Bruises & Bitemarks (SasuNaru)

103.

Something I've never realized before:

Airplanes are fucking huge.

I'm serious. How the hell does something that big stay in the air for so long? Our flight is ten hours. Ten hours we'll be suspended in mid-air over the middle of the ocean in a rocket-shaped hunk of metal with skinny boards for wings that don't even flap. Shiroi reassures me that the chances of death due to plane crash are one in about eleven million, but even numbers can't quite combat the idea in my brain that things this heavy should never leave the ground. Still, most everyone else on the trip has already flown sometime in their lives, so I shut my mouth and let the doubts run around in my head without escaping and making me look like an idiot.

Aoi wakes me up bright and early on Friday morning, and we go together to the front of the school, where everyone else is waiting. A bus takes us to a train station, where we take the first train of the day to Tokyo. Then things start to get tense.

See, we arranged our groups way back in October, back when this whole thing was being organized. Hotel rooms were two two-person beds apiece, so we had to divide into groups of four for rooming as well as when we have free time to roam. You see where this is going, right? Back in October, I was still with Sasuke. Back in October, we thought we were inseparable, the two of us and the name twins. Now I'm sitting across from Sasuke on the train, blasting myself deaf with my dance music and staring resolutely out the window. Takeshi's fallen asleep leaning on my shoulder; we were up late last night, but my mind is racing far too fast to be put to sleep. This is exactly the same train ride that took me and Sasuke to Tokyo this past Christmas, and the one before. Those are the only times I've ever been out of Konoha. And here we are again, only now it's like someone's dropped an invisible wall between us, right on the table.

The train takes us right to the airport, where we go check in our luggage. Thank god the teachers are around; I'd have no clue what to do if I were on here on my own, but Takeshi and Shiroi know what they're doing too so I just follow their lead. With our big luggage sent on a conveyor belt to our airplane and our carry-on bags kept with us, we then proceed to security. I trip up by forgetting I have a bottle of water in my bag, then some spare change in my pocket sets off the walk-through metal detector and I'm searched with a manual one by a severe-looking woman who could probably take down a bull. By the time I make it through I feel like the whole place is out to get me. Out of the corner of my eye I see Sasuke smirk. I shoot him a glare in return, then feel Takeshi slide his hand into mine, wiping the smug look off Sasuke's face. I can't tear my eyes away from his magnetic, livid stare as we silently launch daggers at each other.

Once we find our gate, we're free to roam the airport for another hour. Sasuke tells Shiroi he wants to just stay here, but I want to check out the shops and stuff, and also maybe get some breakfast. Eventually Shiroi manages to settle a compromise before we start fighting, and we go look around for a while before coming back early. Then I see the plane coming in with a guy on the ground waving bright orange sticks, and my jaw drops.

"How the hell does that thing fly?" I gape.

"Dunno," says Takeshi. "Science and the fact that thousands of flights run safely each day prove it works, but I couldn't tell you."

"No way does that make sense." I shake my head. "Ridiculous."

A familiar derisive snort behind me makes me whip around.

"I wasn't asking you," I snap, then feel something inside me start to tremble. It's probably the first words I've said to Sasuke since the day I went back to classes and told him we're not on speaking terms. No, that's a lie – we both did a lot of shouting that time we fought at the chalkboard. I quickly turn back, finding a seat near the windows and away from him. A moment later, Takeshi joins me.