Sakura and Sasuke's reunion is getting closer, but it ain't going to be pretty!

Big thanks to fanofthisfiction-chan for beta-ing and lighting a fire under my chair to update :) And thanks to all of you wonderful readers out there!

Chapter Thirty-One: Bugs, Slugs, and Slime

Sakura shook, but whether from suppressed tears or rage, she couldn't say. Without a word, she stalked away, her left hand gripping her right arm in an effort to keep from destroying the forest.

But Jugo ran after her. "Wait!"

Sakura stood still but did not turn around. She heard Jugo's crashing footfalls catch up to her, the unzipping of a bag.

"It's three days back to Konoha. Take some of the food with you?"

Sakura turned around slowly, struck by his kindness. She couldn't stop the tears from welling up. And then, an idea struck her. There were other ways besides combat to win over an enemy—though she hated to think of Jugo that way.

When he took her silence for assent and ducked his head to rummage through his pack, she bit her thumb and performed a delicate, tiny summoning jutsu. She put her finger to her lips and gave the signal when her slug summons looked up at her in confusion, the creature no larger than her pinky. As Jugo rose with packets of freeze-dried beans and jerky, she gently curled her fingers over the Katsuyu to hide her.

"Th-thank you," Sakura said, not having to feign her gratitude. She drew him into a hasty hug—and let Katsuyu climb onto the giant man's shoulder.

xOxOxO

As Suigetsu gazed into the campfire that night, he knew he would never understand women. Even if he lived two or three lifetimes, women would remain an unsolvable mystery. He could have sworn that Sakura had been about to fight them and, his legendary skill with the blade be damned, he would not fight a demon like that kunoichi from Konoha. Even now, just thinking about the look in her eyes made his mouth go dry.

He took a swig from his canteen and scooted back from the fire. If Sasuke ever saw Sakura again, Suigetsu wasn't sure the man would survive the encounter, Sharingan and Rinnegan be damned.

"She's following us, you know," Jugo murmured, a tiny barn owl perched on his wrist and nibbling bits of dried meat.

Suigetsu jumped. "She is?!" Even though he had just drunk, his mouth went absolutely dry again. "I didn't sense anything—are you sure?"

Jugo nodded, seemingly unperturbed, which just made Suigetsu more panicked. "She's tracking us from a distance," Jugo explained. "According to my friend here—" he raised his arm a fraction, and the owl hooted and spread its wings— "she's about a mile south of us."

Suigetsu started pacing. "We must be bugged." The thought made his skin crawl. He patted down his arms and legs but he couldn't find any tracking device. He moved to go rummage through his pack but paused to glance at Jugo. "You don't seem worried!"

A soft smile broke Jugo's face. He lifted his arm, letting the owl glide back into the night in a rush of wings. "There's more going on here than what's on the surface.

Suigetsu scowled. "Whaddya mean?" He began flinging things out of his pack, searching for any tracking device, knowing that his life depended on it. "Do you think Konoha's planning something?"

Jugo's smile widened, which only irritated Suigetsu more. Kami, he hated when Jugo got in moods like this.

"What is it? You know something—don't you?!"

But Jugo shook his head. "There's a saying in my clan: Standing between a woman and what she wants is like stepping between a porcupine and a badger. If the claws don't reach you, the quills will."

Suigetsu turned his pack upside down, his remaining belongings falling into a heap at his feet. "I don't get it! Damn it, I can't find any tracking device. You'd better check your stuff, Jugo—Sasuke'll rip you a new one if you compromise this stupid mission!"

Jugo just sighed. "I've already checked my gear. And of course you don't understand." Before Suigetsu could launch into another tirade, Jugo spread his hands wide and added, "I don't want to fight Sakura." Suigetsu shivered; he couldn't agree more. "Doing so could cause diplomatic problems. But we can't let her find our base, either. If Sasuke thinks her presence will harm the mission, then we have no choice but to shake her off the trail."

Suigetsu stuffed the last of his clothes in his bag and cinched it shut. "Let's keep going then," he replied, shouldering his pack. "We can lay some false trails and outrun her."

Jugo nodded, then snuffed out the fire while Suigetsu stared south into the dark forest and shivered. He wouldn't be a pincushion full of porcupine quills, and he wouldn't be shredded by badger claws, either. The sooner they returned to base, the better.

xOxOxO

Her breathing ragged, Sakura studied the faint footprints on the forest floor by the light of the fitful moon that kept hiding behind the clouds.

"Are you sure they went east? she asked the miniature slug on her shoulder. "These tracks point north."

"They're trying to divert you, Sakura-san."

"Thanks, old friend," Sakura murmured. She scoured the ground for more clues and, a hundred paces off to the east, found a wet footprint that marred the hard-packed road. She traced it with her fingertips. Suigetsu had a bad habit of drinking water constantly, and when he was especially anxious, he spilled it, creating muddy footprints like this one. The track was still moist; her quarry couldn't be far.

xOxOxO

By the fourth day, after zig-zagging up and down the spine of the mountain range, Sakura was tired, frustrated, and ready to be done with this farce. She knew that they knew that she was trailing them. And she wouldn't stop following them until they arrived at the base, or they killed her.

"Finally," Sakura breathed, discovering a fresh trail at last. She took out her scope and surveyed the path as far as she could see. It was a direct approach. Katsuyu confirmed that the way lead out of the ancient forested valley and up into the scrub-covered foothills. She chewed her lip, triumphant mood tempered. Open territory would make Suigetsu and Jugo more exposed, but it could reveal Sakura's position as well.

The tree line thinned, then gave way to thorny brambles and tough scrub brushes that jabbed her skin and caught in her clothes as she followed the trail. They weren't bothering to hide signs of their passage now: scraps of clothing clung to the brambles and snapped branches shouted to the world that they had been here. Why? They had been so careful before to hide their tracks until now…

Hours later, as she crested the ridge, she learned the answer. The ridge terminated suddenly into a rocky cliff, which had been invisible from her approach. Before her, a wide chasm yawned. Up over and beyond the canyon loomed a giant mountain, its base shrouded in mist, its crown hidden in clouds.

"Katsuyu?" Sakura poked the sleeping slug on her shoulder, who woke with a start.

"Oh, Sakura!" she cried, antennae quivering. "They found my hiding place in Jugo's bag and put me under a genjutsu!"

Sakura's heart clenched along with her fists. "Is this another false trail?"

The slug shook her head. "Not at all! There was a bridge here, I think…"

Sakura fumbled a spyglass from her pocket and was just in time to see two shrouded figures on the far side of the canyon, riding on some kind of platform that disappeared into the mist. With a curse, she bent down to investigate the lip of the canyon and saw, not thirty paces away, a man-made, square depression on the cliff face.

A retractable bridge. Not only had she lost her ability to track her quarry, but it would take her days to traverse this canyon in what Jugo and Suigetsu had done in one hour.

She sank to her knees. The spyglass tumbled from her nerveless fingers and landed in the dust.

"Sakura-san?" came Katsuyu's small, quavering voice. "Don't give up yet. I have an idea."

xOxOxO

Jugo couldn't fathom it: they should have lost Sakura after retracting the one and only bridge for miles.

"What is it?" Suigetsu asked around a mouthful of gruel.

Jugo lifted his hand, letting the sparrow fly away. Soon, it would be too dark for the bird to see. Instead of answering, Jugo poked the campfire with a long stick, his brow furrowed.

"Well?!"

"She made a bridge out of slugs," Jugo answered in a whisper. "She isn't far."

Suigetsu jumped up, but Jugo motioned him to sit back down.

"We can't act like we know she's still following us. Relax."

"Relax? Relax!" He waved his hands in the air, his eyes bugging out. "How can I—"

Jugo silenced him with a sharp wave. "We'll leave at midnight. Let's get a few hours' rest while we still can. We'll lose her at the lake."

"The lake? Oooooh," Suigetsu answered with a sharp grin. He sat back down and sagged against a log. "She won't be able to figure that one out."

"Keep an eye out for slugs," Jugo said, still frowning.

xOxOxO

Sakura moved silently in the dark, lurking in the shadows. A small army of Katsuyu clones was spread out through the forest, swarming every stone and tree, looking for Suigetsu and Jugo.

"We've found them, Sakura-san," came Katsuyu's whisper at last, the slug quivering with anticipation on Sakura's wrist. "They're only one mile from here at the crest of this ridge."

Sakura let out a long breath. "What are they doing?"

"Sleeping."

So. She had caught them unawares. "Approach them with care, Katsuyu. And check their chakra."

"Check their chakra? But why?"

"Just a hunch."

Her summons was silent. Sakura gazed up at the waxing crescent moon half-hidden by wispy clouds. When she got her hands on Sasuke-kun, he would regret this.

A sharp gasp from Katsuyu drew her out of her dark thoughts.

"You were right, Sakura-san! These are just substitutions!"

Sakura's lips pressed together in a thin line. "Then let's find the real ones."

The Katsuyu on her wrist trembled, then the slug army slithered onward through the forest.

The moon rose to its zenith, and the clouds cleared away in a stiff, cold wind that whipped Sakura's hair back from her face.

"The trail ends here, Sakura-san."

Sakura stepped out from the trees and saw a lake, its rippling waves reflecting in the silver moonlight. She knelt by the rocky shore and enhanced her fist with chakra. Tapping first lightly on the earth, then harder, then harder still, ripples disturbed the face of the water as she used her chakra like a sonar.

"There's an underground passageway here," Sakura said. She chewed her lower lip. The lake was at least half a mile deep; there was no way she could swim down to the bottom and follow that way. But there was nothing stopping her from trailing them on the surface until she found a place where the underground tunnels came up. She grinned. They shouldn't have underestimated her.

xOxOxO

Deep within the old mining tunnels, Suigetsu smiled in satisfaction. As Jugo wrung out his clothes from their swim to the secret chamber at the bottom of the lake, he thought about how grateful Sasuke would be to him for managing to lose Sakura when Jugo couldn't.

"It's too early to celebrate," Jugo warned, as if reading his thoughts. "I'm at a disadvantage—there aren't any animals for me to talk to here. And it's damn confusing to navigate from here to the base."

Suigetsu waved Jugo's concern away. "I've gone this way a million times. Relax, would you? I've got this!"

Hours later though, Suigetsu wasn't so sure anymore. He usually exited through the lake—not entered. And usually he was with Orochimaru or Karin, who had a better head for directions than he did. More than once, he had to liquefy himself into the subterranean drips and ever-present trickles to commune with the water and regain his bearings. Even so, the going was slow. The emergency lights only gave off a dim glow, and the way was rough and steep. It smelled like mold and dank earth, which made Suigetsu sneeze until his lungs ached.

At last though, legs burning with exhaustion, eyes drooping from lack of sleep, Suigetsu found the connecting tunnel that led to their base.

"I'll be damned if I don't sleep in my own bed tonight," Suigetsu grumbled, though he was pleased that they were finally out of danger.

"I still have a bad feeling about this," Jugo said as he followed.

"Oh, come on! That Kunoichi couldn't have tracked us underground!" He shook his head, as if he could shrug off Jugo's paranoia. In his haste, he failed to see a tiny slug clinging to an overhead stalactite, its antennae trembling with triumph.

xOxOxO

"We're here—but how do we get in?"

The slug summons sagged on Sakura's palm. "I'm sorry, but I'm exhausted. I will have to leave the rest to you."

Sakura stroked the slug between her feelers. "You've done more than enough, my friend. I'll take it from here."

Katsuyu gave a grateful and weary sigh before she winked out in a puff of smoke.

Sakura eyed the mountain before her. The base, as far as she could tell by tapping on the mountain and measuring the resonance, took up the entire bottom and middle of the hollowed-out mountain. There were no entrances as far as she could discover, and she and her army of slugs had scoured the mountainside for the better part of the day. Exhaustion was catching up with her. The sun was setting.

She reasoned that Sasuke wouldn't leave yet, not when Suigetsu and Jugo were bringing such important intel, but she couldn't be sure. She didn't want to wait, dammit! She refused to let Sasuke get away from her again.

She chewed the last of her dehydrated rations for strength, then set to work tapping the side of the mountain, looking for an entrance. The sun dipped down below the horizon, dying the sky red, then purple, then black. A lopsided gibbous moon rose, turning the mountain silver.

Sakura paused in her work and leaned her forehead against the mountainside. Dammit all! She knew she should get some rest, but she couldn't, not when she was this close! She clenched her jaw. Well. There was a time for subtlety and a time for bold action. If she didn't act now, she might be too late, and she would regret it for the rest of her life. Her hand drifted to her belly, and her jaw clenched. She would not let him leave her again, dammit!

Adrenaline coursing through her, she drew back a fist, enhancing it with the last dregs of her chakra. She knew that this was insanity—knew that it was the very thing that would compromise Sasuke's mission. But as always, when it came to Sasuke-kun, logic took a backseat to her emotions. And with pregnancy hormones surging and exhaustion clouding her thinking, all she could think about was finding Sasuke and making him pay for being so heartless.

With a snarl, her fist hit solid rock. The mountain quaked.

xOxOxO

Fresh out of a nice hot bath, Karin was just deciding what kind of lingerie she should wear under her lab coat when the mountain shook. She froze as bits of rock fell from the walls and plinked down to the floor.

"Earthquake? Ugh. And I was just looking forward to reviewing that ocular scan!"

As the aftershocks faded, she threw on a robe, but then another boom! rocked the fortress, sending Karin stumbling back to the wall. Plaster dust settled all over her hair. Really. How was she supposed to seduce Sasuke when she was a mess?

"Sasuke!" she roared, wrenching open her door. "Jugo! Suigetsu! What the hell is going on?"

No answer.

Grimacing, she hid a dozen kunai under her bathrobe and hurried to the main corridor, bracing herself on the wall every few paces as the attacks continued—and attacks they were, not earthquakes. She sensed a malevolent chakra battering the mountainside. Though the signature seemed somehow familiar, she couldn't quite place it.

Karin skidded around the corner to find Jugo and Suigetsu slumped against the wall, their eyes red, their bodies limp. For a moment, she thought that they had been injured, but after scanning their charka, she realized they were fine.

"Get off your lazy asses and deal with the intruder!" Karin barked, kicking Suigetsu in the side.

Suigetsu moaned and fell over. "It's her!" he groaned, curling up into a fetal position.

"Her?!" Karin demanded, aiming another kick, but Suigetsu melted into a puddle—literally—and pooled away from her, quivering like jello.

She tsked, just as another boom shook the base. "Jugo?"

Jugo hung his head and remained silent.

"We're under attack and you two useless pieces of shit are just—depressed?" Karin sputtered.

She caught Sasuke's chakra signature a moment before he stepped into the corridor. She smoothed down her robe, for all the good it did her, and shook her hair free of plaster dust.

"Karin," Sasuke said, his cold, inflectionless tone sounding like a velvety caress to her, "take care of the intruder."

Karin pouted, though secretly, she was pleased. See how dependable I am, Sasuke-kun!

"Why won't you come with me?" She placed her hands on her hips. "It's not like these two are any use."

"Tell the intruder I'm not here," Sasuke replied. "Tell her it's too late and that I won't return. She'll leave if she understands it's hopeless."

Karin compressed her full red lips, hoping her makeup still looked good. "She? Sasuke, who—"

"Just go."

She rolled her eyes and, opening her senses further, pinpointed the enemy's chakra and strode down the hall, adding a little wiggle to her hips in case Sasuke was watching her depart. Really! It was hard to be sexy and menacing in a bathrobe. Still, once Karin identified this female intruder, she would show the bitch that Sasuke was hers and hers alone.

She growled low in her throat. But as she trotted forward to meet her opponent, her brow furrowed. This signature felt familiar dammit, but she still couldn't place it! Why wouldn't anyone tell her what was going on?!

As the angry chakra grew hotter and nearer, and Karin withdrew a kunai, bracing herself to meet the enemy. That chakra—it was like holding her hand over a roaring fire. What had Sasuke done to rile up this kunoichi? Could it be a double-crossed ex-lover? Karin felt her hackles rise, her own chakra starting to lose its tempter and burning with anger. Oh, what she would do to this woman if that were true…

Rapid footfalls echoed in the corridor, and Karin crouched, bracing herself for attack—

Sakura rounded a bend and burst into view, skidding to a halt in front of Karin.

"You!" both kunoichi exclaimed at once.

Karin blinked owlishly, pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose. "Sakura-san? What are you doing here? Why didn't you just come in with Suigetsu and Jugo?"

Sakura gaped at her. Then, with a visible effort, she took hold of herself. "This is, ah, somewhat embarrassing." Sakura ran a hand through her tangled hair, and Karin became concerned—she had never seen Sakura look so ragged and on edge. Now that she was taking a closer look, the other kunoichi looked pale and wan, and her arms were covered with scratches where her torn uniform revealed her dirt-streaked skin.

Sakura glanced at the floor, as if feeling the scrutiny of Karin's gaze. "I shouldn't have broken into your base, but dammit, Sasuke said I'd compromise his mission if I came to see him."

"Um, well, you kind of did. No offense," Karin added when Sakura flinched.

"Can you take me to see him?" Sakura's emerald eyes darkened. "I have some things I'd like to hammer into that thick skull of his."

Karin snorted. She opened her mouth and was about to tell Sakura to go right ahead, but then she snapped her mouth shut.

"What is it?" Sakura pleaded, and her pained face made Karin cringe. She didn't want to lie to a woman who had saved her life. But Sasuke…

"What did you want to tell him?" Karin asked, keeping her voice studiously even.

Sakura bit her lower lip, her gaze falling to the ground again. "It's…personal."

Personal? Karin didn't like the sound of that. "Well, he's not here," she replied, the lie coming easier now.

Sakura's head snapped up at that. "What? Oh no. Will he be back soon?"

"I'm afraid he left on an extended mission this morning," Karin answered, her heart twisting as Sakura's face crumpled. "He's not coming back—"

Sakura collapsed to her knees, hands covering her face, tears spilling down her cheeks.

Now Karin knew what the lowest, slimiest scum at the bottom of the lake felt like. Chewing her lip, she sank down beside Sakura, laying a tentative hand on her back.

"Hey," Karin said. "Whatever happened, it can't be that bad."

"It is," Sakura croaked, still shuddering with sobs. What had that bastard done to Sakura?

"Maybe I can help," Karin offered, desperate to ease the guilt writhing in her stomach. Sakura had saved her life, and look how Karin was repaying her!

"There's nothing you can do," Sakura cried, barely getting the words out through her tears. "I'm pregnant and he won't even talk to me!"

Karin froze, every muscle in her body constricting as if she'd just been dunked in ice water. Her mind, usually as sharp as a kunai, fogged over.

Sakura. Pregnant.

Some distant, still-functioning part of her brain realized that was why Karin hadn't recognized Sakura's chakra signature right away. Because she was pregnant. By the gods! Karin raised a hand to her head, but that didn't stop her vision from spinning.

"It's his baby?" Karin squeaked into the quiet.

Sakura sniffed, scrubbing away the tears with the back of her hand. "I'm so stupid," she whispered, sitting back against the wall and hugging her knees into her chest. "I tried to send him a message, but he refused to respond." She hiccuped. "He wouldn't even…"

"What?" Karin prompted, morbid curiosity making her ask the question. Her stomach was so tied up in knots, it was making her sick.

"Wouldn't even tell me what he wanted to name the baby," Sakura whispered. "Didn't contact me at all. The Hokage himself sent me to see him, but he still turns me away!" Sakura's voice rose to a hysterical pitch, the words spilling out of her. "I haven't slept in days so I could track Jugo and Suigetsu, and I couldn't find a way in so I broke down the wall and I'm sorry because he's not here anyway and he's a big fat lier and he probably doesn't even love me after all and he never wanted to be with me so I'm going to have this baby all alone—" Sakura ran out of breath and collapsed against Karin.

Karin wrapped her arms around the trembling kunoichi, and Sakura just wailed and sobbed onto Karin's shoulder. Karin murmured soothingly to Sakura, but inside, she was reeling. The very thought that Sasuke had slept with someone else should have made her livid—and she was livid, oh yes! But not at Sakura. In fact, she was trembling with the kind of rage usually reserved for Suigetsu.

Sasuke. Didn't tell Karin. That he had knocked up Sakura.

"He knows you're pregnant?" Karin asked, trying to keep her voice even.

Sakura covered her face with her hands and nodded. "Y-yes."

"Well then, Sakura-san," Karin said briskly, coming to a decision. "You can tell him yourself what a slimy bag of fish guts he is. He's here."

Thanks for reading! Please review :)