He walked through the tall gates of the village for the first time in five years, escorted by no less then twelve anbu, not that he had fought against the idea of returning. He had always planned to return, at least to find out what had become of his team. He had not exactly planned to have his brother walking beside him, but circumstances had changed.

The villagers stared in shock as the watched the last two Uchiha walk calmly down the street. They didn't know whether to be angry or joyous. As the anbu passed by, carrying the heads of Orochimaru, Madara and Kibito they began to cheer and cry out joyously as the raven haired men walked by.

A pink haired woman watched in disgust as the two made their way down the street, she couldn't believe how forgiving the villagers were willing to be towards them. She scowled as she slammed her window shut with all her strength, causing the Uchiha to turn their heads in her direction. She briefly met the gaze of the boy she had loved since she was eight and gave him a nasty look before turning away.

"Teme!" Naruto shouted as the doors to his new office opened. "You're finally back!" He jumped out his chair and ran over to his best friend, catching him in a strong hug. "I almost gave up hope that were going to come back," He said with his usual enthusiasm, letting go of the younger Uchiha. "Granted, I never thought you'd bring Itachi with you alive."

The two Uchiha shrugged and Itachi turned to look out the window, "Things changed once I told him the truth." His voice sent a shiver down Naruto's spine, but he shrugged it off, too happy to care.

"Where is Sakura?" Sasuke asked with mild surprise, he had half expected to be glomped by her the moment he got through the door. Naruto frowned and shrugged, "Who cares? It's probably better she's not here, if you know what I mean." He strolled back to his desk and picked up a pen with a new grin, "As Hokage, I grant you full pardon for any and all crimes, past, present and future! Believe it!" He scribbled across the bottom of a scroll and threw the pen back on his desk. "Let's get Ramen."

Itachi and Sasuke warily followed the blond out of his office and were mildly concerned that the citizens were still cheering their names in the streets.

Sasuke couldn't help but wonder why on earth Naruto had gone so cold when he had mentioned Sakura. As far as he remembered, the blond dobe had always loved the pinkette. It was obvious that he wasn't going to get any answers now though. He decided to wait until later to try and find someone who would tell him.

Sakura paced back and forth around her living room, growling to herself. She could not believe the nerve of the people around here. A few people had apparently noticed her glare at Sasuke and had decided to come teach her a lesson. They got a few hits in before she lost control and ripped them limb from limb, throwing them out the window. She threw herself on the couch with a hiss and decided that she really needed to leave this place. Perhaps she could trick someone into letting her out of this prison.

Her lips, covered in blood, twisted into a rather evil smirk and her eyes flashed dangerously. Perhaps she could use the traitor, then the village would hate him like they should. That could be fun.

By the end of dinner, Naruto was stumbling drunkenly beside Sasuke. Itachi had decided to go home and rest while his little brother grilled the Hokage for information.

"Dobe, where is pinky?" Sasuke tried to make his voice stutter so that Naruto would believe he was drunk as well. The blond scrunched his face and sighed. "Why do you keep asking?" His voice was unsteady as he tried to sober up a little.

"I'm curious. That's all." He shrugged back, dropping the act, having a feeling that Naruto wasn't buying it. "Yeah well curiosity killed the shinobi."

Sasuke shrugged again, "Don't care. Just wanna know." The blond sighed, "Ok. I'll give you the story, but we can't go see her. That's pretty much a death wish."

They sat on a close by bench, and Naruto sighed. "It starts right here. The night you left she was out wandering around alone and decided to sleep on the bench. This bench. When she was found in the morning we found her naked, with a cursed mark on her neck, covered in virgin blood."

Sasuke felt fear grip his heart as the blond told his story, Orochimaru had taunted him with a version of that tale for five years, he'd never thought it had any merit. Apparently he was wrong.

"After a couple weeks, we discovered she was pregnant. She kept lying and telling us she was rapped, but we knew better. We all knew she was weak. He gave her the mark of power. We all tried our best to get the child out of her, and kill it, but the mark kept protecting it."

Sasuke stared wide eyed at the man beside him. He actually believed that Sakura, little Sakura, would have willingly bore Orochimaru's child for power. He couldn't believe what he was hearing. Now he was convinced the whole village had lost their minds.

"When she had the baby, the cursed mark activated and she turned into a creature more horrifying than I've ever seen. We drowned the baby and locked her up in an old, abandoned apartment building near the gates. Every now and then she gets out, the curse activates and she turns into a monster. Even if she didn't transform, I'd still have her in isolation for having Orochimaru's child willingly."

Sasuke slammed his fists into the bench, startling Naruto as he finished speaking. "Oi! What the hell bastard!" He exclaimed, noticing how tense Sasuke was.

"All these years... I always thought Orochimaru was lying when he told me he-" "-seduced your old teammate?" Sasuke made a gagging noise before continuing, "He rapped her. He told me from the moment I got there, that he had forced her to carry a child, and forced a cursed mark upon her, much the same way he did to me."

Naruto twitched as he listened, slowly beginning to question his own judgements as Hokage.

"I never believed him. I hoped she was still waiting for me. I hoped it hadn't happened because I had knocked her unconscious as declared her love for me, and left her on the bench."

Naruto felt the blood drain from his face, he had never known Sasuke to lie about important things, so that only left one possibility. He had betrayed Sakura in her hour of need because he hadn't believed her.

"We have to fix things." He mummbled, sliding off the bench to sit on the ground as Sasuke walked away.

Sasuke stared up at the building drenched with blood before him. He was sure this was the one he had caught a glimpse of her in earlier. Although, there had been no blood then. He silently entered the building and found graffiti on the walls claiming the monster was on the sixth floor. He could only assume it referred to Sakura. He read all the little notes on the wall, most written in blood. They seemed to be pointers towards her weaknesses. He guessed they tried to kill her often, and failed. So whomever got out before she could kill them wrote things down for the next. It left him cold inside and out to see this.

He slowly made his way down the hall of doors on the sixth floor, stopping once he reached the only closed door. He opened it hesitantly, and was surprised to see the bright room behind the door, and not just Sakura sitting on the couch. He recognized the other three women from the acadamy days sitting around her.

Sakura smirked as Ino, Tenten and Hinata sat around her in the living room as they finished cleaning the blood from the walls. They were the only ones in the village that didn't hate her, and they even lived in the apartment with her. None of them was as dangerous as she was, but they were shunned too.

"I think I know how we can get out ladies." Sakura said smoothly leaning back into the cushions and crossing her legs. "We can use the Uchiha. We just need to lure him in."

She heard the the door swing open and looked up with mild surprise. The other girls turned to see who had come and shrieked.

"You don't need to lure me anywhere. I'm getting you out of here." He stated calmly, trying to control his anger as he saw how scrawny all the girls were. The cursed mark was spread out over Sakura's skin, covering most of her body and face, but he could still make out how her rib cage popped out.

She stood up from the couch and prowled her way over to him until she was an inch from his face, "Really? I've heard that a few times already today. Or something along those lines. So how do you plan to try and kill me? Rip my heart out? Poison me? Rip me limb from limb?" She never let her gaze leave his as her words became angry and the cursed mark began to glow green.

Sasuke kept his face even as she started to lose her temper. "I don't." He said simply, watching confusion replace her anger in a flash.

"You don't what?" She hissed, backing away from him slightly.

"Plan to kill you. I may go beat the dobe within an inch of his life, after he gets over the shock I left him in." His eyes stayed on hers and he took an authoritative step foreword, getting close enough to grab her arms.

Fire shot through her body when he touched her and she-

"Naruto UZUMAKI! This dribble has gone on long enough!" The teacher roared, cutting of the seventeen year old boy that was standing in front of the class. "This is Literature class! Your assignment was to write a short story WITHOUT murder and mayhem! And without casting the Science teacher as a pedophile rapist!"

The blond boy smiled sheepishly, "I know Anko-sama. But that story was boring and this one was much more interesting! Look! everyone's paying attention!" He exclaimed pointing at the rest of his classmates, who were all leaning forward in their desks (except two, who were trying to shrink out of sight) waiting for him to continue.

Anko groaned and threw the chalkboard eraser at his head, hitting him right between the eyes. "You will bring the appropriate assignment tomorrow or so help me I will fail you back to second grade!" She sat back down in her chair and shooed him back to his seat between the only two students not enthralled by the story. She would have given him a detention, but she figured that the Uchiha boy and the Haruno girl would probably kill him before he could show up for it.

The final bell of the day rang and the usual stampede of students was taking place, and only three students were still sitting in their class room. Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto.

Anko walked out of the room with a smirk, "Don't leave a mess." She called out, leaving the three alone.

"NAAAARRRRRRRUTTTTOOOOOOOO!" Sakura shriek jumping out of her seat to try and strangle the blond sitting beside her. She could not believe he had made up such a story about her and her ex boyfriend, of all people.

Sasuke waited patiently for his turn with the dobe as he watched Sakura attempt to strangle him. He couldn't help but notice how beautiful she looked when she was angry. He had never told her so when they had been dating, because he wasn't one to voice his emotions. They had been together since they were fifteen, and had never done more then hold hands. She had broken up with him almost a month ago now, claiming she only wanted to be friends.

Sakura eventually gave up trying to get her hands on the blonde as he ran away from her, too emotionally exhausted to chase him anymore. She flashed a look of betrayal at him, making the blond wince, and let out a heavy sigh, collecting the books from her desk. "I can't believe you could be so cruel, Naruto." She whispered as she passed him on her way out of the room.

She had thought that her blond best male friend had understood how much she was hurting after having broken up with Sasuke after two years. Obviously she had been wrong to assume he understood her at all.

Naruto glared at the ground as he walked home, rubbing his bruised arm (Sasuke had punched him incredibly hard and then left without another word, shortly after Sakura.)

He hasn't thought they'd get that mad at him. He was kind of hoping the story would help them get back together, because they had both been extremely violent towards him and each other since they split up.

"I'll just have to try again tomorrow." He mumbled, stumbling up the walkway to his house.

Anko was hardly surprised the next day when she found Sasuke brooding across the room from Naruto, and Sakura absent. "Naruto, I want you to read the appropriate story now." She said sternly, as he made his way to the front of the class. "Yeah, yeah." He grumbled, pulling a crumpled paper out of his pocket.

He smoothed in out and tapped it to the blackboard, showing everyone that it was a printed photo of Sasuke and Sakura, though the face's were scribbled out.

"There once was a spoiled ass rich-" "LANGUAGE!" Anko shreiked, making the blonde boy sigh. "There once was a spoiled rich brat prince, and he fell in love with a poor maid girl that was as sweet as sugar. They dated in secret for two years, because he didn't want the world to know he was dating someone below him, so they never kissed or hugged. Ever."

Naruto could feel the glare Sasuke was shooting at him, but he ignored it. That bastard was going to realize what a mistake it was to let Sakura get away.

"And every day she told her best friend, who was a noble man, about her heart aches and her fears and insecurities. She told him how she wanted the prince to stop being ashamed of her and their love. One night, after two years of secrecy and lies, she told her best friend that she could bear no more, and she broke up with the prince."

Sasuke stood up from his chair, grinding his teeth together as he made his way to the door.

"But every day after she broke up with the prince, she told her best friend how her heart ached. And how she would sit at the pond hoping that maybe the prince would come to her and be willing to be with her publicly."

Sasuke froze as he reached for the door knob, and spun around to face his idiot of a friend. "What pond?" He asked coldly, having had enough of Naruto's constant insults.

"The one she almost drowned in when she was a child. Where she first met the prince." He answered, knowing that Sasuke was going after her. He felt a smile tug on his lips as the raven haired teen left the classroom, and decided to give his story a happy ending.

"And one day the bratty prince realized he couldn't live without her, so he ditched his title and they got married and made babies together. The end." He took down the picture he had taped up, whistling merrily, and gave Anko a big grin as he returned to his seat.

Sakura sat on the edge of the dock, watching ducks swim by, tossing them bits of her sandwich. She hadn't been able to walk into the class today. She had tried, but when she saw Sasuke turn into the hall way she had panicked and bolted. And she had come here. This was the only place she felt at peace now.

She looked down at her ipod as it played soft, sad music into her ears. She scrolled through a play list until she found her break-up song. The song that had given her the courage to say enough's enough to Sasuke.

She turned the volume up, to drown out the sounds of nature.

Sasuke drove around town, trying to remember where the pond was. He hadn't been there in ten years. Try as he might, he couldn't recall. This called for drastic measures.

He parked at the next gas station he saw and made his way inside. He, the great Uchiha, was going to buy a map. He found the little map book of the area and inwardly scowled as he picked it up. He couldn't believe he had to resort to buying a map. He made his way to the register, stopping to grab himself a coke, and a bottle of vitaminwater for Sakura. It might entice her to stick around to listen. As an after thought he grabbed a box of strawberry pocky as well. To guarantee she stayed.

He paid for the items and left the store, immediately opening the map book, looking for any and all ponds or lakes near his or Sakura's houses. He mentally crossed off the three had checked already.

Sakura was looking down at the pictures in her lap. She knew it was probably time to let go and heal, she couldn't keep all these reminders of Sasuke. It was too painful.

She held up the most recent picture of them and sighed. In the picture, she was starring at him with adoration in her eyes, and he was looking the other way out of boredom. It was taken on Valentines day. She ripped it in half, lined up the pieces, and tore it in half again. It felt good, she realized, to vent her anger on her copies of the pictures.

She picked up another one, from his last birthday, he was glaring at the lemon cake she had made for him. She knew he didn't like sweets, so the cake had been very tart, but he hadn't even been willing to try it. She ripped it into several pieces and tossed them into the pond, smiling when a duck swam over and prodded its beak at the piece with Sasuke's sour face on it. Even the ducks thought he was being mean.

She got half way through the pile before she paused. This picture was from their first 'date', they were holding hands on his couch, watching a horror movie. She studdied his face, noting the tiny smirk, and how his eyes were on her, instead of the screen. She gripped it tightly between her fingers and tried to tear it up, but she couldn't. It was the only picture she had that he had acknowledged her in, without a glare. She set it down beside her and continued her way through the stack.

Sasuke sighed as he crossed off the last pond in the area. He still hadn't found her. His phone rang loudly, causing him to jump. He flipped it open and was met by the voice of the dobe.

"Teme!"Naruto shouted, making Sasuke wince, "What dobe?" "Sakura's not at the place I thought she was! She's-"Sasuke swore and threw the map book on the passenger seat. "For fuck's sake dobe, you better know where she actually is, or I'm going to kill you!"

Naruto gulped on the other end and nodded, although he knew Sasuke couldn't see it, "I do teme! She's at the lake we went camping at last summer. The one with the old wooden dock she liked to sit on."

Sasuke shut his phone and pulled a quick U-turn. That lake was about half an hour away. He could make it in Ten minutes if he drove fast enough though.

Sakura glared at her phone, Naruto had just called to see if Sasuke had found her yet. She told him that she was alone, and happy that he hadn't found her. But the crafty blonde coaxed her into telling him where she was, and he seemed rather upset that she had gone up to the lake and cabin alone. The idiot had forgotten that her favourite pond had been filled in with cement and was now a bar.

She only had a few pictures left, ones she couldn't bear to destroy. They were special. The few moments in time that had been captured that reminded her that Sasuke had feelings for her. It was easy to be mad when he was glaring at her, or ignoring her, but it was so hard to be mad when he smiled. Tearing up these pictures, to her, would be like kicking a puppy. She just couldn't do it.

She watched the sky, unable to look at the pictures anymore, as dark clouds rolled in. It looked like maybe there would be a thunder storm. She picked up the last couple of pictures that were whole and made her way to the cabin by the lake. She had already made up her mind to stay up here for a while. She had two boxes of memrobillia to get rid of, and it was easier to do up on the mountain.

She opened the door and kicked off her shoes, deciding a nice hot shower would help her relax.

Sasuke practically jumped out of the car when he finally got to the cabin. He headed straight for the dock, but he didn't like what he saw when he got there. He found about two dozen torn pieces of his face floating in the water. Ouch. She must be pissed this time. Even when they had broken up she hadn't done anything like this.

For the first time, he wondered if he had done the right thing, coming all this way to bother her when she obviously wanted to be alone. He turned around to leave as the rai started to fall, only to see Sakura standing in the front door of the cabin.

Sakura had nearly jumped out of her skin when she heard a car screech to a stop on the gravel outside of the cabin. She was so sure it was Naruto that she stormed outside, only to see Sasuke making his way to the dock. She stood, frozen in the door way until he turned around and made his way back towards the car. They locked gazes and he froze as well.