one_long_mission

After he had lost a good portion of the night to his restless sleep, she was content to permit him to sleep past sunrise. Still seated where she had been, she had started to meditate, letting her senses expand and take stock of everything around them. Quiet and safe, at least for now.

At the sound of him stirring, she drew herself up out of her center and opened her eyes, glancing down to meet his. "Good morning."

"m..morning." he murmured, hastily rising, gathering and donning his black robe again before folding the borrowed/lent bedroll to her. "..t'was comfortable... y'were right" he hastily intones before taking out some dried fruit and proceeding to eat some, feeling somewhat awkward when he recalled what went on overnight.

Her eyebrow quirked as she watched him with a touch of amusement, though that was the only visible sign she permitted herself as she accepted the blanket. "Good. Rest is necessary if one is to perform well during the day."

She'd already eaten when the sun rose, so she focused on making sure everything was packed for when he was ready to go. As much as she wanted to ask about the nightmares... no. They were none of her business, and she had no need to know.

He spent no time on meaningless thoughts, moving forward as soon as they collected the wires and disarmed traps.

He was still eating those dried fruit as they walked, with him leading her... but soon, as they reached the end of the forest, he halted abruptly. "...how far ahead can you see?" he inquired, ducking into foilage, knowing she would follow her lead. "I'll need your eyes."

What she would find out would be bad, since two contingents of eight of those Shourisha were stationed there, about five-hundred meters ahead on the other side of dunes. Indeed, those were war times...

"Far enough." She moved in beside him and crouched down easily, hiding herself beneath the foliage as she peered out. A breath, then she exhaled, bringing her hands together slowly to draw Chakra to her eyes and enable them to see much further than a normal human eye.

"...Sixteen Shourisha, split into two groups of eight. Here, and here." She indicated with a hand, though it was obvious from her motions that she wasn't looking at what she was doing, staring at a point far beyond theirs. "Within five hundred meters of this location. It may be wiser to go around rather than rouse attention."

Sixteen? He would have tried their luck against eight but sixteen was pure suicide. "...five hundred meters, and we have to go around? Mostly flat lands and small hills though." he clicked his tongue lightly in annoyance.

"No choice." he snorted, starting to move back into the forest. Good thing they had made campfires and he had caught the lingering scent. "...we can't have them move on us as we go, so keep an eye on them till you can't anymore." Going around meant wasting a few hours for sure.

Even if they managed to take out all sixteen of them without raising any kind of alarm? The increased activity at the sudden disappearance of that many of their number would surely bring even greater numbers to bear. She nodded in response, backing up while still keeping her focus straight ahead.

"I will need your assistance to guide me through the trees," she pointed out, her steps careful. With all her focus pointed forward, things behind her were somewhat fuzzier. She had been training to see further and better, but there was still so much more to learn that she had to teach herself... "I will watch them and let you know should they start to move."

"Right." and assistance was given as he readily claimed her hand to lead her at an easy pace, slowing when terrain became treacherous.

He had given himself a fifty-meter margin, to make sure none of their sidelines would see them, and kept to any vegetation he could find, extending his margin to seventy-five meters once they lost the cover of trees or shrubs on their way to plains. "We've just extended our outing by a half-day more" but the fact they travelled this safely was indubitably good.

"No movements? We should be safe... They're far from the mid-way point though... might have been reinforcements for somewhere."

She took his hand, relying on him to get her through the brush without faltering. As much as it irked her to put this much trust in him... had he wanted to betray her, he would have done it last night. For whatever reason, that look she'd seen in his eyes when he'd first woken from his nightmare, and then again this morning...

She didn't think he would betray her, not now.

"No movement. They have not noticed our presence." Her voice started to sound a little strained from the effort of keeping them in view. "I will continue to watch, if you will continue to lead."

"This far is enough." he shook his head. "We can't have you straining yourself, not with he possibility of an attack coming at any moment. We both have to constantly be on guard. These pilgrimage roads wee safe and sacred, in the texts, but it's been a while..." so he kept scanning what he could see, eyes and ears alert. Thankfully he had smelled no more leftover fires...

"We still have a full day and a half and we're in enemy territory already..." he was not pleased. "They gained land recently, or they got bolder?"

Her eyes narrowed, but she couldn't argue with the logic of that statement, withdrawing her gaze and blinking a few times as she became more aware of her surroundings. The sides of her eyes ached, just below her temples... Drawing her hand out of Sasuke's, she brought both up to rub at the skin there, closing her eyes for a moment before nodding.

"Both, I'm afraid. Hence why it was easier for me to obtain permission for a scouting mission. If they have gotten this far so quickly..." She shook her head and frowned. "We need to get back as soon as possible."

"...as soon as possible, yes.." after he had seen the temple or course, and gotten what he was seeking from there. It shocked him that she was not more insistent that they should go back -now- instead of forcing their way onto enemy lines, but then, she had stated she had an interest in this outing of his, he was fairly sure..

Thankfully, the rest of the day they met no other Shourisha. "Do you think you can find us somewhere secure to spend the night as, within a 2-hour walk radius?"he asked as the sun started its descent.

Not only his quest now, but she needed further information. If it was only the advance group of sixteen, that was less of a concern than an entire army.

"If there is one to be found, I will find it," she reassured him quietly, bringing her hands up to draw her Chakra to her eyes again. She carefully masked a wince at the sharp sting to the veins drawing Chakra, but focused her energy regardless. "Half an hour to the west, there is a small cave in a hillside. It is largely covered by brambles and thorned bushed, so there are no animals living there."

She was not only useful, but also reliable. "West. Good." he started that way and led them to it, blade summoned in hand to push away the branches within the path and leave the area untouched.

Once they had reached the safety of its insides, they waited for their vision to get used to its darkness and moved a little further in. He had easily claimed her hand even for that small trek, to assure himself of her proximity. "I doubt we need any vigil tonight. This place has been completely undisturbed and unused." all he had felt as he guided himself along the walls with his free hand, and then explored the floor, was rock and more rock.

To say she was surprised when he took her hand was an understatement, but she didn't protest, falling into step beside him as her eyes adjusted quickly to the darkness. "I will trap the entrance, so we will have that much foreknowledge should someone track us. It is unlikely, though, you are correct."

With that, she finally made to withdraw her fingers from his hand, glancing toward the cave entrance. "Ventilation is not adequate enough for a fire. I'm sorry, this level of light will be all we can afford."

"I wasn't expecting any fire, really. We can most likely spend the next evening and night at the temple, if it's suitable... though we'll have to see." he fetched some of that dried meat again to chew on. "..unless you mind entering it."

He seemed, however, more interested in lying down since he shifted quickly to the floor, perhaps hoping to catch up on sleep. "...I'll be going off here, unless there's something else to discuss..."

"If I am entering it, it is with your permission, Uchiha Sasuke."

She nodded to him though when he shifted as if to sleep, mindful that they'd both had less than adequate rest the night before. "Sleep well." And she meant that genuinely, too. Hopefully no nightmares would plague him tonight...

Though she had to reflect that she would be willing to again listen to him, should he need someone to, as she finished setting up the wire around the cave entrance and dragged some of the cut bushes back over to further mask it. With that secure, she unfolded her bedroll near him and crawled in to doze lightly.

He had settled with his robe as blanket again, breathing quietly, undisturbed.. but then, as they would never leave, the nightmares came again. His breathing shifted, light whimpers sounding as he moved around, curled fingers soon raking at the stone beneath him.

They never left, a permanent part of him, having singed his memories forever. In them, he constantly relieved that same night... Without a doubt, a lesser being would have gone insane.

In an instant, she was awake, blinking in the darkness at the sound of Sasuke shifting. Another nightmare, the same as last night... If they were attacked tomorrow, they would need adequate sleep, and this was not the way to get it.

Impulsive, perhaps, yes, dangerous, almost certainly, but she half sat-up and grabbed that scrabbling hand, holding it as he'd held hers earlier to guide her. "Sasuke."

The whimpering stopped, and he shifted, sitting up. Wide, dark eyes shone with unspoken terrors as he stared at the void, before relocating himself to the present.

He had not been lost so deeply, not as deeply as usual within the images, the screams, the painful memories. Once he realized he wasn't alone as he always was, he looked away... and then felt that warm encasing his hand, and knew just why he woke before he usually did.

...and then, dark eyes slowly shifted to her.

He didn't need to see the whole nightmare anyway. He knew... he wouldn't have been able to save them.
"..I woke you..." he wished he had not, for a variety of reasons.

"And then I woke you," she pointed out. His hand was warm, almost impossibly so, but she didn't let go. If anything, her grip only tightened around his as she met his eyes.

He was so alone, had been so alone for so long. Just like she had. And now she had a chance to do what no one had ever truly done for her.

"...What can I do?"

He shook his head and squeezed his eyes shut. Another reason he hated these nightmares was that they robbed him of his usual defenses. He rarely had anyone wake him, and if he ever woke anyone else with them, they had known it to be better off pretending that nothing was wrong.
Those white eyes, in the darkness of that cave, were mesmerizing.

Wait, did he just think that?

"Nothing. You can't do a thing, I can't do a thing. No one can." he wasn't trying to reclaim his hand, perhaps since he knew her grip wasn't to be contended with. "I.. it's.. they won't leave.. and we.. should sleep."

Her uncle and cousins would disapprove. That entire side of the family had always been a stickler for formality. But she kept her hand in his, not about to let go.

"Sleep," she murmured, shifting in her bedroll to lie closer to him, easing the awkward angle of her arm. "They are not the only ones who are with you tonight."

He gave a light whimper, almost moving away, although his body shook he rooted himself firmly. Why did he want to flee?
He hid under the robe he used as blanket again, looking like nothing more than a scared child as he did, hand gripping hers a fraction tighter, perhaps in a result of the light tremor that coursed through him.

If he was alone, he couldn't be hurt...
...if he lost someone again, it couldn't hurt him if he wasn't as close as he could be.

She only squeezed his hand more tightly at the tremor and rested on her back, letting her eyes fall closed. She could not force him to acknowledge her as being there for him, only leave the opening and hope he would take it, for his own sake.

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject