Redemption |complete| (SasuSaku)

Back home

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Sakura was holding onto Sasuke's arm like her life depended on it. The hallway was extremely dark and it made her feel very uneasy. Since the war she had been terrified of the dark. Her mental state was already fragile and being in this castle didn't help the situation. Thanks to Sasuke, who had activated his sharingan, she was able to close her eyes and let him navigate her. It was a one way corridor but it was long. They had been walking for five minutes already.

"There is a door." Sakura stopped when Sasuke yanked her closer to him. "Careful, you nearly walked into it."

"Sorry. Does it open?"

"I haven't tried."

She felt him move and the squeaky noise of the rusty metal resonated against the walls. The sound bounced off and echoed for a second before it died down. Sakura opened her lids slightly and once she saw that there was light, she acted like nothing had happened. She even gently pushed Sasuke out of the way to walk in the room first.

He followed her in. Sakura analysed the room in front of her. Across the room she could see four shut wooden doors. The room was lit up by a multitude of candles. The air was rare in here and she was glad that Sasuke and her left the main door opened. She looked at him with her eyebrows raised.

"Well, now we're in. What's next?"

She saw his eyes move around the room. "This is next." she followed the direction of his eyes and found an altar with six scrolls. She looked on the wall just above them and saw the inscription on it.

"Its powder makes a skin appear smoother.

Its paper is used to send a message.

The right answer is on one of the scrolls.

If the wrong scroll is opened prepare yourself."

She waited for Sasuke to finish reading it. Once he was done she looked at him with a bored look. "Really? A riddle?"

"I wasn't expecting that either."

"It's an easy one as well. Back then makeup wasn't made the way it's made today. They used rice powder to make skin powder and the paper is rice paper."

"How do you know that?"

"My mom lectured me on makeup when I was a little girl. She wanted me to know what I was doing." he nodded at her and reached out to the scroll with the word rice written on it. "Also who is stupid enough to make the key the word rice. It's a huge part of our culture and we used to do everything with it."

"Hn."

"You couldn't have guessed without me, could you?" she teased him by sticking out her tongue.

He cuts her off with a shrug of his shoulders. "What's inside?"

Sakura opened the scroll quickly and a key dropped on the floor. She picked it up. "Let's try it on the doors."

"One of them has a lock with numbers on it. Give me the key."

She threw the key to him and watched him try to open all the doors one by one. The very first door on the right opened silently. She rushed to his side to see what was inside of it. His body was blocking the entrance so she stayed behind him, moved to the tip of her toes and rested her chin on his left shoulder. The only thing behind that door was a wall with a drawing on it. It showed the main room where the scrolls were. A lit candle was next to it. The bottom drawing was the same but with something scribbled on the back wall. This time the candle was not lit.