teamwork 3 - chapter 3 first scene. (sasuke)

[askerian]

For this chapter I'm going to do something different, since I didn't want to stay too long with Naruto POV but I still needed it to end with Naruto anyway; so each character will have one or two smallish scenes instead. Sasuke will have a second scene after this.

I hope the scenes don't end up big enough to be really small chapters... In which case, I don't know what i'll call/number them. Oh well, the cutting up into chapters is only going to be a problem when it hits FFnet anyway.



Team Seven disembarked on a picturesque stretch of pale gray beach, but they hit the sand running and were up the crumbling cliff in seconds.

"Why are we hauling ass already?" Naruto inquired as they rushed toward the closest boulders.

Sasuke snorted, but didn't look over his shoulder to see him.

"Because, look at this place!" Sakura retorted from behind Sasuke's left shoulder; his sharingan caught the tail end of a demonstrative hand wave. "No cover to speak of. If the team who got off the boat at the previous stop ran, they might be waiting already."

Sasuke slipped in the shadow of the boulders and grimly surveyed the land. The ground was made of volcanic rock; there were cracks here and there, but none wide enough to hide that he could see, and slight bumps and shallow hollows, smoothed by the sea. Wild grass and hardy, thorn-covered bushes kept close to the ground, and the tallest of the handful of trees Sasuke could see wasn't much higher than he could reach by just lifting a hand; he had a feeling anything taller wouldn't survive the rush of the sea wind. Far ahead at the other end of the island, faint with distance and sea fog, a lighthouse cut into the barren skyline; there was no real relief to block the view.

At first glance, he would have called the place desolate; at second glance... the island wasn't a dead rock by far, but most of the plant life he could see was hardy and compact, and nothing he could recognize easily. They would have to crawl around quite a bit.

"Keep an eye out," he advised Naruto as the blond hunkered down beside him. "What can you smell?"

Naruto shrugged, scratching his hair. "Mostly the sea. Kinda nasty."

Well, that was unhelpful. Sasuke supposed with the wind his sense of smell would only help if something got between them and the beach anyway.

There was enough open space around them to get advance warning if anything moved, so he let his sharingan fade for the moment. "Sakura, see anything edible?"

Sakura tucked a lock of windblown pink hair behind her ear. "There might be berries -- show them to me before you eat any, though. Edible roots, perhaps. I think we'll have to make do with meat -- birds, and rabbits if there are any. The biggest mammals around here will probably be rodents. Snakes, perhaps..."

"Ew. Lizards too?" Naruto replied with a chuckle.

Sakura rolled her eyes at him over Sasuke's head. "Yes, and snails and big insects, if we have to. Just show them to me first, in case they're venomous."

"Oh well," Naruto said philosophically. "Snail, shellfish, it's kind of the same, isn't it?"

"Yes, and bad shellfish can kill you."

Sasuke tapped on the rock between his feet to remind them he was still there, ending the banter. "You studied the flora and fauna before we came, right?"

"Hm, yes," Sakura answered as she pushed a stubborn lock of hair behind her ear again, "but I could only find info on what's on the continental coast. It stands to reason that lots of bird and fish species will be the same on the archipelago, but as for the rest, it's hard to tell. There are certainly going to be bad surprises."

"Oh wow, surprises." Naruto crossed his hands behind his head and grinned guilelessly. "Blahblahblah steal tokens off people, blahblahblah fight other teams as you haul ass to that tower over there, blahblahblah the cute squirrels can kill you -- only this time it's an ISLAND of death. Yeah, I'm surprised."

Sakura reached around Sasuke's back to smack the blond over the head. Sasuke sighed. "If you're done. What first? Look for our first targets? Food? Shelter?"

"Water," Naruto answered instantly; Sasuke arched an eyebrow, and then scrunched it down when he caught sight of his face. The blond looked strangely thoughtful, eyes unfocused. "Kyuubi says fresh water. Prey will come on its own."

Sasuke frowned, and Sakura moved her weight from one foot to the other one restlessly, and smiled, trying to hide her discomfort. "Ah... I suppose that's a good suggestion," she said, voice a little stiff. "We could deal without food a lot longer than without water. But is there any stream out here? It's a small island..."

"There might be pools of rainwater," Sasuke replied, frowning as he thought of their next move. "But how to find that..."

"Let's look where birds land, they gotta know."

Sasuke scanned the sky, but the only birds he could see were gulls nesting on the cliffs. "We need to move anyway. Where to? Straight to the tower? Stay on the coast? East or west?"

"The sea limits our escape routes," Sakura replied. "It would take a lot longer to get to the tower as well."

"Yeah, but if we get too far from the sea and there's nothing to eat inland then we'll be fucked. At least we know there's fish and shrimpy things in the water."

"So let's follow the coast from a distance," Sasuke decided. It was a good compromise. He shifted his weight forward; Naruto started moving with him, but Sakura didn't.

"Naruto?"

That was her 'I think we have to talk' voice; Sasuke squatted to keep out of sight and looked over his shoulder at her. Surprised, Naruto stood in full sight a second longer before he imitated him.

"Uh -- yeah?"

She let out a sigh and looked up at the blond. "You've been, um, communing a lot with Kyuubi recently..."

Naruto winced and gave her a vaguely nervous laugh. "Ah, yeah, I guess. I don't know what's up, really, maybe he doesn't wanna miss the incoming blood and gore."

Flustered, Sakura tugged her hair back again -- the wind pushed it free the next second -- and gave Naruto a frustrated look. "But he didn't -- say anything?"

"Urgh! He says way too much, you mean. But it's nothing interesting."

Sakura didn't look reassured. Sasuke wasn't much, either. But it was visible that Naruto didn't want to talk about it -- and he looked embarrassed and annoyed more than guilty and afraid.

"Is he trying to take over?" he asked bluntly, to confirm.

Naruto twitched, startled, and waved his hands in insistent denial. "What? No! It's just peanut gallery stuff. And he wanted to eat some guy's cat, can you believe that?"

Sasuke blinked. The fearsome and terrible Kyuubi no Youko... The scourge of the Fire country... Chasing cats. "...Huh."

"But that's it, really. He hasn't been pushing at all."

"Okay." Sasuke activated his sharingan and scanned the rocky plain around them; nothing moved but grass and dust and the wind. "That's good enough for now. Warn us if it changes," he added, and started to move toward lower ground where they wouldn't have to crouch quite so much. They really couldn't afford to waste time to grill him right now.

Sakura still didn't seem entirely reassured, but she didn't protest, crawling through the reeds and thistle bushes after him. Naruto followed on her heels, and Sasuke pretended not to notice the easy grace with which he moved on all fours.