OH HI FANFICTION.
You probably don't remember me but I remember you. :] Oh well.
This is for Yammy's birthday. Which was forever ago but I really suck and write slow. x]
So this is the first fic out of two I owe her!Love you Yammy!
"We failed," she choked out, her voice echoing through the damp, dark room.
"We failed," she repeated, tears falling out of her blue eyes and onto her lap when she closed her eyes and looked down.
Sasuke didn't say anything, glad he wasn't able to see the tears falling from her eyes, though he heard her gasps and the tears falling to the ground, to the puddles already gathered there.
His hands were bound to hers, and with a sick realization he came to realize that this would probably the closest he'd ever get to holding her hand.
They had lost the child. The child they had both sworn to protect.
He was so young. So young.
In a way the boy reminded Sasuke of Itachi. Perhaps it was this. This that had made the blow of losing the boy they had only known for five weeks so hard.
Five weeks of moving from village to village, cabin to cabin, changing names each time. Five weeks of eating together, promising the boy safety, promising that he'd be back where he was needed.
They had finally reached the last destination, the place they were now staying in was completely safe. So many seals had been placed on it.
It was not this that was the problem. No, this was much too foolproof.
It had only strengthened their false sense of security.
It was the journey from this to the palace that had ruined them.
They should've known that it was in fact much too easy.
They had failed the mission. They had failed the village. They had failed the boy.
No, that was wrong.
He had failed the mission. He had failed the village. He had failed the boy.
He had failed Ino.
It was his cockiness and his overconfidence in their abilities that had led to this. He was used to missions being too easy for them, used to not coming to any difficulties in the way.
But he should've realized there was something wrong with this mission.
He didn't figure out until it was too late. He didn't figure it out until suddenly there was a kunai through the boy's heart, until a gash scarred Ino's porcelain skin as she kneeled beside the boy with unseeing eyes, shocked.
Sasuke had to drag her away from the boy before he lost her too. Maybe he had done so...too late...again, as he couldn't believe that they lost, couldn't believe she was wounded.
And now, they were here.
Sasuke knew they were doomed. They must be doomed. He was facing the side of the room where they kept the torture devices.
There probably wasn't any on the side Ino could see. He knew Ino would take it as well as he did, but he could still sense her emotion. She knew they were going to die, but he knew she didn't know that it was going to be done so in the most brutal of ways.
He didn't care about himself. They could do as they wished to him.
But Ino.
She was so young. She was so pretty. She was so beautiful.
She was going to die.
They would scar her skin, taint the emotion behind her water blue eyes, make her voice call out in pain...
He just hoped he died before he'd be able to see it. He didn't know how he'd bear it.
He felt Ino's fingers tangle with his, without form or reason, but they were interlocked with his.
"I'm sorry, Ino, I'm sorry."
The soft echoes of his whisper reached her ears before they plunged into a long silence, breathing in when the other breathed out.
"Ino," he called out, startled by how unstable his voice was.
He did not get a response, other than a long, shaky intake of breath from Ino as her fingers tightened around his.
He leaned his head back in his chair, head resting on the hard wood.
"I love you."
Ino's head fell back near his as she let out the breath she was holding. He felt a tear where the cheeks of their faces met.
And another.
And another.
Her fingers loosened around his before she let go. She lifted her head up as she spoke.
"It's no use now."
It was funny how odd he acted when he was faced with death. Why was his emotion more willing to spill out? Where were the dams he so carefully built?
So this was it.
"It's no use now," she repeated, whispering. Her head hung.
"How do you think they'll kill us?" she whispered, raising her head.
Suddenly, as if on cue, the tension binding their hands was gone.
"It might be a trap," Ino voiced. "Maybe it's best we stay."
"Maybe it's better if we try." He pulled her up and showed her what he had been staring at for the past few hours.
"You've never given up before."
Suddenly they were fighting for their lives. Maybe this was the kind of sick entertainment their captors enjoyed. The lion versus the gladiator.
And suddenly.
There was silence. Nothing but the groan of the last man passing away. There was something about being so close to death, closer to pain, closer to it than they had ever been before, that made their fighting more frantic, faster, more precise.
He had always thought he was invincible. That had never changed.
As Ino's mission partner, invincible was an understatement. They could never fail. Perhaps it was his confidence in both their abilities, or the way he felt about her that caused this.
Either way, this had brought him back to reality.
He was vulnerable.
And worst of all, Ino was vulnerable.
They ran.
Never had they ran under the pressure of losing their lives. He had grabbed her hand, fingers interlacing less intricately than when their hands were bound but more comfortably and closely.
They jumped out of the window, ignoring the sting of the glass, as they landed, letting go of each other as they ran, not looking back, although they felt no chakra or heard no footsteps behind them.
The night was completely dead as they ran towards the safest place for them.
The cabin that should've kept the boy alive.
He fumbled for the seals that would let them in before finally breaking into the cabin, breathless and tired, the door immediately shutting behind them.
For the first time in what felt like years...
They knew they were safe.
Through the dim light of the moonlight Sasuke could make out her blue eyes, piercing, staring into his.
They plunged into each other's arms at the same time, lips meeting in a hurried frenzy, as if there wasn't enough time in the world for them.
He found his hands traveling up Ino's thigh, creeping up her bare stomach to the buttons on her shirt, feeling her cool hands touching the skin under his own.
Ino broke the kiss to pull his shirt off, and his hands pushed her blouse off her shoulders. She pulled her arms away from him to let it slide to the ground before they stared at each other, falling into each other's arms again.
Ino found her head rolling back, and eyes closing when his hands and lips slid down her body, touching her in a way she had never been touched before. She was barely able to think, knowing that Sasuke's hands were the only reason she was still standing up.
Sasuke stopped his ministrations to look at the moaning girl above him, wondering how this was better than how he had fantasized.
He knew she had never done this before, and she knew he had done this far too often, but she felt him carry her to the bed before feeling his lips on hers again.
Ino gasped into their kiss when he slid into her, fingernails digging into his strong back. Sasuke stared into her eyes, gauging her reaction, when she closed them, biting her lip. She sighed, eyes full of lust opening, and she nodded, and Sasuke kissed her again, whispering sweet nothings into her ear as he thrust into her again.
The tension that was between them built. Not only the tension from this night but from the tension that had always been between them because of feelings they knew they should avoid, from their sadness, from their frustration.
What they were sharing was beautiful but...
It should've never happened this way.
As his breathing quickened and her soft whispers of his name turned into moans, they met that peak of pleasure, her limbs wrapped tightly around him and his eyes losing focus, her name escaping his lips. He shuddered and fell beside her, drawing her closely to him.
She returned his gaze with a sad smile.
He placed a small kiss on her lips as she cried, cried for the boy, cried that they realized they were mortal, cried for the fact they both knew...
This was not how it should've happened.
And as she fell into a deep sleep, Sasuke watching her closed eyes, wondering what she was seeing behind them...
He wondered what the morning would bring.