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“Thanks,” Sasuke says to the pilot of the cargo plane they hitched a ride on to reach their destination.
He then goes to the back of the plane where Sakura sits, facing the window with a pensive look on her face. He sits across from her and raises his eyebrow in question when he hears her sigh for what must probably the 100th time.
Dressed in his large black shirt and a cargo pants with her hair pulled up in a bun, Sasuke could barely believe that she was also the same woman a few hours ago who rescued him from being roasted alive by Itachi in the Ring of Fire clad in the most elegant white gown and wearing a tiara rightful for a princess.
She’s beautiful either way, Sasuke thinks.
He immediately clears his throat and looks away from her, feeling the tips of his ears redden at his sudden line of thoughts.
Their only goal right now is to find the golden trident once possessed by King Indra which will help him defeat his half brother Itachi, take his place to the throne in Atlantis and prevent the war Itachi is waging against the humans.
Being infatuated with a too pretty pink-haired Atlantian who can kick his ass shouldn’t be his priority right now.
“Its scary. Being so far away from home. Flying so high up in the air like this.” Sakura finally mutters under her breath, still staring out the window.
Sasuke also takes a peak at the view below them. “Well at least you have a home,” he says quietly.
Sakura turns to look at him and smiles sadly. “Not anymore, I guess. I betrayed everyone when I saved you at the arena.”
Sasuke looks back at her and furrows his eyebrows in confusion. “But you’re engaged to Itachi. He will take you back.”
Even his words lacked conviction.
“One thing you should know about the people of Atlantis is that we’re not very keen on forgiveness,” she says.
“You’re a princess. Your mother is Queen Tsunade. You’re of royal blood,” Sasuke reasons further.
Sakura only gives him a defeated look. “So is your mother. But they also banished her from Atlantis for loving a human, didn’t they? If I go back there, I’d probably meet the same fate as Queen Mikoto.”
Sasuke sighs, giving up on trying to reason with her. She’s right, after all. “Well at least, you won’t have to marry Itachi anymore. You’re obviously not in love with him,” he says.
Sakura merely shakes her head and frowns. “Love is out of the question. It is my duty. My duty to family and my people. And now, I’ve turned my back on them.” She then looks Sasuke in eye. “Sometimes you have to do what’s right even if your heart aches against it.”
They look at each other for a few seconds when they were suddenly interrupted by a loud ring from Sakura’s bag.
Sakura gasps and immediately fumbles in her bag and takes out a silver and round shaped device projecting a hologram of a map, and at the center of the map is a glowing red circle.
She immediately stands and goes to the door of the plane, with Sasuke following behind her. “We’re here,” she announces as she opens the door and jumps out of the plane, like it’s the most normal thing to do. Of course.
Sasuke could only gape at the crazy woman now projecting into the air below.
“What the fuck—” the pilot shouts from his seat, glancing at the space where Sakura once stood with a bewildered look.
Sasuke only shrugs at him and also proceeds to jump out of the plane.
—
“We’re close,” Sakura says while squinting at her tracking device and walking up ahead the miles and miles of desert in front of them.
“Oh yeah? Close to what? Dying of thirst?” Sasuke answers sarcastically.
She glances at him and gives him a withering stare, “How about close to getting punched in the face?”
“Look, we’ve been searching across this desert for hours. I don’t think your whatever ocean GPS is working,” Sasuke says to the pink-haired woman in front of him who just keeps walking ahead, obviously not as parched and exhausted as he is.
Sakura only scoffs and holds up her tracking device high up in the air. “This tracking device is made by the most advanced technology you humans have yet to see. It does not commit an error.”
Sasuke rolls his eyes but goes after her, anyway. “Well, your tracking device also told you to jump out of a plane. And now we’re lost in this wasteland.”
“This wasteland you call home,” Sakura mutters, disgust laced in her voice as she continued trudging up ahead.
Sasuke thought better of himself than to respond to her snide remark, but he is hungry, he is thirsty, he is tired, he is covered with sand everywhere, he just narrowly escaped death not eight hours ago, and he just jumped out of a fucking plane so of course he will rise to the bait.
He huffs, “This isn’t my home. This is a desert, if you can see. The place I live in looks nothing like this.” He then kicks at the sand in irritation as he follows her.
“Oh no, of course not,” she answered, panting and brushing off the sweat on her forehead and still continuing to follow wherever the tracking device is pointing to. “You also got disgusting cities whose sewers empty out into our ocean and whole mountains made of garbage and oh you’ve got those big factories from huge corporations that apparently doesn’t give a shit about the environment and the working class they exploit as long as they make money-”
“Okay, you’re right. Point taken.” Sasuke cuts her off and jogs a little faster to catch up to her and block her way. “Capitalists are evil and should be held accountable for destroying everything but there are good things in our land, too. We’ve got pizzas, and dogs and forests, mountains, and lakes and rivers. You’d love them. They’re like little baby oceans.”
Sakura only gives him a flat look. “Are you trying to provoke me?” She pushes him out of the way and continues to peer at her device when Sasuke suddenly takes it from her hands.
“Look, fight club. I know you’re new to how things work here,” Sasuke says while holding the device far up from her reach and walking backwards away from her.
Sakura only glares at him while jogging after him, trying to take the device away from his grasp but to no avail as her companion was so tall and she only reached up to his chin.
Sasuke tries to hide his amused smile as Sakura attempts to take the tracking device from him, suddenly remembering the small dog he encountered back home who keeps growling angrily at him but failing to look intimidating because of its size.
He finally stops in his tracks and gives back the device to Sakura who takes it back from him angrily.
He then sighs and gestures around the place. “Why don’t you look around? We are lost,” he says and takes a few steps back while pointing at the far east. “You see that over there? What is that? Na da. We got nothing here.”
And as soon as Sasuke said that, he suddenly falls underneath the hole he was standing on.
Sakura only gives out an exasperated sigh as she stares at the hole where Sasuke fell. “If you are indeed the one true king of Atlantis, we’re all doomed.”