Hit the Road

Chapter Two

Sakura's Thoughts

Sakura was in an awkward situation.

Make that a very awkward situation.

She had awoken to find Kakuzu draped over her, head resting on her breasts and an arm wrapped possessively around her hip.

Sakura mentally cursed her luck and a few gods for extra measure.

I knew I should have slept on the floor!

She tried shifting to loosen Kakuzu's grip, but to no avail.

"Kakuzu?"

No response.

"Kakuzu? Could you please wake up and get off of me?"

Still no response.

"Kakuzu! Wake up!"

At this, he just mumbled and nuzzled closer to Sakura, who had developed a lovely blush at that moment. Fed up with him, she pitched herself off the bed, Kakuzu falling to the small bit of floorspace between the bed and seats with her.

Oh crap, I don't think I made the situation any better.

Now she was lying on the floor with Kakuzu sprawled on top of her, staring at her with his vivid green eyes.

"Now that I have your attention, DO YOU MIND GETTING OFF OF ME?" Sakura bellowed.

"Good morning to you, too," Kakuzu grumbled as he got up off of her and stretched, lifting his arms over his head, and curling his toes.

Meanwhile, Sakura's stomach made its demands known by growling loudly and breaking the silence.

Kakuzu gave Sakura a mocking look, and then reached over her to open, what on further inspection, was a mini-fridge located under the bed.

Sakura sat up and then scooted closer to the fridge, only to find several packets of dried bananas and other such things. Oh, joy.

"Is there anything edible to eat in here?" Sakura grumbled as she started poking around in the small compartment.

"You can take or leave it," Kakuzu replied nonchalantly.

Sakura grumbled at his answer and proceeded to search the fridge.

Are dried bananas all he eats? Wait a sec…

She reached into the left bottom corner of the fridge, and, to her delight, pulled out a packet of pretzels.

Sweet victory!

As her mouth watered in anticipation, Sakura was just about to open the package and devour its contents when Kakuzu snatched it out of her hands and sat down on the bed.

"Hey, I was about to eat that!" Sakura exclaimed angrily.

"And now I'm going to," Kakuzu replied smugly, as he opened the bag. Sakura sat in front of him and glowered darkly.

Give me the food. Give meeee the fooooooooood. Dooooooo iiiiiiiiittttt.

As Kakuzu started to eat, Sakura watched his every move intently, disgusted scowl still in place and continued her inner mantra.

A quarter of the way through the bag, Kakuzu gave up and handed her the bag of pretzels with a sigh. Sakura's countenance immediately brightened, and Kakuzu, disgusted with himself, left the sleeper and took his seat at the steering wheel.

"Thank you!" Sakura called after him.

Sweet victory! I never thought I'd be so happy to see pretzels in my life!

Finishing the bag with unparalleled speed, Sakura got up and dusted herself off, sticking the empty bag in her pants pocket. Exiting the sleeper, she sat down on her side of the truck, not feeling inclined to be near Kakuzu at the moment.

"Soo...how long will it take to get to Manhattan?" Sakura inquired curiously, turning to face Kakuzu. With Kabuto, it would have taken her about a week and a half, since they had planned on stopping at a few places of interest, monuments, and the like.

Kakuzu pulled out a map from a back pocket of his pants, and proceeded to unfold it. "We are currently near the Nevada/Utah border; it should take us about an hour to reach the border, and four to five days to reach Manhattan, if we're lucky," Kakuzu replied, tracing out a route on the map as he spoke.

"All right," Sakura acknowledged without argument, knowing that there was not much she could do about it. "Will we be stopping anywhere for reasons other than refueling or buying food?"

"No. The cargo I am transporting needs to be taken to Manhattan, which is the only reason I'm taking you with me," He replied curtly as he folded the map, and stuck it back in his pocket.

Ouch. I feel loved.

"You don't do anything out of the goodness of your heart, do you?" Sakura asked in a lightly teasing tone, a smile on her face. Willing or not, she was grateful that Kakuzu hadn't drop-kicked her out of the truck after saving her life. He could have left her to fend for herself at the first establishment they had passed yesterday.

"Hearts," Kakuzu corrected.

"'Hearts' what?" Sakura asked, slightly confused. "Do you mean to tell me you have more than one?"

"I have four, in total," He stated, pulling out the truck keys out of one of the many pockets in his cargo pants, and stuck it in the ignition.

Sakura stared at him incredulously. "What?! You're practically a medical miracle!"

Kakuzu chuckled. "Having four hearts hardly makes me a saint."

"Uhm...could I take a look?" She hesitantly asked. "I'm a medic, and it would be truly amazing if I could see how your circulatory system works, not to mention how your liver handles all of that 'extra' blood...that also partly explains your tentacle-threads, doesn't it?" Sakura's face lit up, brain working furiously to determine how someone could function with four hearts.

"Only if I could take a look at you," Kakuzu shot back with a smirk as he started the truck.

"...What? But you're not a...Oh! No!" Sakura exclaimed. She promptly blushed and crossed her legs, pointedly avoiding Kakuzu's gaze.

Kakuzu just laughed at her reaction, as he started the truck and pulled onto the road.

Pervert! Awww. It's not faaaaaiiiiiir. It's just my luck. I find a living, breathing, medical miracle, and guess what? The man is evil! I mean, perverted. But he probably gets heckled about his looks and ability a lot, so I guess it's understandable that he doesn't really want any medic poking and prodding him. But still... four or five days sitting next to Mr. Medical Marvel over there, and I really have to wonder who will really end up molesting who overnight.

Sakura smiled at her thought, although she continued to look out the window at the almost non-existent landscape.

Dirt, dirt, dirt, sand, tumbleweed, more dirt, hills, rocks, rocks, rocks...ugh. Nevada is boring. No wonder they have so many casinos and clubs and secret army bases. There's nothing else to DO here. And supposedly Interstate 80 connects San Francisco California to New Jersey, so there's not much of a chance of getting lost. We're going to be on the same road for almost the whole length of this...this...what should I call 'this', anyway? It sure as hell isn't a vacation anymore.

"Hey, Kakuzu, what would you call 'this', as in the two of us traveling together? It's not an excursion, or a vacation, but other than being dreadfully boring, it's not completely unpleasant. At least there's air conditioning. And pretzels."

"And a handsome man driving an extravagant truck," he added with a smirk.

"Haha, whatever you say. But still, what'd you call 'this'?" Sakura prodded.

"Hell if I know. I have about as much a clue as you do. We're two strangers traveling the road of life?" He supplied with a shrug.

"At least we aren't lost on the road of life." Sakura sighed, disappointed that she couldn't categorize their 'relationship'".

"So what next?"

"Lunch? I know of a good restaurant in Utah. It's on our way," Kakuzu offered.

"Sounds good to me. It's not like there are any other options," She shrugged in acceptance.

"Well, I could always get lunch and let you starve," He murmured, turning his head slightly to glance at her.

Sakura looked at him, slightly alarmed. "You wouldn't!"

"Try me."

A few hours, and many miles later, they arrived at the 'nice' restaurant Kakuzu had mentioned.

Apparently, 'nice' in Kakuzu's opinion equaled 'run-down' in Sakura's. Although, at second glance, it didn't look that bad.

"This is what you call 'nice'?" Sakura asked Kakuzu as they walked towards the restaurant.

"It may not look it, but they serve good food," Kakuzu replied, looking slightly annoyed.

"I'll take your word for it, but if I die of food poisoning, it's your fault," she grumbled skeptically.

"What kind of pathetic medic dies of food poisoning?"

At this, Sakura promptly made a face at him and entered the establishment without further protest.

Once inside, Sakura turned to Kakuzu to ask him a question, when she was rudely interrupted.

"Fuck, man, when did you start picking up hot bitches, and why the hell aren't there any on my route?!"

5.18.2008 Author's Note:

Hello!

Sorry for the 'late' update. I had planned to write and post this chapter within a week of posting the first chapter, but, apparently, things rarely go as planned with me. I was plagued by my allergies, and even had difficulties breathing for a few days, which is why this was put off.

But I'm feeling better now, and I hope you enjoyed this chapter! :D