One Day at a Time

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of its characters and make no money from this.

Day Twenty-Three: For One Girl

The same man, whom he had nicknamed Shakes due to his constant trembling around him, had come back the next day to retrieve the plate and bowl he had left there, replacing them with identicals one filled with food and water. He barely paid the black-haired ninja any attention, deciding that it would be more respect than he deserved.

Once he was left alone, he picked some rice off the plate and pushed it in his mouth, chewing on it lazily. To have yourself as only company was a concept that the jonin had appreciated for a while, when his genin team required so much of his attention that he barely had a moment's peace. After spending more than two entire days with air as his only companion, he decided he would rather have to babysit a bunch of kids for the rest of his life rather than have to endure himself a minute longer.

Sadly, it seemed his offering to whatever god might be watching over him was too meager, as several hours later he still waited for his companion to return. His overactive mind created scenario after scenario of how he could escape this hellhole, of how he could kill the eight men remaining without even breaking a sweat, well aware that many of them could be successful if it wasn't for the fact that he had to save Sakura in the process.

He had no doubt that none of Koroku's men could even be considered an obstacle, but their boss was no lousy criminal. Sakura had assessed him as jonin-level minimum and he trusted her opinion blindly. Maybe they could run away, but if combat was requried, they would both die if access to their chakra was still impossible.

For a long while, he revisited old memories of his time as a war prisonner. This was a dark part of his past, one he rarely ever let himself think of. Rin and Obito's deaths had irreversibly changed his outlook on life, whilst being a prisonner had only hardened his already thick carapace. He had become the witness of many atrocities that had left him scarred, seen so many of his Konoha comrades meet their ends. Through all of it, none had spoken, each Leaf nin's silence only strengthening the next. To give up the information your comrade had offered his life to protect would be to dishonor his death, an act no Konoha ninja would ever commit.

Many of the scars he sported had been created there, from wounds so painful he would never forget.
It didn't take a genius to know that Sakura's body wouldn't come out of this without bearing any marks of the torture she had endured. The two scars on her belly and back from Sasori's sword were certain to have company in a few weeks. His heart ached all over again for the woman, hoping for her that she no longer prized her perfect skin and appearance so badly. The pinkette had been obsessed with her image for a while, surely has any other girls her age had. Whilst men seemed to treasure their scars as battle trophies, he had seen too many kunoichis try to conceal them, to see them as horrible difformities that stole their beauty.

Should Sakura react this way, he swore to try his hardest to make her feel as beautiful as she truly was, with or without scars. It would take so much more to cool down his desire to touch and feel her, to have her against him.


Chapter Twenty-Four: Click Here