Summary: After a mission goes horribly wrong, Sakura returns to Konoha with new knowledge and no idea how she came by it. [OroSaku] AU in which Orochimaru is not completely a monster. Also disregards great swathes of canon in order to make things work.
Notes: Let's get this out of the way now: this is a Sakura/Orochimaru pairing in an AU that is as close to canon as I can make it with my knowledge of said canon. Sakura is in her early twenties, there will be no Akatsuki, I don't think. Sasuke is unlikely to show up. In fact, let's just pretend he wandered off to be a moody ass at some point and no one really cared to go look for him, shall we?
Alright, now that that's over with... Enjoy, I suppose? :D
The beat of drums reverberates through the heavy air. There are dark clouds gathered in the sky, a veil through which filters the grayest, dullest light. Sakura trembles with the knowledge that death is coming. Perhaps for her, perhaps for him.
Regardless, it is coming.
Silky black hair sways into her line of sight, white skin, golden eyes. He glides away behind her, an arm snaking out to settle heavily around her waist, pressure, heat, then gone. Just a reminder.
Death is coming.
PROLOGUE
Sakura swallows heavily, kunai clenched in one sweaty fist, legs shaking with the effort of holding her slight frame upright. Well. Relatively upright. Her other hand is clasped to her side, trying to hold flesh together where it has been deeply parted. Blood seeps between her fingers, hot. Her chest heaves and she blinks droplets of sweat from her eyelashes.
The bastards surrounding her are the only ones left of a band of eight. She ripped holes in the rest and they are scattered throughout the forest, bleeding out or already dead. But these three... they are relatively unharmed and she is verging on passing out from blood loss and exhaustion. She thinks she has sustained several internal injuries on top of her obvious external ones, and her head rings and spins, but there is no time for a self-diagnostic, and certainly no chakra left for her to spare for healing.
They are wary still, prowling around her in an ever-tightening circle, growing more sure of themselves with every shaky breath she heaves through dry, cracked lips. She is out of time, out of weapons, out of ideas. She strains to stay conscious as the world tips and blurs before her, but no force of will can keep her broken body from falling now. They see her collapse and swoop in with cries of victory, kunai glinting viciously in their hands.
And all they had to do to beat me was wait me out...damn.
A/N: From chapter four onward has recently been rewritten (Jan 2017) in order to tighten up plot points and make the whole thing flow more smoothly.