Hey all!

Thanks for all the support on my other story, Always and Forever.

Well, I'm more of a NaruHina fan, but this SasuSaku is dedicated to my friend, Alison, for her Sweet Sixteen present.

I hope you like it girl :D

(She's the one who titled it... with help form our mutual friend, Jennifer :P)

Seeing as I'm not very experienced at writing SasuSaku, let me apologize beforehand if Sakura or Sasuke is OOC, but also remember that Sakura has been trapped in our world since her "birth," so she might just HAVE to be OOC. haha...hah...

Yeah, I'm not getting into psychology and stuff... That's crazy.

So yeah, Alison, I hope you like reading this as much as I've enjoyed writing it:D

Happy birthday!

--K

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­­The other girls said that she had gotten the good cell. It had a window.

Sakura hated it.

She curled up on her side, her back deliberately towards the cursed, barred, reinforced Plexiglas window.

Just outside the fenced-in Southern California Detention Center for Girls, lay a cool, grassy hill. It was too much for her to bear.

She hated this place the most out of all the places that she'd even been in – including all of her foster homes and that one foster house where the dad had beaten her.

She even hated her cell more than she had hated school. The learning part had come easily. Everything else hadn't.

Sakura had tried to bury her head in her books for her 18 years and fly unnoticed under the social radar, but the last year of high school – right before she was old enough to be free and run away – her light red hair didn't escape the school bully's sharp eye.

He had tormented her daily over it. He called her Pinky and told her that Sakura sounded like a whore's name. A Japanese whore's name.

Cherry blossoms, she'd always whisper to herself when he and his posse were gone. Sakura meanscherry blossoms.

She never knew whether she was telling him or trying to convince herself.

Alexander McGreyson. Even the teachers feared his name. All except one, but the principal didn't count, especially since Alex was his son.

In her own way, Sakura had feared Alex too. She had feared how much she had hated him. It had scared her that one day she might act out on her hate, and then she would show everybody that she wasn't just the big-foreheaded nerd that sat quietly in the back of the classroom. She would show them the power that she sometimes felt lurking inside of her.

She was scared at how excited she had felt unleashing that power on Alex.

In the hard, dark cell, Sakura curled up tighter on her bunk, desperate, desperate to block out the memories.

--x--

A month ago, Sakura was walking through the cafeteria at Aviary High School when a sudden foot snapped out and tried to catch her legs.

With the unexplainable and unnaturally quick reflexes that she had always possessed, she leapt over the leg before her mind could comprehend. From somewhere in the back of her mind, Sakura registered the fact that the foot wore scuffed green Nikes. Only one person she knew wore shoes like that.

She landed on the other side of his leg, lithely like a cat, and couldn't help the unconsciously smug smile that flitted across her lips.

Alex had seen it, she guessed, and had decided to make her pay.

His other foot caught her in the stomach.

She had been carrying an armful of textbooks, and as she fell she managed to dodge two of them, but as she hit the cement floor, she felt the last one – the heaviest – land on her ankle with a dull smack.

She cried out and instantly the lunchroom went silent. Everyone was frozen, watching her try to collect her textbooks and her dignity off the hard floor.

Suddenly a harsh guffaw echoed through the room. Alex tipped his head back and laughed again. Cruel and heartless.

Instantly the student body followed his example. Everywhere Sakura turned, her classmates, peers, people she didn't know, they were pointing, laughing, roaring at her embarrassment and shame.

It's just a little thing. Just walk away, part of her mind told her as she squashed the urge to cry and flee and scream all at the same time. Just go before he does anything else to you.

But she was sick of Alex. Sick of everything. Sick of everyone.

The room seemed to tilt and spin. The laughter got louder, the catcalls deafening.

Sakura felt her stomach and ankle throb in dull, aching pain, knowing fully well that her bruised body and dignity were all his fault.

The room tilted again, and she felt like she was sliding off of it. She nearly cried out, and she squeezed her eyes closed and prayed that the world would stop tilting.

Suddenly something inside of her dissolved. She felt a warm swirling in the pit of her stomach, and a soft rushing graced her ears.

And the laughing suddenly didn't seem as loud. She opened her eyes, slowly.

Everyone was still laughing, pointing, but it was somehow muted.

Alex still sat in front of her, laughing, his head thrown back.

His pale neck looked so vulnerable…

Before she could comprehend what her body was doing, Sakura calmly walked up to him and set her books on his lunch table.

Instantly, everything was quiet. Truly, deadly quiet.

Alex brought his head down and looked at her, eyebrow raised. His glare bored into her eyes, but she simply gazed back calmly.

"You should say you're sorry," Sakura said quietly. In the silence, it seemed to echo around the lunchroom.

Alex sneered. "Get lost Pinky."

His friends sniggered behind him.

Sakura's gaze didn't waver. "You might end up regretting not saying sorry."

"Is that a threat?" Alex's eyes narrowed and his glare hardened. "Hey Ruben–" he turned to his friend "– do I take threats from whores?"

Ruben cracked an ugly grin. He knew the punch line to this joke. "Yeah, but not Japanese whores."

Alex turned back to Sakura and stood up. There was an electric rustling from behind her. Everybody was still watching.

"I'm going to make you regret saying that," said Alex. He towered over her.

Sakura simply looked up at him. "We'll see."

Alex's temper snapped. He wasn't used to being treated like such an insignificant threat. He quickly stepped over the bench he had been sitting on and growled, "Ok, bitch, now you're gunna get it."

Sakura expected to feel fear grip her with icy claws, but she felt fine.

Actually, she felt better than fine. She felt excited.

Alex took a menacing step forward.

Knowing exactly what she was doing without really knowing, Sakura lowered her center of gravity and took a calculated step back. She brought her hands up and found herself going through the motions of putting on gloves – what the–?

She quickly let her hands drop. She had no time to think about it.

"Fight!" A sharp call cut through the silent lunchroom.

Suddenly there was a rush of bodies, rolling, tumbling, rushing in waves. They bore down on Sakura, chanting, growling, screaming. From somewhere in the back of her mind, Sakura noticed them creating a circle around her and Alex, fencing them both in.

She put them out of mind. It was only her and Alex that mattered.

He took another step forward, urged on by the crowd. His face distorted into a smile, possibly at the thought of caving her face in and showing her to never mess with him again.

Sakura dropped her right hand to her side and touched her jeans. Her fingers scrabbled for something – wait, what was she doing??

Alex charged her with a roar, fist raised, eyes narrowed.

Sakura side stepped him at the last moment and jumped away, landing lightly on her feet.

Alex whirled around and struck out with a heavy fist.

Sakura ducked and dropped into a crouch. She kicked out suddenly, sweeping his feet out from underneath him.

He dropped like a stone and crashed to the ground with a curse.

Sakura tried to back away automatically, but a lunch table touched her back and she knew that she was cornered.

She glanced behind her. Students stood atop the table, chanting and cheering like frenzied animals.

They roared in unison, and Sakura knew that Alex was up.

Her right hand leapt down to her side automatically. She snatched it back up. She knew that her shuriken pack wasn't there, so why – wait,shuriken??

She heard Alex thunder behind her, and Sakura snatched the first thing that she could lay her hands on.

A group of students had been playing cards, and she swiped a handful off the table.

Her fingers moved automatically, sliding a card in each gap between fingers. She whirled around and her wrist flicked automatically. She didn't even have to consciously aim.

Alex didn't know what she had thrown at him, but he dodged on instinct. He cried out, and when he turned back, blood trickled down from a shallow cut on his face.

He looked at Sakura with wide eyes, and then risked a look over his shoulder.

Ruben had held up a disposable paper plate to shield himself from the projectiles. He stared at the plate.

The playing cards had sunk more than halfway through the reinforced Dixie paper and still quivered from the impact.

Alex turned back to Sakura who was almost as surprised as he was. His eyes widened again, then narrowed.

"God – What the hell are you?!"

Sakura glanced at her hands, unsure of how to answer.

That was all the opening that Alex needed.

With a yell, Alex dived in to punch her. Sakura snapped back to reality and ducked with ease. His motions seemed painfully slow to her.

Sakura found herself concentrating something into her hand – a nameless, swirling strength. She punched Alex, and the instant she made contact, she felt herself automatically let all that energy go.

Alex flew back several feet and landed hard on his rear. His hands flew to his eye, and he yelped in pain.

Sakura frowned. Alex should have flown back much farther – wait, what was she thinking? She knocked him back a freaking yard, wasn't that enough?

Alex moaned. The crowd roared. Alex glanced around him. His peers, his friends. He would lose everything if he lost to this whore.

Sakura's knuckles throbbed from the contact. Deep in her thoughts, Sakura didn't notice her fingers coming together. Muscle memory clicked her fingers in place into a familiar position.

Tiger.

Sakura snapped back to reality. Her thoughts scattered. Her fingers were intertwined gracefully in some weird gesture. She quickly dropped her hands to her side. She wished that she could heal her bruised knuckles, but–

Alex cussed and shakily got to his feet. The audience cheered, edging him on. Some jeered.

In response, Alex growled, channeling his anger at the jeerers towards the bitch. Even if she beat him today – which she never would! – he would get her tomorrow, and the day after that, and the day after that…

Sakura looked up. Alex was standing. But not for long. It was time to finish this.

As if releasing a tightly coiled spring, Sakura leapt forward, closing the short gap between them. Her fist made contact with his forehead before he could cry out–

"What is the meaning of this?!"

Sakura froze. She leapt away from Alex. Red rusted her hand from the cut on his face.

Principal McGreyson stalked into the circled audience. The students slowly slinked away, hiding from his watchful eye.

His gaze fell on Alex. He frowned.

Alex couldn't meet his gaze. He glared at the floor.

McGreyson's eyes fell on Sakura. She couldn't help but tense.

He took in her light red hair. Green eyes. Flip flops and jeans. Blood on her hands. His son's blood.

His eyes narrowed.

He whirled around and barked over his shoulder, "Both of you. My office. Now!"

--x--

In her cell, Sakura fought off sleep. Her dreams, her nightmares, haunted her thoughts always. They always seemed so real.

She knew – somehow, somewhere deep inside of her, she knew – that they were the reason why she had snapped that day in the cafeteria. Her dreams were the link to something… Something else – somewhere else.

Somewhere where she belonged.

But the dreams dragged her away from reality, and now she was losing control of her world. The dreams were her curse.

And the boy.

He haunted her day and night. Every minute of her existence.

He was the reason why she was in jail.

In her stupid windowed cell.