EDIT: wow, i didn't expect something i just wrote on a whim to be such a big hit... thanks for all the favs, guys!
now you may ask, but eightdimensions, shouldn't you be focusing on your main fanfics instead of writing meaningless one-shots? yes. thank you. indeed. i should be. but since when have i ever done anything i should be doing?
but anyway, how did this one-shot idea come to being? well, i thought: what if sakura wasn't the seemingly weak girl who pined over sasuke all the time? what if she was a badass motherfucker? what if sasuke was a gang leader and a criminal warlord and completely badass? what if shikamaru was lazy beyond the point of laziness and badass? what if everyone was just crazy and badass?
well, this is the result and i don't even know exactly what the hell it is, but enjoy
Debt.
That was the only word she knew was certain in life. That was the one word she lived by. Nothing else in life was true for her. All those sayings about happiness? Happiness is man's greatest aim in life. Happiness is in the heart, not in the circumstances. Happiness is just lying around the corner. Bullshit. That was she was taught as a child. And fuck, where did it get her? Nowhere but a seat by a dumpster in dark, dank alleyway by the outskirts of Konoha. Nowhere but a life with no acquaintances, no family and no friends. Nowhere but a debt of millions, left to her by her dead father. Nowhere but a life of fighting, selling her life in battle tournaments, living off bets to pay the godforsaken debt that held her life together, trying to survive.
And yet she continued to live off the small shrivel of hope that maybe one day life could be better. If only life could slow to a halt and she could sink into a world of contentment. If only.
Haruno Sakura. Long rose hair tied in a messy ponytail, littered with dirt. Cuts and scraped over her face, arms, and legs. Clothes ripped and falling apart. The only thing left of her rotten family a jade necklace, hung carelessly around her neck but lost a week after her father died. Most likely stolen. Some life she lived.
It used to be the good life. Happy family, peaceful living and all that shit. One moment it was there. Another, it's all gone to the dogs. Literally.
That's what she originally thought… before she met him.
"And the next contender… Haruno Sakura-san! Please come up to the stage!"
"Hey, isn't she that girl with that million dollar debt?"
"What, do you live in a cave, or something? You're betting here and you don't know who Sakura is?"
"Er, I-I'm new here. So, who is she?"
"Well, I wouldn't fuck with her if I were you. She's tough. I heard she previously had no fighting experience, but somehow she battled her way up to the contender everyone betted on."
"Haruno-san offered to take on double theopponents tonight! Tonight's your night, ladies and gentlemen! Place your bets please!"
"God, those guys look scary. I don't think she can take them on."
"You're such a pussy. What are you freaking out about, you're not even up there! That girl will do anything for money. I'm telling ya."
"Haruno Sakura versus the black-suited gang of fighters under the leader of the prevailed Uchiha! Who will win this time?"
Sakura wiped a drop of blood from the corner of her mouth with the corner of her sleeve, still recovering from the last match with some other fighting muscleman, underestimating her because of her gender, as contenders usually did. A fatal mistake on their part. But nevertheless, he sure gave her a pretty bad beating. Not that it mattered. In all honesty, the rumors were true. She'd do anything for money. Anything to survive. The rose-haired contender spit out another mouthful of blood and stepped back into the circle of people waiting for the fight to start.
"You look pretty beat up, girly. You think you're ready for this?" A rather dark looking man sneered from his place by the rest of his trashy looking gang members. He cracked his knuckles menacingly, though the only purpose it seemed to serve was to annoy Sakura even further.
"Ready for a weakling like you? I'd like to ask you the same question, girly," She retaliated, standing rather pretentiously with her hands in her pockets. Another one of her fighting tactics. Taunting the opposition. Bulky, brainless musclemen tended to fight rather predictable once they lost their cool.
She could see the man's chest begin to heave from rage. "YOU COCKY LITTLE-!"
Sakura closed her eyes for a brief moment and then opened them again, the world suddenly slowing down from its breakneck speed. Every miniscule movement calculated through her blazing jade eyes. The man threw a right hook. But Sakura just smirked in reaction.
Let the game begin.
It was rumored that she entered battle tournaments with absolutely no previous fighting education. That much was true. But it wasn't reason to underestimate her. What she lacked in proper education, she made up for with experience, street tactics, and natural instinct.
Within seconds the match was over, just as it usually ended. Sakura almost completely untouched and the two contenders on the ground before her. Needless to say, it was almost terrifying to watch.
Sakura let out a laugh through the silent night air as everyone who surrounded her did nothing but stare in awe for the what was certainly not the first time that evening at her supernatural techniques. She sneered at her unconscious competitors through the unprecedented droplets of rain that began to fall, "Who's girly now, huh, princess? That was fast."
After shaking some of the dirt off her dilapidated clothes and brushing the damp hair out of her face, Sakura spun on her heel and turned to grab the large bag of winnings from the stool at the edge of the circle. But out of the corner of her eye she caught the sight of a sudden flash of red. The rose-haired orphan did a double-take, blinking her eyes and slowing the world once again. She looked back at the bright red only to see the color melt away to a eerie raven black. Her subconscious mind dismissed the sudden change in coloration as only a trick of the eyes but then she recalled the odd characteristic of the lone survivor of the once powerful and noble family of Uchiha, the family whose business had collapsed just years ago. It was the first time Sakura ever caught his eyes. He was reputed to be the leader of the most feared gang in the outskirts of Konoha. A lone wolf. Ruthless. An enigma with blood-tinted eyes.
Uchiha Sasuke.
Everyone else in the vicinity turned into a greyish blur in Sakura's eyes as she stared at the man in the distance. He couldn't have been two years older than herself. But despite being a famous criminal, feared by all those whose ears had caught his name, his outward appearance bore only the signs of an ordinary rugged boy. He wore a black blazer, dress shirt, tie, slacks, and black leather shoes, but every inch of his clothing was slightly torn and mussed with dirt. Only his raven eyes were clear and pristine, stained only with the color of blood.
She couldn't take her eyes off of his, which seemed to be absorbing her entire being.
But it seemed that she had been off guard for a split second too late. Suddenly, she felt a sting and then a gush of warmth over her left leg. Sakura was ripped out of her trance and painfully hurled back into the rush of reality to find a large and menacing man towering over her, shaking her by her shirt collar violently.
"You are one cocky little bitch, you know that? You think you can just get away with taking over all the bets around this place? WHOSE AUTHORITY DO YOU HAVE HUH?" The man did no less than yell at the top of his lungs, adding some spit through those words as well.
Sakura glanced down at her leg to find it stabbed brutally by a rusted knife. She mentally rolled her eyes and belatedly recalled the dangers of walking out of the crowd with all the winnings while completely off guard. Then she belatedly recalled the fact that this was the very man that attempted to jump her the week before. Only he didn't have a knife that time. Nor did he get close enough to stab her with it. Then again, last week he failed altogether.
But it didn't help that this week her left leg was now completely useless. It'd be hard to get out of this one.
Sakura wiped the drops of spit sprinkled across her face, mixing with the rainwater, and said through gritted teeth, "Mine." This would be her only chance. She pulled her fist back and swung it with all the energy she could muster after five consecutive fights and-!
Her arm faltered as she felt the knife get ripped out of her leg and in that moment of pain, was unable to avoid the subsequent slice across her right forearm. She felt the pouring rain augment the steady flow of blood and a sudden lapse in consciousness just in time to get a glimpse of a bloody knife raising into the air and echoing screams of horror.
But before the pang of death reached her, Sakura heard a loud bang and suddenly felt her body drop to the ground. As pained and exhausted she was, all instinct told her to snap open her eyes and jump to her feet. The image before her almost made her lose her breath, but that held back breath of air escaped in a gasp at the second bang of what was unmistakably the sound of a pistol.
The man was on the ground, blood oozing from his arm and chest, and standing above his fallen body was the man whose eyes caused the entire scene in the first place. Sakura stared into those bloody eyes for the second time that night, shock flowing into her usual expressionless countenance, but before she could open her mouth to say anything, the raven-eyed boy grabbed the hand of her unwounded arm and dragged her out of the crowd at a sprint. "Run, Sakura!"
Shoving all thoughts of pain to the back of her mind, she let herself be led through the slums of Konoha away from the threats and shouts behind her. The sky was darkening. The lights were flickering. The rain was pouring harder than ever, blurring her vision. There was only one thing clear in her sights. The image of the boy's strong back pulling her through the city and the warmth of his fingers caressing the skin over her hand as they ran. The only warmth through the cold droplets of rain.
"Quick! Down this alleyway!"
Sakura barely had anytime to react before Sasuke flung her down a darkened alleyway at a breakneck speed. They crashed into a heap of crates and the boy quickly dived over her, pressing her into the ground with his chest to avoid being seen by their pursuers. After the yells echoed by and into the distance, the boy's tense shoulders loosened as he panted into Sakura's neck, "They're gone."
"Yeah," Sakura whispered back, blinking through the rain. She lay there for several moments before belatedly realizing that a complete stranger was sprawled on top of her. She immediately shoved him off indignantly and jumped to her feet, "What the hell was that for?"
The raven-haired boy stood up and leaned back to sit on a nearby crate without even so much as a stumble or a look of shock at Sakura's violent shove. "Would you rather have had me just stand there while the man stabbed you to death? Be my guest." He pulled out a box of cigarettes from the inside pocket of his black jacket and flipped out a lighter to light a smoke. In the brief moment of light from the flame, Sakura caught a closer image of Sasuke's face, a handsome face, despite the rain-soaked hair plastered to his skin, which in fact only served to augment the boy's alluring features.
Sakura scoffed and shook her head annoyed, looking away from the attractive boy, "I didn't ask for your help. I could've-"
"Taken them on yourself?" The raven looked up at her and said through a faint cloud of smoke, "I imagine you could've. Let's see then." And before Sakura could say anymore, within the time frame of almost a split second, the boy ripped out his pistol from his back pocket and shot it into the air. "There. They'll be here any minute now. If you really want to take them on, then go ahead. I'll just sit here. They'll have no intention of attacking me, really."
"You asshole of a-!" Sakura began furiously, but immediately fell short, suddenly reminded of her injuries by the slow pulsing throb from her arm and leg.
Sasuke took another whiff of his cigarette and then jumped off the crate, "Yeah, that's what I thought. Let's go."
"Go where?" Sakura said exasperatedly, half-laughing to herself at the idea of running anywhere, "You think they won't be back with guns themselves? Trust me, I've been on the streets long enough to know better. Where do you think we even could go, huh?"
Sasuke took a step closer to her, "Down."
"What?"
And before she could say anything else cynical, Sasuke flicked his half-smoked cigarette at Sakura's face and, taking advantage of her sudden lapse in thought, grabbed her around the legs and flung her over his shoulder.
"Hey-HEY!" Sakura yelled, annoyed at her abrupt change in gravity. And with good reason. She hit him incessantly on the back in protest, "What the hell do you think you're doing, you insufferable little-!"
"So, you really think you could take on a bunch of guys twice your size with a useless arm and leg? You really must be superhuman then," Sasuke called over his shoulder with a mocking chuckle, though it sounded more sinister than friendly. He let go of her legs momentarily to let her slide slightly farther down his back, as if to taunt her intermittent threats, "You better shut that mouth of yours, princess. The longer it takes for me to get underground, the longer your blood stains my suit."
"Your suit's a piece of shit anyway!" Sakura yelled angrily before pausing in realization, "Wait, we're going underground?"
Sasuke let out a short breath of air in amusement, "You think I'd be the leader of the most notorious gang in Konoha and not have headquarters? You gotta be shitting me." He walked a short ways down the alleyway they were in and stopped before a rundown, but somehow still stable, door. After searching his pockets for a moment, he cursed - but somehow still with that expressionless tone in his voice. "Fuck, I must've dropped my keys while we were on the run. Guess I'll just have Chouji fix it later."
And before Sakura could even so much as let out a word of burlesque for the criminal warlord's carelessness, Sasuke swung his leg back and completely wrecked the door with a mind-blowingly hard kick. Sakura actually let out a yell in shock, "WHAT THE-You are fucked up you know that? What the hell are you-"
Sasuke nudged the now obliterated door open with his shoe and nonchalantly piled about half a dozen crates in front of the entrance. "I'm opening the door. Does it matter to you how I do it?" He heaved her higher up on his shoulder and continued down the pitch black staircase before them.
After a few minutes of silence in the dark, Sakura squirmed in his arms and pushed herself up on his back with her uninjured arm, "Hey, you can let me down, you know? Hey!"
"Yeah, sure I can," Sasuke said sarcastically, smacking her bloody leg with his free hand, "Let's see you walk with this leg. It'd take us ages to get down to the entrance."
"Fuck-ow!" Sakura shouted, half from pain, half from annoyance, "What the hell are you-?"
"Stop moving around. All you're doing is splattering more of your blood across my shirt. If I can't find a square inch of my shirt that's still white, you're paying for it," Sasuke's voice echoed through the dark concrete hallway.
Sakura was about to bring up the fact that him hitting her leg would only riddle more blood across his shirt, but decidedly fell silent instead.
Another few minutes of quiescent darkness later, Sakura's eyes caught her shadow from the dim light on the staircase and raised her head from being propped on her elbow on his back to glance over the boy's shoulder. They had reached a steel door almost twice their height, lit by only a small lamp on the ceiling. Sasuke walked briskly to the impenetrable-looking entrance and knocked on the door in five different places. Almost immediately a voice could be heard from the other side of the door, "Code?"
"It's obviously me, Kiba," Sasuke said irritably, shifting Sakura on his shoulder again, "Open the fucking door. I'm tired."
"Alright, alright!" The voice replied quickly, and after a series of elaborate sounding locks clicked open, the door swung wide to reveal an exasperated boy - most likely no younger than Sasuke himself - with blood red tattoos down both cheeks. "Hey, last time I thought it was obviously you, you got pissed off at me for not asking for identification-" His annoyed face turned into a look of shock as his eyes scanned over his leader, landing particularly on his blood-stained shirt and the strange girl over his shoulder. Kiba covered his mouth aghast, "Oh my God, Sasuke is that-"
"It's not my blood," Sasuke replied succinctly, brushing past the awestruck boy and into the guarded room. Frankly, it didn't seem like the headquarters of a criminal warlord and, honestly, Sakura was beginning to suspect the rundown place was only in name, or not even headquarters at all. It looked like the room was directly under the concrete building above from the looks of the structural columns and dimmed light. There were broken chairs, worn couches, various handguns and pistols, and insouciant gang members scattered across the wide and open space.
Another boy, who was sitting backwards on a chair, looked curiously over at the pair, "Man, you leave with two guys and come back with one. And not even the same gender. Why are you holding a-"
"Girl? Because she beat up my guys at the match, so I brought her back," Sasuke walked over to a nearby couch and flung Sakura unceremoniously down. He leaned over her to scrutinize her wounds and then looked up at the boy on the chair again, "Hey, Shikamaru. Where are the spare bandages?"
The boy flipped over on his chair and leaned back on the back two legs, "I think they're in the boxes over there in the corner? Hell if I know."
Sasuke rolled his eyes and got up from beside Sakura to walk over to the boxes himself, "Lazy bastard. I thought you washed them last night."
"Hey, it's troublesome, alright? I just threw them wherever to dry out," Shikamaru called out nonchalantly from his place unmoving on his chair.
Sasuke rummaged through the various boxes and emerged with a handful of bandages. He walked back over to the rose-haired stray, grabbing a stool along the way, and sat down beside her. He spent a moment of silence untangling the bandages before looking up at her and gesturing towards her leg, "Take off your pants."
Sakura looked at him with narrowed eyes, "What?"
"Your wound is on your upper thigh. I can't get to it if you have your pants on," Sasuke merely replied pragmatically.
Upon thinking quickly about the situation she was in, Sakura grudgingly reached down to her belt but stopped abruptly when her eyes caught the silhouette of a rather pudgy boy, leaning over the couch to get a good look at the new walk-in. She ripped her hands from her waist and glared at the raven-haired boy, "Oh, like hell I'll strip in front of you gu-"
Sasuke looked at her for a moment and then shrugged, "Suit yourself." And before Sakura could even so much as mention a protest, there was a loud rip, echoing wolf whistles, and half of Sakura's pant leg came clean off. "Told you to take off your pants."
"HEY!" Came Sakura's belated protest, as loud as ever, "You can't just go around kidnapping people and tearing apart their pants!"
Sasuke shrugged again and pushed up the other half of her pant leg to begin bandaging the bloody wound, "I'll get you new pants. It's not like I don't have the money."
Sakura reluctantly ceased squirming and acquiesced to the boy's gentle hands. She look around and snorted, "Sure looks like you don't."
"We have better things to spend money on than lavishly decorating this room," Sasuke replied, not looking up from his work, "I don't hear my boys complaining."
"Well, it would be nice if we could get a bigger refrigerator for more food," The pudgy boy began from behind the couch, "I mean, at least I think we could spare some money for some more chips-"
"Go fix the door outside the entrance, Chouji. I wrecked it," Sasuke interjected, throwing Chouji a look and nodding towards the door.
"Again?"
"Just go, will ya?"
"Hey, hey, no need to get all protective over the girl, Sasuke. We all know she's yours," Shikamaru remarked laughing from place still on the wooden chair. Chuckles rippled across the room.
"Wait, what? How am I yours?" Sakura sat straight up on the couch and looked at Sasuke indignantly, but was abruptly taken aback by Sasuke's sinister smirk - it was the first mark of any sign of happiness on the gang leader's face, but somehow it showed no happiness at all. Sakura felt shivers run down her spine. "Y-you… This is bullshit! You're creeping me out!" She began, outwardly shaken by the look on his face as she squirmed out of Sasuke's hands to push herself off the couch.
But before she could even swing her legs onto the floor, Sasuke stood up from his stool and sat right on top of her, straddling her waist, again with the eerie grin plastered on his mouth. "What, you think we're done here? Your arm's still bleeding profusely. Better sit still and let me handle that."
Sakura merely glared at him and thrust her bleeding arm away from Sasuke's hands. "Bullshit to your handling! I'm out of here!" And with a shove and another menacing glare, she jumped off the couch and stormed off.
Finally, in an unimaginable feat of energy, Shikamaru got up from his chair - in which he had been sitting in for the past seven hours - and meandered to his leader, who was lying on the ground on his back, his arms in an awkward position and his right leg still hanging from the edge of the couch from the rose-haired orphan's violent shove. "Well, she sure got you, boss," Shikamaru commented, flinging himself now onto the couch instead of his previous wooden chair, "You brought back a feisty one."
Sasuke brushed a strand of hair from his face, not even bothering to sit up, "You have no idea."
Sakura emerged from the endless stairs and broken down door to a battered rooftop and incessant rain, still falling from an hour ago. Since the door she escaped from was the only unlocked entrance and the passage was only one-way, the rooftop was seemingly the only location she could end up at.
She walked into the rain and looked up at the smog-filled sky. The rain wasn't even clear from all the pollution in the air. She tsk-ed to herself and then leaned down to rip a strip of cloth from the pants leg that was still intact, straightening back up to bandage the cut on her arm herself. She glanced back down at the blood imbrued pants leg that that insufferable gang leader had ripped unceremoniously and scoffed to herself.
"What was up with that guy? What an idiot," She muttered to the ground. Sakura then paused in all her thoughts, realizing something off about this day. People never usually left any impression on her. Everything used to be just in the moment to her. Fight. Forget. But somehow this Uchiha Sasuke was imbedded in her mind. It was actually the most she had ever interacted with anyone for almost ten years. Every touch and every word. It filled her every being.
She laughed into the rainy late afternoon air at the ridiculousness of the whole thing. What the hell was she doing. But as she lowered her eyes back to the earth, something caught her sights. She squinted at the scenery around her and ran to the edge of the rooftop, scanning the entire city from her vantage point. Was this really the highest point in the city? This rundown building? Through all the rain and smog, it was almost… beautiful-
"Are you going to jump?"
At these words, Sakura abruptly spun around in surprise, only to find that insufferable gang leader leaning against the door, watching her nonchalantly through the pouring rain. Upon realizing who it was, Sakura merely turned back towards the city in an attempt to ignore the boy's presence.
"Uchiha Sasuke," The boy's voice echoed through the air again, now seemingly closer to her. How exactly he managed to get so close in such a short amount of time, she had no idea. "I don't believe I ever introduced myself."
"I know who you are, Uchiha," Sakura decided to reply, still facing away however. "Anyone would be able to recognize those notorious blood tinted eyes through a crowd. I singled you out the moment I saw you."
"As did I."
Sakura flinched as if the words physically touched her, even though they couldn't possibly have. They fell silent for several minutes, listening to the pattering of the rain before Sakura decided to voice out, "What do you want from me?"
"Nothing," Sasuke replied simply, "You could have left whenever you wanted. It's not like I prevented you from leaving through the front entrance. You're the one who ran up this way. Ask Shikamaru to open the door and he'll let you out."
At these words, Sakura hopped off the edge of the roof top and made briskly for the door. But as she passed him, Sasuke grabbed her arm and said in a low voice, "I wouldn't do that if I were you."
Sakura ripped her arm from his grasp and yelled nearly out of complete irritation, "First you say I can leave whenever I want and now you're preventing me from leaving? Get your fucking head straight, what do you want?"
Sasuke continued to stare off into the distance through the rain, "Go look down from the edge of the building."
After a few moments, Sakura grudgingly acquiesced and peered down over the edge at the streets surrounding the building. Her eyes narrowed at the sight of armed gunmen camped out at all entrances to the building. She took a step away from the edge and turned around to point an accusing finger at the Uchiha, "So, you are trapping me in this building, you bullshitting liar! What the fuck do you wa-"
"Debt collectors."
"What?"
"Debt collectors," Sasuke repeated, shoving his hands in his pockets and shaking a strand of wet hair out of his eyes, "Your reputation as a marathon fighting champion has reached the ears of the money-grabbing men who condemned your father. The only reason they're scared to enter this building for you is because I own it. But once you leave to run off as the money-less orphan you are, they'll be sure to force you to pay off that million dollar debt, or kill you for not."
Sakura looked at the raven-eyed boy with scrutinizing eyes, "Wait, how do you know about my father-"
"I'll pay off your debt."
"What?" Sakura said for the second time within two minutes.
"Stay here," Sasuke said, finally taking his eyes away from the city scene to look into Sakura's own jade ones, "Stay here and I'll pay off your debt. You'll be free of the debt collectors."
"I-w-what…?" Sakura could only stammer out, at a complete loss for words, and for good reason too. After an awkward silence, she let out a hysterical laugh into the air and turned to walk past the criminal towards the door, "Pay off my debt? Who do you think you are? You got to be kidding me by saying that. What, do you think you own me or something?"
But as she brushed past him, Sasuke thrust out an object from his pocket, and only the familiar flash of mesmerizing green made her stop in her tracks. She spun around on her heel to face a ten-year too late friend. And for the second time that night, she was speechless. "My… jade?"
Sasuke turned to face her with the necklace in his hands and a sly smile on his previously emotionless face. He slipped the necklace around her neck and an arm around her waist, his free hand reached up to cup her chin, tipping it up closer to his own face. And before she knew it, he pressed his lips against hers. Soft, gentle, sending a jolt of heat through her body.
"You're mistaken, Haruno Sakura," He whispered against her lips, "You do belong to me."
"You're Sasuke's best friend right?" Sakura asked in a mumble, turning her head from her place lying on the concrete to look at Shikamaru, who had been and was still lying on the exact same couch from the night before, as well as the past three hours of the day.
"Simply put, I guess," He replied, no different from Sakura's own lazy mumble, "It'd be too troublesome to describe to you our more complex relationship. So, yes. Sasuke is my apparent best friend, sure."
"So," Sakura began, scooting closer to Shikamaru's couch on her back. Whether or not the clothes she wore were getting worn apart from her poor treatment of them, she did not care. It wasn't like she bought them herself anyway. Sasuke was out with Kiba and the rest of his gang doing god knows what, while Sakura and Shikamaru stayed behind, the former being seemingly put under house arrest and the latter… well, the latter being to lazy to move an inch from his spot. Sakura actually had no idea why she still bothered staying in the godforsaken building, seeing as her entire million dollar debt was already paid off. Maybe it was just the mystery of Sasuke's enigmatic relationship with her that she knew nothing of. "You would know about why he has my jade in the first place then?"
Not bothering to turn his head completely, Shikamaru merely glanced at her from the corner of his eye. Because of the odd angle he had been lying in and the distance Sakura was away from him from the top of the couch to the floor, he failed utterly and was unable to see her at all. He decided to close his eyes instead. "From what I've heard, he's had that necklace since the beginning of time and the creation of the cosmos. I have no idea otherwise."
"Liar."
"Oh, I've been exposed?"
"…Idiot."
Shikamaru heaved a huge sigh and gesticulated with a lazy hand in a general direction somewhere to Sakura's right. In all honesty, it was troublesome to move any more than that. "You see that drawer over there in the corner? Sasuke's wallet is in there. You might want to take a look at that."
Sakura glanced over in the direction Shikamaru was pointing at the far corner and said flatly, "There's nothing there."
"Oh. Other corner then," Shikamaru corrected himself unabashedly, waving his arm in a careless circle instead, as if attempting to cover all grounds - undoubtedly because he in fact had no idea where Sasuke's wallet actually was.
After searching through various drawers around the room, Sakura walked back to the couch on which Shikamaru was still lying sprawled over and collapsed beside it. She opened the wallet and peered at the image before her. "This is…"
It was a picture of her and her deceased father. A scene almost completely unfamiliar to her. Her father was smiling, happy as though the weight of millions was never pressing down on his shoulders, and herself grinning equally broadly, as if her innocence and childhood had never left her. And in the picture it never had. She looked no more than perhaps five.
But what was more shocking was the two males beside her and her father in the picture. One was tall, brooding and almost the adult image of a recently familiar figure. The figure in question was then shrunk to become the other male in the picture. The blood tinted eyes recognizable to the point that the truth was almost splayed out for her to see. Only, at that moment, she had no desire to see it.
"What you see is what you get," Shikamaru said simply, "It's exactly what you think it is."
Sakura's eyes then trailed down to the necklace hung around the familiar little boy's neck. "This isn't right. This picture has to be fake," The rose-haired orphan whispered in disbelief, "That jade necklace belonged to my family for generations. It was passed down to me. Until I lost it. But why does Sasuke-"
"Do you know for a fact that it belonged to your family for generations?" Shikamaru interjected pointedly, finally turning his head to look at the girl, "Have you seen for yourself that anyone but yourself had worn that necklace?"
Sakura didn't answer. She could only feel her heartbeat racing. Racing until she thought it would rip out of her chest. None of this made any sense. She had too many questions. Too many questions that could only be answered by one enigmatic person. And before she knew it, Sakura shoved the wallet into her pants pocket and dashed out the door.
"Hey, I hope you brought a key with you. Don't expect me to do anything troublesome like walking up the stairs to open the door for you," Shikamaru called to her retreating back, answered only by the slamming of the slamming of the solid metal door behind her. He slid interlaced fingers behind his head and laid back, sinking into the worn couch. "Well, your loss."
The rain continued to pour, showering the city slums with polluted water once again as Sakura sprinted through the streets, the wallet bouncing in her pocket with every hurried step and the jade necklace hung around her neck and clutched in her hand. She had no set direction. No specific time. No answers. Just one target. And she had no idea where he was.
But at that moment it didn't matter. All she knew was that she needed to find him. Somehow the entire meaning of her life, her miserable and pathetic life, revolved around the answers she wanted from this one man.
As she rounded a corner and caught the silhouette of three men and a small dog, Sakura raised an arm to called out the raven's name, but suddenly felt a pull on her collar and a lurch to her right as she was flung full-bodied through a door into the nearby building. She didn't even have enough time, nor breath, to let out a yelp as she hit the concrete, tumbling several meters across the cold floor before skidding to a stop.
Although her bones ached from the impact and her back was without a doubt bruised to a myriad of colors, reflexes told her to jump up and maintain a fighting stance. Her instincts held true because at that moment, her sharp eyes caught the silhouettes of half a dozen bulky men rounding on her from all sides. It was the debt collectors she had become so familiar with the later years of her life. And they finally had her cornered.
Careless. How could she be so careless?
Despite the fact that her heart was beating well over a hundred beats per minute and adrenaline was surging through her body, Sakura plastered a smirk on her face and shoved her hands in her pockets. "Why hello there, boys. Been a while since I encountered you lot last. What can I do for you?"
The only man in the group sporting a full Armani suit took a step forward, simultaneously running a hand over his slicked back hair. "Haruno Sakura. Caught at last," He said loudly, giving meaningful glances to the men around him. Derisive chuckles rippled through the isolated concrete room. "How has your father been, Sakura-chan ?" More contumelious sneers.
Sakura clenched her fists in her pants pockets, almost unable to control her steadily increasing breathing from anger. "Pretty fucking well," She managed to get out in a steady voice, adding her own mocking tone to the words, "How about you? Got the money I sent you?"
The man rubbed his chin with his thumb and forefinger, looking mock thoughtful. "Money you sent me? I seem to recall getting the payment from a certain Uchiha Sasuke. Now how's that, hmm, Sakura-chan?"
Sakura tensed at his words. She had figured as much. No matter how much money the city's biggest criminal warlord sent to this despicable man, or how many good words were put in for it, he wasn't going to take it. He was never going to accept the fact that she was finally free. Ten years of running away and he had finally caught her as a free woman. But it meant nothing to him.
"You know you've always been my favorite," The man continued as he reached into his pocket to take out a large cigar, lighting it in a grotesquely dark puff of smoke, "Haruno Sakura. The only girl who has managed to escape my grasp time and time again. At such a young age too. But now I finally have you cornered with no way out and what do I find?" He took another whiff of his cigar and looked at her through the nearly opaque cloud of smoke, intensely murderous eyes but a sneering smile still on his lips. "The law is against me! Papers say you've paid off your debt. No, not you. Uchiha Sasuke. The notorious gang leader. Now how's that, Sakura-chan?" He asked yet again. "Finally gave your body up to the most famous criminal leader in the slums? Seduced the money out of him?"
Sakura let out a short laugh, half out of genuine amusement and half to use the seemingly innocuous action to bring herself to the balls of her feet. The men around her were tense for a fight. She could feel it. " Guess that wasn't exactly the happiest day of your fucking life, was it?" She looked disdainfully up at the man, shrugging her shoulders in mock pity. "Poor little debt collector. Crying alone in his room 'cause he couldn't have me for himself. I'm free, you bastard. Now how does that feel?"
"Well." The man dropped his half-smoked cigar, crushing it under his black shined loafers. "You see Sakura-chan, you're not free. Not by my standards. You know me well enough, don't you? I only accept money from the debtor that owes me. From all I know, the notorious Uchiha Sasuke just sent me a million dollar donation. Awful generous of him, don't you think?"
Sakura could feel the heat rising in her body at each of the man's odious words, feel blood dripping into the pockets of her pants as her nails dug deeper into her clenched fists.
"You hate him for it, don't you? That pitiful father of yours. Poor Sakura-chan. Imprisoned in this endless cycle of debt for all eternity. And all because of your pathetic father. Abandoning the richest family business in the city to gamble his life away, grieving the death of his precious wife," The man let out a barking laugh, stepping closer to Sakura as he wallowed in all his glory, "And now let's see how the dead man fares in the death of his only daughter. Any last words for that detestable little man? Or would you like me to put you out of your misery and take your hate to the grave?"
At this, Sakura finally tore her eyes from his hateful face to glare at the ground, her breath now coming in heaves of rage. "Yeah," She said in a low voice, "I do have some last words… Haven't you had enough, you fucker?" And with that, she blinked once more, slowing the world to a languid blur as she leapt forward and flung the man's suit jacket open to grab his pistol. She then took a step back and emptied the gun into the man's chest, yelling in rage.
But in all her clouded emotions, she was barely able to sense the men around her closing in on her until they grabbed her by the arms and pulled her back, releasing her grip on the gun. The suited man slowly pushed himself off the ground, wiping a trickle of blood from his mouth, and ripped open his shirt only to reveal a Kevlar bullet-proof vest. "Good, Sakura-chan," He said with a laugh, "Wonderful fit of anger. It suits you-"
"Don't call me that!" Sakura shrieked, tears of anger now streaming down her face. She swung her leg around as a last effort to attack the man, but he intercepted the kick easily, catching the leg as he leaned in close to the rose-haired orphan.
"What?" The man sneered, pressing his thumb into the barely healed knife wound Sakura had from just days ago hard enough to puncture the thin covering of new skin. A red crimson blossomed over her pants, but Sakura bit her lip to keep from giving the man the pleasure of hearing her pain. "Is that what your father called you?"
Sakura could only yell curses at him in reply.
"Sakura-chan," The man finished one last time before picking up the pistol dropped on the ground and pointing it between her eyes. Sakura squeezed her eyes shut as she heard the click of the gun before her. There was a loud bang and blood splattered across her face.
But she felt no pain.
She heard two more bangs as she snapped open her eyes, seeing the scene before her through the blood as if it were red-tinted glass. Suddenly, beside her, the two men's grip on her arms slackened as they fell to the floor. She turned to see crimson stained bullet holes through their foreheads, as well as in the suited man's before her.
As Sakura's legs gave out in shock and she collapsed to the floor herself, she looked up to see the raven-haired boy she was searching for minutes before walking through the building doors, two handguns in his hands, flashing as they fired shot after shot into each of the other men. Somehow for her disorientated mind, the scene moved so fast that her eyes couldn't even follow each specific action, much less comprehend what was actually going on.
Sakura reached an arm up to wipe the blood out of her eyes and blinked once more to clear her sight, but instead of the world slowing from its breakneck speeds as usual, all she saw before her was blood-tinted raven eyes. She blinked again. Had she passed out? The gun fight was already over.
"Sakura," Sasuke said in a low voice, leaning over her with a concerned look on his usually expressionless face.
Sakura was surprised to see that she wasn't surrounded by bodies anymore, but was propped up against a nearby wall in the concrete room, well away from the fallen corpses before her. "I…" She stammered out. She looked down at the boy before her to see a steadily larger crimson stain on his shirt by his abdomen. "Sasuke, you were-"
"Shot, yeah," Sasuke interjected, leaning back with - what could only be interpreted as - relief the moment Sakura spoke, "It was a lucky shot. I got a bit careless. But it's nothing I haven't dealt with before."
Sakura touched the bullet wound gently, wincing at the way the blood immediately dripped down her fingers from the soaked shirt. "I…" She began.
"Owe me another shirt, yeah," Sasuke finished again, fingering his own white shirt, "I'm definitely not going to find even a centimeter of white on this thing after this kind of wound."
"Stop finishing my sentences!" Sakura smacked the boy across the head exasperatedly.
Sasuke shook out the hair that got flung into his face from the impact and sat on the ground, leaning back on his arms for support. "Yeah, that's a real nice way of paying me back. Don't mention it, by the way. Let's see how you fare next time I'm not here." He paused for a moment before looking up at her in bemusement. "Why were you out of the building in the first place?"
Abruptly remembering the initial reason she had run out to search for the raven-haired criminal, Sakura hastily grabbed the wallet in her pocket and shoved it in Sasuke's face.
"Why do you have my wallet-"
"Why is there a picture of us inside this?" Sakura cut in firmly. The tough-skinned criminal seemed to be perfectly fine from his bullet wound, so it was primetime to get to the point. Blood and bandaging could come later.
Sasuke merely looked at the rose-haired orphan, not bothering to open the wallet for the image within. "It's exactly why you think it is," He said simply, nodding at the wallet as if urging her to look at it herself. "The picture is there because it was taken."
"Then why," Sakura began as she flipped open to the picture, starting to get annoyed at his usual enigmatic answers, "Why is it a photo of you wearing my jade? This necklace has been in my family for years. How could you even get a hold of it? Then and now?"
Sasuke merely looked at Sakura for several moments before sitting up completely, completely disregarding the pain he was probably causing himself from the constant movement of his abdomen. He took the wallet from her hand and looked at the old photo with almost gentle eyes, "Because that necklace used to belong to me."
"What?"
"I can only imagine Shikamaru was the one who showed you the picture in this wallet. And he probably posed the same question onto you: have you seen personally anyone other than yourself wearing this jade necklace?" Sasuke asked pointedly, fingering the jade around Sakura's neck.
"I…" Sakura began, thinking back to old unwanted memories for the answer to his question.
"Never have. That's what I thought," Sasuke finished, as usual, "This picture…" He handed the wallet back to the rose-haired orphan and leaned back on his arms. "was taken on the day I gave you that necklace. The last day I ever saw you before your mother died, your father went insane with grief, and you got thrown onto the streets. Your father owned the richest corporation in the city. It's only natural that he would befriend my own father, being fellow corporate executives." He paused for a moment as he glanced at the jade necklace. "I found that necklace in an alleyway in the slums two years after the company went bankrupt. I heard you were dead."
Sakura swallowed nervously, letting out a slow breath of air she didn't realize she was holding in.
"So," Sasuke continued, looking now into Sakura's jade green eyes instead of the necklace, "Imagine my surprise when I find you ten years after I turned to the black market instead of following my father's own broken business. Imagine my surprise when I find you standing amidst a crowd of rugged fighters, betting your life away. The walking dead girl whom I thought abandoned her promise with this tossed necklace."
At this, Sakura's heart skipped a beat in confusion. "Promise?"
Sasuke hooked a finger under the chain of the necklace and pulled the rose-haired girl closer until her face was mere centimeters away from his. "Don't tell me you forgot already, Haruno Sakura." He smirked, the mischievous glint in his eyes a mere breadth away from hers. "The day I gave you this necklace, you told me you'd give yourself to me."
And before Sakura could let out a word of protest, the raven-haired boy pressed his lips against hers for the second time, pushing her back gently until her back hit the wall, the soft impact letting whatever air she still had left in her lungs escape with a gasp, leaving her breathless. Somehow, the kiss was different from the first time he had laid his lips on her in the rain. As Sasuke entwined his fingers in hers, placing her hands in his against the wall behind her and deepening the kiss even more, Sakura felt no disgust, no shock, nor irritation. The only emotion that emerged, sending a jolt of heat through her body, was-
"Wow, way to waste my time, Sasuke," A lazy voice suddenly said, "You send Kiba and Chouji running back to headquarters to drag me off the couch and rush here with an armful of bandages, and all you greet me with is a scene of you and Sakura making out, surrounded by corpses and covered in blood? How troublesome… not to mention disturbingly kinky."
Sasuke broke the kiss and rolled his eyes at the rest of his gang by the doorway, sniggering to themselves and shooting wolf-whistles at the two of them. He began releasing his grip on Sakura's hands as he called out, "You know, if you weren't my best friend, Shikamaru, I would seriously fucking-whoa!"
He let out an uncharacteristic yelp as Sakura flung her arms around his neck and leaned in to kiss him herself. Ignoring the now barking laughs from the rest of the gang, Sakura smirked against his lips as she reveled in the way the notorious criminal's heartbeat was racing as fast as her own and the way the boy sported another uncharacteristic look of shock on his usual expressionless face when she broke away.
But moments later, Sasuke's face sank back into his typical insouciant countenance. "I take it you're not going to give this back then?" He fingered the jade around her neck.
"I think you'll get it back either way," Sakura shrugged, showing the first genuine smile on her face in over ten years. She looked away from his onyx eyes to the rest of his gang, who were grinning broadly down at the two of them. Then her eyes trailed to the bloodied corpses on the floor of the building, the debt collectors who would ruin her life no more. Then to the rain-filled sky, slowly clearing up to show a golden sun. She blinked one last time, the world slowing to almost a halt as a steady stream of sunlight broke through the window to reflect her own jade eyes. Yet for the first time in her life, she didn't need the world to slow down. She was right where she wanted.
"I belong to you remember? Consider my debt repaid," Sakura said, smiling as she looked deep into the raven eyes before her.
"I wouldn't be so sure of that." Sasuke mused, gesturing down at the crimson over his chest, "You still owe me a shirt."
Sakura just laughed.
totally not my usual style as you can clearly see. but i'm trying something new (as usual), just for the hell of it (as usual), and on a whim (also as usual). i've always wanted to write all the naruto characters as badass mafia gang members. oh wait, i forgot naruto. huh, well that's okay, haha. he'll appear in another one-shot, trust me.
hopefully, the characters aren't too OOC. well, yeah, they kind of are OOC, but i'd like to think of it like they're still in character but just extra badass.
now for your final act of badass...ness. reviewing. please do?