When Sakura passed the stick over, the priest checked the number, checked a chart on the wall, and then withdrew a slip of paper from one of the little cubbyholes in the wall holding stacks of paper.
Sakura's face was eager and hopeful until she unfolded it. Then she looked rather less happy.
"What?" asked Naruto.
Sakura stared at him for a moment, then glanced at the paper. "Nothing."
"Okay," said Naruto, not getting it.
"There's a fence outside to tie unwanted fortunes to," said the priest. "Just don't tie it to the Black Tar Pine or wander too close to the tickle-me-pinks or the shed where I keep those Cursed Books."
"What about the books are so bad?" asked Kakashi as Sakura went out the back.
"Not cursed as in don't-like-them, cursed as in very bad juju or curses," said Cherry. "There's a Cursed Yuri Romance Novel for example - those who read a single page of it are cursed to be drawn into a girl-on-girl romance."
"That doesn't sound so bad," said Kakashi, thinking wholesome 'threesome' fun.
"If you're not a girl when you start, you'd be at the end," said Cherry, stamping his staff down and getting the jangle from the little brass rings.
"Oh, that would be bad," admitted Kakashi.
"God of mischief," noted Cherry. "On occasion things like that show up. I put them under lock and several layers of wards to prevent the world from suffering. Problem is I have to keep locking them up as they try to escape."
"It's a very important thing you're doing here then," agreed Kakashi. "Any of the Icha-Icha series involved?"
"Yes, 'Icha Icha Beach Party'," said Cherry, shuddering.
"I've gotten all the Icha Icha series and that's not one of them," noted Kakashi.
"Not all of the books there were ever published in our world," said Cherry.
"So... as long as you don't read the book in question, you're safe?" asked Sasuke.
"You can read the blurb in the back, but even handling them isn't recommended," said Cherry. "As a priest, I can do so. Those without great spiritual power or training - or heavy Plot Armor - can't touch the book without some risk."
"So what's the Black Tar Pine?" asked Kakashi, thinking that maybe he should avoid mentioning this place entirely in the mission report.
"An old tree with a spirit and some hostility towards humans," said Cherry. "Violent but not actually evil."
Sakura came back in without incident as the remark was made. "I miss anything?"
"Just that the black tree out there should be avoided," said Kakashi.
"Oh that, didn't go near it," said Sakura. "It was scowling at me."
"Then it was probably just as well you avoided it," noted Kakashi.
Sakura nodded, checking the scroll she'd sealed a book in. Nice for this shrine to have a lending library. There'd been so many books she'd thought interesting but one in particular had drawn her interest.
"You're up," said Sasuke simply.
Sakura woke up immediately, blushing slightly at Sasuke's nearness. She knew that it was just her turn at watch, second watch while everyone else slept. That's all it was, and dreams she'd had while sleeping through the first third of the night were not relative to anything that had actually happened.
That said dreams had involved her Inner Sakura being locked in a cave where she screamed warnings that couldn't quite be heard, and involved Sasuke and herself together alone? Best forgotten along with any details about their home, roaches, and Sasuke being cool and aloof and - what HAD that dream been about?
"Twenty three hundred hours," said Sakura, checking the time. Sasuke was punctual, among many other qualities she found admirable.
Sasuke nodded and went to his bedroll, placing kunai where he could reach them without much movement on his part to alert any watchers in the night.
Sakura turned her attention from him, and out into the night away from the fire. One eye open, one eye closed. That way she could adapt faster to the dark if they DID have attackers. (Ninja Academy Handbook, Chapter Seventeen, Protocols and Procedures for Away Missions.)
After about an hour she unsealed the scroll and got the book out. At least this might keep her from falling asleep during her watch, which was a real danger on a night like this.
There had just been something compelling about this particular book, in a tumble of other books.
Opening to the first page, glancing up at odd intervals to make sure enemy ninja weren't creeping up on her, she began to read:
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(Posted Wed, 04 Dec 2013 22:20)
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