there is such a thing as an unflattering light [open]
Sakura figured she should probably be more annoyed than she was, crossing her arms and staring down the statue of her that was, consequentially, also crossing its arms and staring her down. Life imitating art was usually an expression she'd heard, not something she'd expressly seen. (Given the artists she knew, art wasn't even something held back
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He hadn't talked to her since she went and punched him in the face, which meant he hadn't had the change to give to her the stuff that would (hopefully) prevent her from punching him in the face againDecision made, he'd flown back to Cassie's house, picked up the things he needed, and headed back to the art hall, hoping that she'd still be there and he hadn't had to lug these things all over the city for no good reason ( ... )
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He was distracted from his teasing though - the statue had changed? Marco spun round, and suddenly found himself face to face with a familiar scene. This was one of his memories.
Marco didn't feel like laughing anymore. "No, this is one of mine," he said, his throat feeling a little dry.
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His claiming of the statue gave her pause. She'd guessed, if at the same time...
"Were you the snake?" It was a quieter question, subdued from before. Snakes haven't done a lot of good in her life, let alone the poisonous ones. Seeing the moment before a strike brought back memories she didn't want to remember. Ones she also didn't want whatever this was displaying in turn.
Sakura shivered, not noticing how she moved her arms up to cross over her chest, shifting the book to be in the middle of it.
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"Preferably something that won't start poking around in my head," he added darkly.
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Even if it made her frown as she moved toward the books piled on the floor. She knelt down, collecting them as she examined the statue once more. Poison wasn't something to take lightly.
She, better than many a person, knew that.
Catching up to Marco, she balanced the books against herself. "You could offer to help out, you know," she said mildly, not really caring. This wasn't anything she was concerned about carrying for a long period of time. Sakura hesitated before asking something she expected him to leave unanswered.
"Who was it?"
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"A Garatron," he answered. Now that he was away from the statue and it couldn't reach inside his brain anymore, Marco was a lot calmer. Fact was, it hadn't been the memory itself that had agitated him. "Very, very fast. Hell, that thing could outrun a cheetah, and that's the fastest land animal on Earth. Cobra morph was pretty much the only thing that could strike fast enough to take it down."
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The way he was talking about morphs now reminded her again of the differences. How could one shape be more effective than the other? Were they all based on capitalizing on an animal's traits?
Or had he been telling the truth those months ago, when it came to literally becoming those animals?
"Why did you need to?" If he'd answered one question, she might as well see how long he'd answer anything. Sakura was curious by nature, if she tried to be respectful of other people's boundaries -- and privacy.
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Kill or be killed. The rule of nature, and the rule of war. No bloodless alternatives, no morally safe options. No matter the choice, someone would die. In the end, it always boiled down to you or them.
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Nevermind that she'd asked about the why. Being an enemy was one thing, and inevitably, there were many of those. Naruto had a knack for making them listen, for changing their minds -- but even back home, only he really did.
"How often did you have to make those kinds of calls?"
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He liked Sakura, sure, but he didn't want to tell her about the war. About the Yeerks. He still had that card, and he was going to hold it close to his chest.
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The scenery had shifted, their numbers were tens of thousands less than she'd been fighting with back home, but the principle was in the end the same.
If she didn't like any of the sides involved. If she was idealistic enough to want to prevent the Ohm from destroying worlds on the merit that life was worth preserving. If she didn't entirely trust anyone here, let alone alien species she'd never directly communicated with.
Kakashi would have handled this better. Tsunade. Even Naruto, if the longer she was around, the less she wanted him to be confronted with this version of reality. Why was she the one who woke up first?
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Short as her answer was, it left out all of the particulars. They were fighting the undead and an army of clones. The leader was an insane shinobi also responsible for co-founding her village. Losing meant losing her best friend, and her village's best hope. It meant, if Madara had succeeded, being put under the rule of an egomaniac whose best idea of peace was taking away the free will of every person alive.
When no one could disagree, let alone with him, then yes. War would cease.
So would progress. Invention. Creativity. Joy.
She wondered how much of that she could project on the conflict with the Ohm. Either way, war ends when something is annihilated. It's a fluke we get to say we're on the side ( ... )
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