#narukarui

Chapter 147: Naruto/Karui + Sakura/Samui

“BUT IT WAS A CLONE!”

“LET IT GO, DOOFUS!”

Sakura sighed and tilted her head, scratching awkwardly at the base of her neck. Less than a minute of knowing those two were soulmates and it was obvious they were a good match. Naruto needed someone with the energy to keep up with him, she supposed.

“You already punched my clone in the face!”

“That was a good punch, too.” Karui preened, unmoved by the way Naruto stomped both feet in protest as they all walked back towards the village.

“Well they’re exact copies of me so that should have worked, ‘ttebayo!”

“Hmph. It didn’t, so get over it. And I got to take out my frustration and anger just like you said. I don’t get why you’re so upset right now!” Setting both hands on her hips, Karui shook her finger under Naruto’s nose as she continued to lecture him on the proper etiquette to follow when you’ve just met your soulmate for the first time.

Sakura watched them go at each other with a smile until she heard the Kumo guy behind her muttered to himself and slowed her steps to better hear what he was saying. Curiosity kept the shinobi alive, after all.

“But what if the first touch does work on a clone and that clone is really far away? Then it disperses the clone and you get the memories but your new soulmate doesn’t know where you are! So of course they go looking for you and you go looking for them but you both go looking in the wrong spot and you never find each other! It would be a disaster!

“Give it a rest, Omoi.” Another figure in traditional Kumo garb dropped down from the treetops, short blonde hair swaying and eyes narrowed. “How goes the intelligence gathering? I hope you haven’t gotten in to trouble.” Omoi, as he was apparently called, immediately became more serious.

“N-never mind that! We learned that Lord Killer Bee is alive!”

Falling back to where Sai was slinking along behind them all, Sakura tried to give their visitors the space they needed to talk about their captured comrade. She didn’t regret following Naruto in secret when he’d left to go ‘tell them everything he knew about Sasuke’ but she was well aware that none of what was going on at the moment had anything to do with her. It was probably best if she stayed out of the conversation as much as possible.

At least until they all got back to their village where the three strangers had been given permission to look over the intel they came looking for. Sakura had every intention of interfering with that if she was able to.

Observing quietly from the back of the group, she bided her time as the conversation petered out and they all set off again, keeping to herself until they made their way back to where Konoha existed as a sea of canvas and bare wood in the wake of Pein’s attack. Naruto had quieted, finally settling down about the method in which he’d found his soulmate, and it was kind of cute to watch the way he flushed with pleasure every time Karui met his gaze. After the lonely life he had lived for so many years she supposed it was quite a big deal for him to find his soulmate. Karui seemed like a confident woman too, boldly saying what she thought and not flinching away from his overabundance of energy.

Their little rag tag group stopped once they reached the base of the Hokage Monument, the only untouched piece of their beloved village, and Sakura noticed Sai slipping away from them in the corner of her eye. She dismissed him easily. Right now she had her own agenda. From the sounds of it, Naruto seemed determined to follow his new soulmate in to the secret archives. If she could think of an excuse for her to follow as well she might be able to disrupt their work somehow – or maybe even steal some of the information they were trying to get on Sasuke.

“It was a pleasure meeting you,” the leader of the Kumo trio – Samui – told them all politely. Sakura saw her chance and stepped forward to shake the woman’s hand.

“Our pleasure, of course. If you’re going to bring Naruto along then perhaps I should come to. That doofus wouldn’t know a bookshelf from a nightstand let alone which book goes where.” Her smile rather neatly covered the laughter bubbling up at Naruto’s indignant squawk. Samui eyed her speculatively, a searching gaze that told Sakura she hadn’t been quite as subtle as she hoped, but still Samui reached out to accept her handshake.

They gasped at the same time the moment their fingers brushed. Bells rang inside her head, entire chorus’s singing inside her soul, and her heart felt ready to leap out of her chest and lay itself gently across Samui’s palm in honest supplication.

“M-maybe you should come with us,” Samui mumbled, visibly shaken.

“Yes please.” Mortified by the way her voice came out as little more than a high squeak, Sakura nibbled her lower lip and lowered her eyes, shy in a way she hadn’t been since she was twelve years old and flustering over a boy who never paid her any attention.

“Eh? Sakura-chan, why are you both acting so funny all of a sudden?” Naruto dragged his attention away from Karui at last to give her a funny look. “Ha ha ha, your face is as pink as your hair! You really are a cherry blossom, Sakura-chan!” He snickered a few times until she growled at him reflexively, so used to his childish antics that her lips were peeling back almost before she thought about it.

“Shut up, Naruto! I’ll knock your head off!”

Luckily for him, her attention was quickly diverted by a hum from Samui and an approving smile.

“I like a woman who can stand up for herself like that,” her soulmate told her in a throaty voice. Sakura nearly melted.