical question why Sakura didn't hear the answer. "Ok. Ok. When I get up, will you at least keep your mouth shut? Your chatter is causing headaches." 'If you get up and stop feeling sorry for yourself, then yes.' The triumphant grin Sakura could clearly hear from inners voice. Nevertheless, the young Kunoichi got out of bed and dragged herself not euphorically into the bathroom. Maybe a hot shower and breakfast helped to lift her spirits. After all, she hadn't eaten anything since the night before yesterday. The thought of that evening at the bar made her grimace, but the thoughts vanished quite quickly, which was probably due to Inner. After all, she had promised to take care of the unpleasant thoughts throughout the day. Apparently it worked and Sakura was grateful for it.
In fact, the young Haruno was feeling better after the shower, even if only minimally. Her breakfast was sparse and not extravagant, but she had too little appetite. But at least she had something in her stomach and wouldn't spend the day on an empty stomach. But now the question arose what to do with the day. Motivation wasn't really there, but back to bed wasn't an option either. Sighing, Sakura decided to train. Haku and Zabuza would certainly be disappointed if she neglected her training. With the thought alone, her inner self tightened, not living up to their expectations, was one of her biggest worries. Maybe it meant that she would be left behind and she wouldn't be able to handle that. She was really weak and pathetic when she depending on others so much and clinging to them. Inner was right, as so often. She did have to learn to not rely on others all the time.
The whole morning the pink haired Kunoichi spent on the improvised training field which she had visited with the two Mistninjas and went through her exercises. Laps were run to warm up and to train her stamina. Push ups and other muscle building exercises, shuriken and Kunai practices and finally she went through the Katas for her Sais Zabuza had shown her. During her breaks she took time for meditation and was amazed at the small but significant changes in her chakra reserves. To be honest, she had not expected a visible change and it made her smile slightly.
In the afternoon she strolled through the village, gazed over the people and looked at the storefronts of the shops. A feeling of calm filled her as she sat down in a small café and ordered something to drink. Unlike at night, there were no clouds hanging over her thoughts and she could simply enjoy the moment. Sakura gave the waitress a friendly smile as her drink was brought, and she took a gentle sip of her cappuccino before briefly twisting her mouth because of the slight bitterness. It would take a while for her to get used to the taste. "May I sit with you?" A quick glance to the side brought a young man into Sakura's field of vision who smiled friendly at her and waited for an answer. Her eyes rested on his person for a moment, scanned him and only then did she nod lightly. The wide smile almost seemed wrong when he sat down, which led Sakura to be careful. "Thank you. I thought I'd just ask while you sit here alone and no other table is free. Besides, who likes to be alone, especially when one is so young..." During the statement Sakura's body tensed and with narrowed eyes she looked at the man. "Who says that I am alone?" Her voice sounded skeptical, distant and firm, even though she didn't feel secure and comfortable at all. To distract herself to some extent, she took her cup in her hand and drank another sip. "Well, I took it for granted where no one keeps you company here." He sounded innocent, but something didn't fit, Sakura found and Zabuza had told her to listen to her feelings and intuition, it could save her life. "Just because I'm sitting alone in a café doesn't mean I'm alone. I just like my peace and quiet." Sakura put down her cup and waited until the waitress took the young man's order and disappeared again. "Of course. My mistake. May I ask how old you are and where you come from?" Sakura closed her eyes briefly and sighed inwardly. Either the man did not understand the subliminal message that she wanted her peace, or he consciously ignored her. "Pretty bold to ask such questions before you' imagined yourself." Sakura's answer made the man snicker. Did he really think she was so stupid and naive?
Probably, when she thought back to her ego in Konoha... that ego saw no problem in revealing the information. Because she had been much too fixated on Sasuke-kun and too blind for the obvious questions about information retrieval. A shiver ran down her back as she thought back about how Zabuza had drilled into her, how naive and gullible she had been as soon as they had started her training. "Somebody's got claws." The man chuckled and found the situation apparently quite amusing. "I am Nagare Kinzoku, an weapons merchant from Kirigakure." The man took a break and Sakura saw the waitress come to their table with the order. Only when she was away again, Nagare spoke further. "Honestly, I hoped it would be easier with you, little one. But you don't seem as naive as you look." If glances would kill, the man would probably have been stabbed with several Kunais, but that only made him laugh out loud. Sakura decided at that very moment not to like Nagare. "No reason to want to cut me open right away. Your Sais tell me you can handle weapons and your behavior indicates that you have been trained at least rudimentarily, but I don't see any sign that you are assigned to a village and the lack of teammates leads me to conclude that you are not an ordinary Genin. Am I wrong?" The contented grin Sakura would have loved to punch from the guy's face, but she tried to control herself and took another sip of her cappuccino before she answered. "For an weapons merchant, you' re pretty good at observing and putting together Kinzoku-san." What sounded like a simple statement was much more a subliminal message after the question: where did this knowledge come from in order to be able to put fragments together. Whether he had understood the message, however, he didn't let on, since he continued to grin at the young Kunoichi. "If you're so eager to know. I am a wanderer and not a Genin, as you call it. With the hidden villages I stand in no relation." Again Sakura took a sip and put the empty cup back on the table. This made her miss the satisfying look of Nagara and the quiet "good" might have been imaginary.
For a while it remained silent between them both, which Sakura more than just greeted. With a small wave of her right hand, she signaled to the waitress that she wanted to pay, whereupon she nodded and came to collect. But before Sakura could get up and leave, Nagare held her by the wrist. "I would have a job for you. I suppose without belonging to a village it's not so easy to find work, is it?" Again he had put on that broad, fake grin, which made Sakura feel queasy. But he wasn't completely wrong with his guess. "Depends on the job, not anyone will be accepted." In particular, she wouldn't take a job from him, he creped her out. "Ahh, nothing bad just a few little things on behalf of Kirigakure. I can tell you more if you want, you just have to come with me." All the alarm bells went off at Sakura after she heard that, but something told her to get to the bottom of it. A slight nod as confirmation was enough for Nagare and he also paid before he got up and led the young Kunoichi out of the village.
They were silent for quite a while. If Sakura had to guess, she estimated they had walked for at least an hour and the silence made the way anything but pleasant. Again and again her gaze scurried from left to right, to Nagare and again to the front. She didn't trust the man and since he didn't reveal where he was going, this feeling doesn't lie down either. But at some point she heard voices in the distance. The further they went, the louder the voices became and finally they stood in a small clearing with several tents and an active community doing their daily tasks. "Nagare, you're back!" A bulky, older man approached them and seemed relieved to see the young man. "And I see you brought someone with you. Well, no matter. They attacked again. Matsu and Kenta are wounded and Shimo has disappeared. If this goes on like this, there will soon be nothing left of us." Nagare seemed unconcerned and put a hand on Sakura's shoulder instead. "That's why I offered her a job." The unbelieving expression on the face of the older man could not be overlooked. "You must know, little one, we have set up a camp here due to unrest in Kiri. However, we are not fighters and therefore easy prey for bandits and others who currently make our lives difficult. If you help us to eliminate the troublemakers, you are naturally paid for it. What do you say?" While Nagara's gaze rested on her, Sakura looked around a bit. Most of the people she saw looked like civilians, untrained and somewhat worried. The fact that they had fled from Kiri due to riots caused compassion in the Haruno and she chewed thoughtfully on the inside of her lower lip. "What can you tell me about these troublemakers?" She needed more information before she could finally decide and nodding Nagare led her into a nearby tent and told her what she had to know.
Thoughtful and with her arms crossed in front of her chest, Sakura sat opposite Nagare and pondered the information she had received. In Konoha she had never learned much about other shinobi villages except the war stories, so she could not be 100% sure the data and facts she had received were correct. However, there was every reason to believe that the group was wrong and that they were now suffering attacks without being able to do anything for their situation. A circumstance that stirred her and made her feel the urge to do something to help these people. Almost... almost like Naruto. Uncertain, Sakura tapped her forearm with her index finger, trying to ignore Nagares intense gaze. If she did it skilfully, she could certainly help the people here and get paid, she would too. Something Zabuza would surely welcome. However, she didn't know anything about the level of her possible opponents and could confidently do without another near encounter with death. Sighing, the Haruno breathed out and raised her gaze. "It will take me a few days to really make up my mind. You don't know how many enemies you have or how strong they are and I have a few things to do before I can possibly take care of this problem". A vague nod was the answer. "Do you think you can hold out for five days? I can come here then or we can meet at the café at noon." She needed time for preparations and maybe she was lucky and the two Mistninjas came back. "Five days is a long time, but I can understand you. Somehow we get the days around. I'll pick you up at the café if you've decided to help us. I'm sure our people will thank you very much." With that the conversation was over and Sakura could step out of the tent.
The humid cool air penetrated through her clothes as she pushed the tent tarpaulin aside and stepped outside. After a few steps she stopped and took another look at the camp, at least what she could see of it. The busy roads were slightly muddy, it had rained during the night, but they concluded that there was a certain system behind the camp structure. She didn't realize this system yet, but maybe it didn't have to. She was no one to lead or be responsible for the organization of this group. Even if she accepted the job, she did not have to know the inner procedures of the former Kiri inhabitants in the camp, but only the strategic entry points over which the opponents could possibly attack. On paper she could certainly come up with some good strategies to help. The realisation, however, would become more difficult. With one hand she drove once over her face and rubbed her forehead afterwards. Too much to think about. "I'm gonna get a headache from all this stuff." In the background she only heard the approving humming of Inner. With a flowing hand movement she said goodbye and made her way back. This time alone, Nagare stayed back in the camp to deal with the damage of the last attack. Sakura drifted into her thoughts as she walked and had a discussion with Inner about whether it made sense to help or not.
She hadn't even walked halfway down the track when a noise made her stop.