title: finding chivalry
pairing: Kakashi/Sakura
genre: adventure/romance
theme: Pirates
rating: T
summary: She screamed at the fishy smell that was soaking into her Victorian dress, at the ship, at the dock filled with drunks and prostitutes. But mostly, she screamed at Asuma and made a fit over how chivalry was dead. Kakashi was very disturbed. AU.
disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

The main port of the Whirlpool Country was filled with trade ships and beautiful women. Most of the crew members of the Konoha Trading Company were wandering the boardwalk or drinking at a pub. A few stayed on deck, watching the ship while their captain left on business.

Kakashi was having rum.

He was hidden in the shade on the side of the ship that faced away from the Whirlpool Country, to the Fire Country—where Konoha lay deep within the forests. Kakashi drank from the bottle of quickly vanishing liquor and browsed over the next scene of Icha Icha Paradise. He decided he was relatively content with the proceedings of the day when loud, obnoxious screaming found itself aboard the ship.

Perhaps, he spoke too soon.

A girl, no more than twenty or twenty-one, was dragged onto the deck, punching and kicking, and spiting insults into everyone's faces. She spoke like the snotty, educated nobles back home and despite her ear-splitting protests, she was dragged indifferently by the arm.

Asuma, the ship's captain, pulled her along like he would a pet dog or a sack of potatoes. At one point, she had managed to dig her teeth into his hand and he jerked it back. The force sent her tumbling into a pile of fish nets.

She screamed.

She screamed at the men, and ferociously at the nets who were hardly at fault. She screamed at the fishy smell that was soaking into her Victorian dress, at the ship, at the dock filled with drunks and prostitutes. But mostly, she screamed at Asuma and made a fit over how chivalry was dead.

Kakashi was very disturbed.

The peacefulness that had existed a moment ago had ran away after hearing the girl's loud screaming. Reading would only be looking at words but not being able to hear them in his head. He closed his book and strolled over to Asuma who looked exhausted.

"What is that?" Kakashi asked, referring to the girl who had moved on to screaming about how Prince Charming got drunk and slept with the wrong princess. She was trying desperately to untangle herself from the trap but the more she wrestled, the more hopeless it became.

Asuma sighed, crossing his arms over his chest. "She's a job," he replied grimly.

Kakashi lifted a brow. "I thought the mail-order bride business shut down after brothels were made legal."

Asuma shook his head. "It's a bit more complicated than that."

"Pray tell." Kakashi watched as a crew member moved to help her. She nearly bit his hand off and he retreated to the back.

"She's already married," Asuma explained. "The bride of the first son of the Uchiha family."

"The noble family in Konoha?"

Asuma nodded.

"She ran away. While her husband was rendezvousing with another woman or some such. She's feisty," to which Kakashi thought needn't be stated, as it was blatantly obvious to anyone who had eyes. And ears. "But, she's worth a lot more than this cargo combined. Seems like the young lord is willing to pay in land grants and castles for his wife's return."

Her name was Sakura and she was the most disagreeable person he's ever seen.

The others couldn't stand being with her. ("No matter how pretty she is to look at.") Shifts had to be administered. One crew member, after spending an hour with her, suggested to dump her off the ship entirely—or do something that'll really make her scream. To which Asuma replied from the helm, "If she loses a single hair, I'll make sure you lose your manhood."

There were few complaints after that.

When it circled to Kakashi's turn, the sky had sucked up the blues and yellows and reds. It spitted back darkness with a glowing moon and shy stars.

Asuma had requested to see him before he went into the room where the girl was kept with the rest of the cargo. The captain was an old friend and, knowing each other so well, Kakashi could guess what would be asked of him.

The woe.

"Stay with her for the night. Make sure she doesn't try to escape while the rest are sleeping."

Kakashi considered it, but he had a better plan. "Why don't we just knock her unconscious till we get to Konoha?"

"I've already bruised her up enough finding her and dragging her onto the ship. I would like to avoid any more unnecessary damage done to her."

"I don't think the crew would find it unnecessary." The two shared a smile.

Asuma put his hand on Kakashi's shoulder. "I trust that you'll watch her closely."

As the captain retreated to his room, Kakashi inquired, a clear voice in the still air. "I wonder when we started dealing in humans? I guess at some point along the way, our morals changed."

The captain paused in his step. They bathe in the silence and in the light of the high moon.

"When you have a family to feed, you start to forget about petty things like your conscience."

Kakashi opened the door to the store room where the girl sat, tied by thick ropes to a wooden post. He wondered if the men had been rather melodramatic while tying her up.

She glared at him with her big green eyes. Eyes that questioned his humanity and he wondered how she managed to look down on him when he was towering over her. Annoying brat.

Kakashi closed the door and strolled over, his hand holding a quickly diminishing candle. He sat down, leaning against the post opposite hers. The light shone on their faces and despite hers being rather dirty from this whole adventure, she was pretty.

"You people have no conscience," she bit out, her voice dry and scratchy. He wondered if he should've brought in some water. She probably hasn't eaten either.

Kakashi pulled out his book. He grimaced when the candle died, no one wants me to read today. But he found that he didn't mind the darkness after all—he couldn't see her accusing eyes.

"Do you think I ran all the way to the Wave Country for the fun of it you stupid jerk?" her voice was dying, small, but he supposed her intention of wrangling sympathy from him still had some fight left. He would have to wait it out. "Do you think I'm just going to just sit here and let myself be dragged back after I went through all the trouble of escaping?" She scoffed, her voice was nothing more than a whisper, but why were her words becoming louder? "I'm going to escape. You're a fool if you think I can't. I would rather die in the ocean than go back and I'll get off this ship whether you like it or not. I'll get off and—"

Kakashi was there. Next to her. His hand covering her mouth.

It turns out it wasn't her screaming or long monologues on chivalry that annoyed the men—it was her will. She made them guilty; she turned them into cowards and she shamed them away. She threw their own consciences into their faces and questioned their morality. She dragged out their guilt and pointed at its ugliness, making them fully aware of its inhuman form that existed and burned inside their chests—where their hearts were.

He removed his hand.

"If you talk again, I'll make you hurt."

Because she made him hurt.

He woke in the middle of the night to sobbing. Loud, wailing, woeful sobs of disgust and anger. Kakashi was sure it was loud enough to wake the whole sea, but the crew members shut out their ears.

He felt around for her. The room was like a pitch black wonderland.

His hands grazed icy skin, it was the lightest touch—and suddenly, she was on him, and something sharp was pressed against his throat.

He could've easily pushed her off, he barely felt her on top of him. But the darkness was her safety and where the dagger would fall if they wrestled was hard to say. Kakashi admitted he would rather see what the brat did next than blindly risk his life and hers.

She lowered, he felt cool breath as she parted her lips to speak. "You're going to get me off this ship or I swear I'll plunge this dagger into your cold, worthless heart."

He scoffed despite his life being threatened—he's had it worst. "I suspect you have some sort of master escape plan then?" He emitted rum-breath into the tight space of air between them.

"I saw the small boats on the side of ship." Who would've guessed she was plotting while simultaneously screaming the ethics of life? "Take me there, and don't you dare call anyone's attention. We get on a boat together and once we're a good, long distance away, you can swim back to the ship."

"Well," Kakashi mused, "It seems like you've resorted to some rather underhanded tactics, don't you think? Is this what they teach you at those pricy schools?"

"No. They teach us that men are dogs. Now get up."

The air was dancing, teasing their skin with sharp, cool breezes. The moon hung around, flirting with the stars.

Kakashi walked in front and she easily hid behind him. He took them to where the boats were, avoiding areas where the crew members assigned to night shifts usually loitered. There was distant talking and no one seemed to mind that the girl in the store room had finally shut up.

She held the dagger to his back—cautious and taking quiet steps.

They reached the boats in silence and he wondered how she was planning on going about this. There was a flaw in her plan.

There were three boats altogether. The easiest one to release would be the one closest to the water. In fact, you had to release the lowest one first because releasing either of the top two would create such a ruckus that it'll just give their location away.

But to get to the lowest boat, you had to take the rope ladder. And two people couldn't climb down the ladder at once.

If she were to climb down the ladder first, he could use the opportunity to yell and call everyone's attention. She would have to either jump into the water and swim, or get onto the boat and cut the ropes that held it to the ship herself; the former would have her swimming for miles and the latter would be even more hopeless as she wouldn't be able go very far before they caught her again. On the other hand, if she made him climb down first, he could just fall straight into the water and call for help, he would completely expose her. Once the dagger was nowhere near him, he was free to shout and give away her location.

She knew this.

He waited.

She had managed to run away to the Whirlpool Country. She somehow had gotten free from the ropes. And she was fearlessly holding a dagger to the back of a man who could easily break her arm off. He wondered what desperate thing she would do next—or perhaps, she would realize she had lost. There was no way for the both of them to get onto the boat without him jumping out of her reach.

And then, she clutched his shirt.

"When I say jump, we're both going to jump," she said.

"Pardon?"

"We're jumping."

"You have a dagger pointed at me, if you haven't noticed. What if it slips and I die?"

"Then so be it."

He couldn't believe this. The girl had lost her husband to a prostitute and had lost her marbles to the sea.

"They'll hear the splash."

"They'll think it's a whale."

"What if there are whales?" Who knew anyway? "Or sharks."

"That would be unfortunate, wouldn't it?"

He sighed.

Asuma was going to kill him for this.

But at least his conscience won't.

"Just get on the boat," he said, exasperated. "We'll just follow through with your early, less dangerous plan."

She scoffed. "Jump," she pushed him forward.

"Trust me."

Then the blade was sliding against the thin cloth of his white shirt. "That's the same words my husband said when he came home smelling of roses and wine and sex."

Kakashi sighed. He opened his mouth but a voice was heard that didn't belong to him or her.

"Hey, Kakashi! What're yer doing out here? Yer supposeta be watch'in over the girl."

He could feel her stiffen, she clutched tightly onto his shirt and he felt the threatening dagger.

The crew member who spoke sauntered over. He was a bit drunk, but he was narrowing his eyes as he got closer—he was trying to see something. "What's that?"

She faltered, she took steps away from him, into the shadows, lightly. But he heard the stumble and the breaking sound, like a piece of wood had snapped off. A moment later, there was a gasp, falling, and a closing splash.

The sea swallowed her.

"What the—"

"It's a whale," Kakashi found himself saying. Stupid, stupid, stupid. The crew member looked genuinely confused.

Kakashi felt bad, he really did, but the splashing had calmed down to nothing and he could've yelled that the girl had escaped and they would've captured her and—

He just punch the poor drunk fellow.

And then he jumped into the water.

The dagger was no longer in her possession, stolen by the pulling waves.

Anger was evident in her fierce eyes.

She lunged at him but he easily fought her back. She struggled like a child and they wrestled in the nighttime sea. Eventually, he was able to hold her from behind, their legs in a tangle beneath the laughing water. His arms had tightly locked hers against her chest and her back was pressed against him.

"Calm down, Sakura."

It had been a long while since someone's called her name, she blinked at its unfamiliarity. Somehow more angry than before, she went back to her futile attempt to free herself.

"Stop. We both know you're not stronger than me." He spoke into her ear. "You have your big words but without a weapon, you're powerless. I'm not going to hurt you so will you calm down already?"

She stopped. Her breathing was heavy. He held her there. And they waited, listening to the sea hum.

"You're going to help me?"

"Would I have followed you into the water if I wasn't?"

When her head had cooled and her breaths were no longer gasps of air, he let go and turned her to face him. She looked tired and he touched her cheek. He thought she would flinch or falter away but she just looked at him with her green eyes. "Don't you dare go and betray me you heartless jerk," she whispered.

He smirked. "Is that your way of saying you trust me?"

He led her back toward the ship. "We have to get dry. We can think of a plan while we wait for dawn." She was reluctant. "You don't have the strength to run away right now. Even if you do escape, you'll just be caught again."

He helped her grab ahold of the rope ladder and she climbed up first. He followed suit.

Asuma and the other crew members were waiting for them at the top.

Kakashi woke the next day to a high, blinding sun and seagulls that tried to have a conversation with him as they flew pass. He was tied to a post on the deck of the ship and the left side of his face stung. How was it fair that Asuma still had a mean punch while he couldn't even keep a drunken crew member out for half an hour?

He opened his eyes and scanned the ship. The crew members were glancing at him with lowered heads. Shame seemed to be setting in this morning.

Kakashi noticed the ship was already docked at one of Fire Country's ports and there was familiar screaming coming from the store room where Sakura was kept.

The door flew open, the hinges nearly dying at the sheer force, and a noble emerged, pulling along a pretty girl with rose-pink locks. He had a stoic, handsome face and though she kicked and beat her fist against him, he pulled her effortlessly toward Asuma who waited where the ship opened into the port.

She wasn't wearing the same Victorian dress she had worn when she was dragged onto the ship the day before. Kakashi growled beneath his breath at the thought of her husband forcefully dressing her as his pleased.

As they passed, she averted her eyes from him and instead, focused on glaring at the man she hated the most in the world.

Kakashi looked away momentarily when he felt something at his back. The crew member who he had punched was behind him.

Behind him, cutting the rope.

Uchiha Itachi, despite never asking to be a human punching bag and who was extremely displeased with his wife's public behavior, refused to let the woman he loved—regardless of what she thought she knew—leave again.

When they arrived to where Asuma waited, Itachi inspected her like a matchmaker inspected a girl preparing to marry. He touched her face and held her chin while he distastefully examined the cuts and bruises. He glared at her bleeding red wrists that had fought free of the thick rope last night and when he had finished poking and prodding her, he turned disagreeably to Asuma.

"I hope you're not expecting the full payment," he said curtly.

The captain nodded, annoyed but accepting responsibility. "We'll take what's given." The crew members grumbled beneath their breath.

Itachi gestured for one of the family's guards who had followed to hand Asuma the bag of gold coins. The captain took the pouch, his hands weighing down with hesitation.

With the payment complete, Itachi pulled Sakura along, toward the ramp that would lead them off the ship and into the bustling port.

But the first son should've known that he married the best of women. Sakura was hardly the kind to be dragged off without a fight.

Before they could leave the ship, the girl purposefully tripped over the fishing nets and fell with a thud. The crew members ran over and Itachi hovered above her, annoyed. "Do you insist on prolonging this nonsense Sakura? Do you think I wouldn't be able to distinguish between a real trip and a staged one? I know you."

She kicked his leg and pummeled into him. They tumbled, wrestling, and she was on top of him, a rope looped around his neck and her eyes sharp. "I hate you," she spit out and her body shook from the anger.

"Then kill me."

Itachi was neither deterred by her venomous words nor at the tightening of the rope around his neck. The crew members and the guards shuffled nervously behind the quarreling pair.

"Kill me, and you'll get your freedom." Sakura watched as her husband's coal black eyes flickered to ruby reds. "If you can't, then stop this absurdity and obediently stay by my side."

She was faltering.

Her armor was deteriorating because she could never—she just. She couldn't do it. Sakura let go of the rope that burned her hands. She rose with deep breaths and dusted off her dress. Her fierce eyes died; she was beaten by the love she once had for him and the vows she still held onto. She didn't wait for him to get up nor was she going to ever let him touch her again.

She can go home by herself.

Sakura began walking to the port.

One minute her feet tapped upon the planks of the ship, the next—a swoosh—she was airborne.

A familiar arm encircled her waist and she was pressed to him—her wings.

She looked into one eye obsidian, the other crimson. His unkempt silver hair shadowed his handsome face and he smelled of sweet rum. She saw the smirk dance on his lips and he whispered, "Trust me."

He let go of the rope which was his white stead and he was holding her, his princess in search of chivalry.

They were free-falling and the clear blue water stretched below, promising to catch them.

Sakura was soaked, furious. Her eyes were narrowed at the individual in front of her.

Kakashi was rowing, relatively content with the proceedings of the day. He was smirking at her and his wet hair fell into his face.

"Are you mad?" she demanded. "Do you know what you've just done? You've made yourself a felon!" Sakura was loud, completely exasperated, had he lost his marbles in the sea?

"Let me see if I have this right," he stared into her bright green eyes. "I, very heroically mind you, save the damsel-in-distress," he nodded at her, "from whom she proclaimed she-wished-not-to-be-with from day one, and after my notable act of chivalry, I'm getting lectured?" He lifted his brow and watched her scoff.

She sighed. Her eyes softened and she shook her head.

"You didn't have to save me so publicly." She worried over the bounty Itachi would no doubt put on his head.

Sakura stretched and glanced around. The horizon was in every direction and they were somewhere between the Fire Country and the Whirlpool Country. The sky was vast overhead; the sea unthinkably deep beneath them.

Kakashi kept rowing.

"Why did you save me?" She didn't look at him, rather, she was focused on the seaweed that had caught on her feet.

"It's hard to say."

"So you don't know."

"No. I know, it's just hard to say."

"If you don't know," she watched him pull the oars out of the water, "then just say you—"

He kissed her.

He kissed her because she was sitting too far from him and he didn't really like that. He kissed her because she talked impossibly too much and was very disagreeable ever since they met. He kissed her because she had rose-pink hair and eyes the color of life. He pulled her into him and kissed her because she was married and he didn't care. He kissed her because he didn't know what to do with his life and all of a sudden, he met her. He kissed her because her heart was pretty and her words charmed him. He kissed her because she was fearless.

He kissed her because he was a pirate, captain of a tremendously intimidating rowboat, and he had stolen her away—without her permission.

He kissed her because etched inside his kiss, he wanted her to know, "You can trust me."

"Where do you want to go?"

"Kiri."

"Sakura, don't be ridiculous. I'm not rowing this thing all the way to Kiri."

fin.