Bound.


This is a SasuSaku story, it may evolve and have a bit of NaruSasuSaku. It's going to be a bit different from the first, such as different effects and time-changes. Maybe not as much drama.


His eyes flickered open when he unconsciously felt the air change. He was still, waiting for another change to be positive that he'd felt the first one. When it came, he slipped out of bed.

He was quiet and stealthy, he'd just about always been that way. Living with Orochimaru was confining and he'd snuck out many times get to get away from it all for an hour. This was nothing.

He slid his tall, thin form into the living room and set his sharingan spinning. The byakugan could see through solid objects, whereas the sharingan could not, so he was pretty much just burning chakra. Frustrated, he shut it off and moved to where he felt the disturbance.

Without another sound, he ripped the front door open and poised himself, ready to attack whoever the hell was disturbing him at such an un-ruly hour.

But no one was there.

Decidedly irritated, he glanced outside once more before turning to shut the door. But something caught his attention. On his doorstep was a small silver necklace.

Overcome by curiosity, he bent down and picked it up, slamming the door angrily behind him. He moved swiftly to his kitchen, switching on the light and pausing to look down at the piece of jewelry.

It was oddly long, but not long enough to be a necklace. He was ready to throw it in the trash dispenser when his eyes found a symbol carved into the silver. Bringing it up, close to his face for inspection. His eyes widened before he could stop them.

He recognized the symbol in the middle- it was an uchiwa fan, that was for sure. But what un-settled him was the symbol surrounding it. Another clan symbol. The Haruno circle. He glared at it and his eyes found a second one farther down the chain, the same thing.

He'd been back for over a year. Things hadn't jumped back into routine like he figured they would, instead it was only Naruto who came running to meet him while Sakura stood beyond the gates, a forgiving smile on her lips, matching the hands on her hips. But she didn't come any closer until he collapsed from internal wounds.

When he awoke, he was plastered to a hospital bed, being read his rights and told he was to see the Godaime as soon as he could sit up. And once he did, the punishment he recieved was like a slap on the wrist compared to what was supposed to be done in normal cases. Traitors were put to death. That's just how it was. But not in his case. Sasuke was told later that it was Sakura who'd gotten him a lower sentence due to her relationship with the Hokage.

And he tolerated Sakura. Maybe even called her a friend. She'd dropped her fangirlish ways and become distant. Not too distant, but she occasionally declined Naruto's offers for the three of them to go for ramen, even when he agreed.

He almost wondered why, but decided it'd be best to keep it out of his head.

And now there's a bracelet with their clan symbols intertwined? Was this a sign that she had gone back to her old ways? Should he expect to be mauled soon? He inwardly shivered at the thought, her inhuman strength could shatter his bone with a simple poke, and she could hold him down if she got her hands on him.

He pushed the thoughts out of his mind; Sakura wouldn't do that. And then he tried to lay the bracelet on the counter. For some odd, unexplainable reason, it wouldn't leave his hand. This action just served to annoy him further.

"What the...?"


"Wha..."

Sakura sat straight up. All she saw was a dark stillhouete and a seething aura. She did what she could. Which for her, involved throwing whatever weapons she had in her reach. When the figure avoided all of those, she let out a long, loud scream.

Which was promptly cut off when the man put his hand over her lips. "Calm down, Sakura, it's me."

He removed his hand from her mouth but continued to glare at her through the sheen of bangs that covered his onyx eyes.

"...Sasuke?"

"You need to get this off of me now. I tried every ------- thing I could think of and whatever you did to it is keeping it stuck to my skin."

She blinked at him in the darkness. "What are you talking about?"

He moved and reached for the lamp on her bedside table. He flicked it on and stuck his hand and the bracelet under her nose, "This. I want it off."

"That's not mine, I've never seen it before. Why would you say it's mine?"

"It has your clan symbol."

Her brow furrowed in confusion and she touched the bracelet and a bright flash of light blinded them both momentarily.

The next thing poor Sakura knew, Sasuke was sprawled on top of her, looking extremely ticked off. She blinked up at him, her eye brows in her hairline and he hurriedly got off her. That's when she felt something warm against her wrist.

She looked down and let out a startled gasp; there sat a silver bracelet, two clan symbols intertwined.

She looked up sharply and noticed the bracelet that had been shoved under her nose was now on Sasuke's wrist. But then how was it on hers as well?

"What the hell."

Sasuke's voice came as a surprise and Sakura's green eyes snapped to his face, "Sasuke... what's going on?"

He was mumbling again and she frowned. "The bracelet was long. It must of split when you touched it and somehow latched on to our wrists. I don't understand what's going on exactly, but it's three in the morning and I believe our best guess is to go to the Hokage's office first thing tomorrow."

He gave her a hard stare, daring her to disagree. She didn't.

When he moved for the window, he didn't get far. Instead, Sakura was pulled forward by her wrist until she was shoved up against his chest. Talk about an invasion of personal space.

Awkward.

She stifled a gasp and moved a step away from him, trying her best to pretend it never happened. His face remained blank; he was passive but she could tell he was thinking about the whole confusing situation.

"Well, uhm... What do we do?" Sakura asked suddenly, feeling exhausted. She had worked two shifts and trained today. Her chakra was drained and her feet hurt. She just wanted to pass out again.

"I don't know. I can't seem to leave."

"I need to lie down," She said, biting her lip, "I'm really tired."

"Hn," Was the reply she recieved as they both moved towards her bed, Sakura lying down, Sasuke standing stiffly at the bedside. When he tried to move, there was a light tug on his wrist where the bracelet was fastened; he could sense it was being re-indorsed with someone's chakra. And he was getting really annoyed.

"Sakura, we should go to the–" He was suddenly very aware of her low chakra levels. She had opened her eyes a little.

"I can go if you really want to, Sasuke. I know that this must be bothering you."

"No, forget it. Go to sleep."

"Only if you're going to lie down, too."

"Sakura–"

"No, Sasuke. I won't feel right if you're staying up all night waiting for my chakra to be replenished."

He didn't say anything, instead just laid down next to her. They were silent and after awhile, Haruno Sakura fell into an exhausted sleep.


First chapter was short, give me a break, I have Geometry homework! (As well as Spanish III, Pre-AP English and Bio. Arrgh).

So love me and be patient, I will eventually update again.