A/N: This is a piece a lot like Face Down. It has a faster pace with a lot of skipping going on, but that's how it's supposed to be. I like calling these types flash stories, because the sequences are flashes of action. I like it, but I'll admit this prolly has a lot of mistakes. It's something I wrote in one sitting really late at night because this plot kept chewing away at my brain and I just couldn't bring myself to delete it. Hope you enjoy. Oh, and I do not own Naruto or the toons from the show.

Prologue

Sakura was in a typical bad marriage. Her spouse cheated on her, beat her up when she confronted him about his infidelity, and then tried to patch things up. No…if he was willing to put his hands on her, he'd harm her children first chance he got. So, she did what any other concerned mother would do…she filed for divorce. Her children, surprisingly, understood. They didn't think much of their 'daddy' after they'd seen their mommy having to stitch up her own wounds. Her oldest, Sei, had some rather unflattering things to say about the man that had 'played at being his father', as the youth had called him.

But the sad reality was that the teenager was right…her soon to be ex-husband was not the father of her children. No…he'd just been obsessed with getting her pregnant with kids of his own. When it had come up that he, uh, had a little trouble with the plumbing, he'd blamed her. And she'd laughed right in his pompous face. She'd pointed at the picture of her with her two boys and told the raven haired man that there was obviously nothing wrong with her, because she had two kids. That had been the day that things had started to go downhill.

Unable to produce any heirs of his own, he'd tried converting Sei into his heir. Tried to make the teenager look like him, talk like him, and act like him. Sakura had squelched that before it had come to fruition, telling her onyx eyed husband that if he thought she was going to allow him to turn her son into a clone of himself, he was sadly mistaken…that is when the beatings had started. It had started out as 'foreplay' as Sasuke had called it. He'd gotten overly excited when he'd hit her and had demanded her presence in bed immediately. Apparently, he was under the impression that, the more excited he got, the better his chances to procreate. She'd laughed in his face about that.

And that had been when he'd busted her lip and thrown her into the marble counter, practically raping her from behind. When he'd finished, he'd pushed her, causing her to trip and slam her head into the corner of the counter, hence the stitches.

Today, she was having to console her children after Sasuke had viciously yelled at her, called her horrible names, and called her sons bastards. Her youngest son, Rori, didn't understand why their 'daddy' had suddenly started hurting mommy. Sakura had told him that Sasuke was not their daddy, just the man that mommy married after they were born. Boy did Sasuke not like that. He'd ranted at her, called her a whore, slapped her…all in front of her children. She'd stared at him with emotionless eyes, turned around and gathered her children for bed.

When she'd put them to bed, she'd gone to her office, and then to her bedroom, where she knew he'd be. He'd rounded on her, intent on taking out his frustrations, only to be staring down the barrel of a Desert Eagle. He looked up over the barrel at the livid emerald eyes and put his hands in the air. Very quietly, so as not to wake her children, she backed him up to the wall. She'd had enough.

"You are going to pack up your shit and leave. Grab your suitcase, get your clothes and toiletries and all your clan shit and get the hell out of my house." she hissed at him. He glared at her, even though she held certain death in her hands.

"Don't think this wont come back to bite you in the ass Sakura. I have connections." he growled at her. She smirked at him and let out a low, evil chuckle.

"Baby…the only thing you scare is small children. Now get your shit and get out. I'll have the divorce papers for you by five tomorrow evening." his eyes went wide and round and he stopped, her gun still trained between his eyes.

"It takes at least a week to get those papers drawn up…how are you gonna-" she cut him off by pulling back the action, making it fire ready. He gulped and just stared at her, a deer in the headlights.

"You're not the only one with connections, Sasuke. Now get out of my house and stay away from me and my children. If I see you again, I will take it as a threat and shoot you. Never again will I allow you to beat me, deface me in front of my children, or rape me when my children are in the next room." she was baring her teeth at him. He snorted and threw one of his socks into a bag.

"You can't prove anything, Sakura. When I go to my brother, and he finds out your pointed a gun at me, he's going to drag you down faster than your prom dress before you had those two brats." he jumped when a round embedded itself into the molding by his head. He looked at it, then at her, and back at where she'd fired. "Are you crazy!? There's no way your kids didn't hear that! They're material witnesses against their own mother!" he yelled. Sakura didn't smile, she didn't frown…just gave him a cold stare.

"Get your shit and leave, Sasuke. I wont tell you again." He went around the bedroom, collecting all his clothes. He made to grab something, but she stopped him. "I said your things, Sasuke, not mine. The only things you own are the things with your clan symbols on them. " he stared at her, and then back down at the one thing he wanted out of this house more than anything else…the Jade Buddha with rubies for eyes. It was by far the most expensive item in the house…and belonged solely to Sakura. She'd amounted quite a bit of cash before she'd married him.

As assurance he wouldn't take her money and leave, she'd forced him to sign a prenuptial agreement before she'd even talk to him of marriage. It stated that anything and everything she could provide a receipt for that was paid out of her own pocket was hers. If they had gone in together, and bought something, they could talk terms. His eyes narrowed on her. He knew for a fact she kept all her money in a separate account and only about six percent what she earned was in their mutual account. The rest went into trust funds for her children.

They never received bills, they never had to worry about utilities, and there were never any tax forms sent to them. Everything she was, everything about her, was secret…shrouded in mystery. He took the six things with his clan symbol on it and carefully put them in a large gym bag. He looked at her over his shoulder, his eyes narrowed. "You'll regret this Sakura. I'll make sure of it." he watched as a cruel smile had curved those lips he'd once loved to bruise.

"No, Sasuke. I wont. But, then again, there's really nothing you can do to me that I haven't been through before…or worse." was all she said before she slammed the door in his face.