Our goddess incarnate looked like an oil painting as she sat still in her carriage which was yet to start its journey. Her petal pink bottom lip was pushed up against her thumb as she bit down gently on her flesh. Her brow was slightly furrowed, her eyes misted over as she was lost in thought. Sat in a dress of caramel silk with a gold trim, she looked like the golden rays of sunshine one only sees when dusk approaches. No gemstones adorned her today, just bands of pure gold wrapped around her ankles, wrists and neck. A gold band was strung up in her hair but partially hidden by an elaborately embroidered veil that was so heavy her neck was beginning to ache.
She was peering out of the window of her carriage with a look of longing and nostalgia; whose shadow was she looking for? Whose footsteps was she longing to hear? The birds of the garden were wondering these things as they watched, perched in the palm trees that lined the walkway leading to the door of the Marble Palace. The whole garden seemed to stop and stare as though waiting for the young woman to command it to move, as though allowing her to hear and see everything as she waited, as she watched.
"Dearest, Uta (A/N: poem), it has been too long." The girl stirred as someone opened the door to her carriage and got in to sit opposite her. Suigetsu sat back with a large grin that faded quickly as he had to swallow hard the nerves that erupted inside him when being appraised by her. Those electric blue eyes flashed up at him, so inviting and intense when lined with a slick flick of black. She dragged her thumb down her bottom lip slightly as she opened her mouth to greet the man.
"Feels like years," she nodded gently in greeting, her gold earrings tinkling gently, a slight smirk lifting up her lips as she saw how nervous the vicious man instantly became. He looked a little tired after travelling all the way to escort her from the Marble Palace to The Tower in preparation for her entry into battle. At this thought Ai let out a long breath to soothe herself, smoothed her dress down with the palms of her hands and returned to looking out of the window, back at the Marble Palace she had competently ruled.
Suigetsu followed her eyes to focus on the Palace and watched as her entourage of girls were saying goodbye to Lena as she who was the only girl chosen to follow Ai to the next location. It would be incredibly unsafe but Lena had acted well within her character and laughed defiantly when Ai suggested she should stay at the palace with the rest of the girls. Looking back to Ai, Suigetsu's heart softened a little as he saw the longing in her eyes. He knew what she was longing for and cleared his throat, annoyed at himself for feeling so nervous in front of her, to tell her:
"He is okay, you know," Suigetsu said in what he hoped was a supportive tone, "he wants to make his way back to you. He will make his way back to you." He blinked as Ai turned to him suddenly, "Your…highness," he added sheepishly at the end; what do you call the mortal incarnate of a goddess?
Ai smiled softly at him, "you may call me Ai, Suigetsu," she said sweetly, "we are friends, are we not?" He nodded in return as Ai went back to looking out the window.
Suigetsu knew perfectly well who she was looking for. But to him, the strange thing was, it looked as though Sasuke was right there with them. Anyone could see him left in little clues all over her. The black line around her eyes was the darkness of his hair, the red on her lips were the red of his eyes. The small bruise on her wrist from his thumb as he loved her in the only way Sasuke would know how. The glow in her skin was from the heat of his touch, the way she looked up through her eyelashes seductively was to beckon only him.
"We will reach The Tower in a few hours," Suigetsu spoke softly, unsure if Ai could even hear him.
For those visiting The Tower, there is never any real need to ask how close you are to arriving at your destination. If you were foolish enough to do so, you wold be asked to listen closely for an answer and as you draw closer you will hear it. It starts as a gentle rumble as though you are catching echoes of a far away thunder storm and within moments it changes and transforms into the growl of a tiger and soon the sound of the sea swallows up any other sound around you. The Tower is the only remaining part of a fort built during the second Shinobi war. It lies between a beach and Sunagakure. A beach which has witnessed battle before, but more recently witnessed the blossoming of the Blood-love between the young Kazekage and a courtesan. It was the place they had first kissed.
That same courtesan was a mere tiger's growl away from The Tower now, although her reasons for returning to the beach were far from romantic. She travelled in a caravan of carriages all hidden from the outside world by the use of extremely powerful Genjutsu. Suigetsu thought it was rather a bold move of the young woman to so adamantly travel with barely any security in an entire procession of carriages. It was only after a letter from Sasuke that she had agreed to Suigetsu's presence in her journey. And that is exactly how he felt; as though he were simply there as a token of compromise between her and the Uchiha. He felt entirely superfluous for there was now a power around Ai that had not been there mere months before. She had no need for such protection when she herself stood in front of the gates that divided life and death. He watched her a she continued to stare with round, wanting eyes, out of the carriage window.
Sat beside her was her best friend, confidant and fellow house girl, Lena. With dark blonde curls that fell in ringlets around her face and angled green eyes she flashed them up at Suigetsu flirtatiously. He seemed to notice and smirked back at her as he realised perhaps his presence on this trip would not be without reward. Lena curled a ringlet around her index finger before she leant back, pulling her hair from around her finger gently. Suigetsu watched her finger, his mouth starting to water, as she adjusted a pendant on her necklace that was sitting comfortably on her bosom. She looked over to Ai suddenly as the tiger's growl seemed to multiply in volume until the roar of the sea was in earshot.
Within moments the carriage had come to a stop; they had arrived at the tower. Looking out the window, Lena could see a pathway lit by lanterns that led to the base of the tower. It was an astoundingly tall pillar of cement blocks and, in Lena's opinion, it was incredibly ugly. She looked back at Ai who was already dismounting and wondered how the girl, who was so used to beautiful things, would fit into a place like this?
Getting out of the carriage, Lena could see that the Tower was indeed a relic of war; it was damaged and decaying, perhaps once a triumphant place of victory, it was now entirely devoid of any life. It did not seem to deter Ai, however, who was already walking determinedly towards the building. Lena had to run to catch up with her and giggled as she heard Suigetsu mutter something about getting the luggage. The lanterns that were much larger than she had first thought, were comprised of solid iron boxes with glass panels. They illuminated what must have once been a very well cared for garden. The palm trees lined this pathway just like at the Marble Palace, but here the trees were brown and dry, falling apart above your head. The garden was equally suggestive of a once beautiful place; you could see that the plants, comfortable in the beach climate, were now dark in colour, their spikes and leaves aged and dying. Looking at the fallen leaves, Lena suddenly realised these plants were growing in sand and looked up with a smile to ask Ai if she knew this place that was so close to her village. Upon looking up, however, she could See Ai was glancing around the place as though waiting for someone.
"Sasuke will come before the battle, he promised you he would," she said supportively and was puzzled as Ai turned to her, gold bangles tinkling together, veil blowing gently in the wind, the dim gold light of the lanterns glittering in her eyes.
"Oh, yes," Ai said softly before smiling, "I know." Lena frowned as Ai turned away and continued to walk to the Tower. The goddess incarnate had been quiet and lost in thought the entire journey, perhaps that's what loving an Uchiha does to you. In fact, Lena could think of many women who longed for Sasuke in silence.
They reached the wooden door at the base of the tower and Suigetsu, who had been only a few steps behind them, put down Ai's bags and stepped between them to open the door. Two things happened almost instantaneously: with the sound of a thousand bees rushing towards them, sand erupted from the earth in front of them and rushed towards them. At the same time, Ai grabbed Suigetsu's arm with her right hand, preventing him from putting his hand in harms way and with her left hand she bit her thumb, drawing blood, before swiping it across the man's brow with a quiet apology. Suigetsu felt something strange as though someone had poured cold water on his feet and it was running up his legs, before he felt weak for a brief moment. In front of his face a sealing across appeared which Ai grabbed and unfurled, before holding it up to the sand.
Suigetsu staggered backwards, bumping into the bags; "did you just…" he gathered his strength, "did you just use me to summon something?" Ai looked back at him with a smile of apology.
"I needed to use your chakra, I cannot manipulate my own."
"Oh," he shook his head, not really understanding how this girl, who was practically made of chakra, could perform something that went against everything he understood about ninjutsu. "Sure, no problem." But the courtesan was no longer listening and instead frowning at the seal she had in her hands. Even Lena was transfixed, uncaring of the man behind them.
"It's not the seal," Lena whispered. As Ai moved the seal towards the sand, it did not move, it was entirely unaffected by the woman's attempt to undo whatever magic was woven into this trap. However, when she lifted her other hand and moved it towards the sand, the glittering mass moved away, parted to let her hand through. "Is it…fear?" Lena suggested, trying to understand why the sand would behave this way.
"No," Ai replied, "it's familiarity." Lena gasped, the warm air she inhaled seemed to seize up inside of her making her entire body frigid.
"Does that mean-?"
"Yes," the courtesan murmured, "this is Gaara's sand."