A TRAGEDY: DOVES IN CAGES

CHAPTER 1: SPREADING WHITE WINGS

Her aim was to maintain the peace that came with the outcome of the war, the remnants that lingered in the dusty air, the broken cobblestones and desperate faces of all people who begged for the calamity to end. It was her decision to sacrifice herself, or to sacrifice what was left of her, what the war had not taken already. The decision was made and settled in her heart after she caught sight of the still remaining fear in her people's eyes, the panic attacks and heart-breaking mumbles and mourns she witnessed as she treated her patients. Medics were the ones who truly saw war for what it was, so it was said. She would defend that saying without thinking.

"I do not expect of you to ask for my hand in marriage."

The war had ended for most folks, but fewer people knew that only the wrong click of the right tongue might set the ceasefire alive again to such an extent that it would burn the people who settled for comfort around it. They were the people who hoped for true peace, with hope that transformed into naïve belief quickly. Never would they know what their leaders truly argued about, which decisions they made and which wars they announced.

"I offer you my hand in marriage myself, for this peace may remain at the cost of my sacrifice."

Instead of her people sacrificing themselves for peace, she decided it was her turn to do so herself. They had suffered enough, and the suffering would continue with her. She was satisfied with that, for as long as the suffering would be kept inside of her. She only sought for the wellbeing of her people, she herself was the lowest name on her list of people to care for. The only selfishness in this contract would be the love for her people.

The love for their folk would be the only love that would have a place in this marriage.

Her enemy did not waver, did not blink once with his eyes. He did not flinch once to her words that expected so much of him – so little like the word "yes" escaping his mouth. He – the man she wanted to marry, a wrong decision for all the good reasons – stood on his feet as steady as stone. No movement, no motion left his limbs, as he maintained on his place on the bloody ground. He visibly contemplated his answer. They stood there, facing each other on the former battlefield that was soaked with the blood and sweat and spit of people who fought there, and who lost their lives in return. There was no single being conquering in this war, no single being winning, but all beings at least losing something.

Her enemy looked her over once again, and turned around to leave.

It was not an unfamiliar sight for her. They had met several times on the battlefield, but every time they would exchange glances, he would turn around and leave. It awakened a fury inside of her that would match pulsating lava, the lava that was her own blood in her veins. Did he think she was weak? Was she not enough of a human being to catch his interest? Did he not care about what she said? About the loss of his people? About the destruction the war brought with it? Did he not care about anything at all?

"Do you accept my offer?", she yelled after him.

A slight hesitation, an unseen flinch, a little turn of his head indicated he would finally answer her, but there was none of that. She looked after his retreating form, and when he started running into the distance, there were dust grains flowing in the air, burning her eyes and giving them a reason to become wet. The effect was the same when he burned her comrades with the fire he was spitting.

The doves that gathered on the battlefield felt the same, and rose to the sky, flying away from a place of war they didn´t belong to.

The next time they met, it was him who invited her.

A hawk brought her a message which said to come to the place they saw each other last time. Eagerness and a foolish hope was born inside of her, but she was wise not to trust these feelings. This man she offered to marry owned many stories about himself, stories that promised no good from him. Destruction, fear, chaos, tears and blood were words that filled the tales about him, stories people not only from their clans shared, but also from far away. It was rumoured that he was the child of chaos himself, of war, a child only brought to this world to kill and to spread fear. She knew he had lost everything that would remind him of love, his family, so it is said, yet she could only feel anger towards him. He had taken too many lives, and she had given life to so many. They were black and white, yin and yang in their truest of shapes, and it scared her even more what would come out of the marriage that she suggested. If there was war and peace divorcing them, where was the point of marriage in the beginning? If there was war and peace parting them, which would conquer in the end?

The former battlefield was empty if not for the hundreds and thousands of doves residing on it. Some of them were flying but the majority rested on the ground, still waiting for peace. She was once met by a sight of massive destruction again. Taking slow steps forward to the middle of it all, she looked around to find the face that gave her hope and insecurity at once. This counterpoint irritated her, but she had no chance to avoid a confrontation. She had made up her mind to marry him for peace, and she would not flinch against this idea once.

She turned around, looked up, and back down again. There was no sight of her enemy. Had she come too early? Too late? Was it the wrong date? Wrong place? With a knit between her eyebrows did she continue to walk. She believed he was not a person to turn down on his word, even for all the devilish crimes he had committed. That was what made him so odd. He might have been a devil, but a reliable one. It was what made people fear him even more. If he meant to kill, he would. If he meant to destroy one´s life, he would. If he meant to meet you at a set time and place, he would.

Something cold and sharp touched her throat.

"Hn."

A cut burned her skin, and her blood fell on the sword he held. Her enemy stood right behind her, and his sword laid in the air between them. The few doves that circled them, flew away in an instant. She could not look at him, but her sharp intake of breath and the stiffness in her muscles was exposed to his ears and eyes. The cut on the left side of her throat was not deep, but sharp enough to shape little drops of blood on his sword. He held it perfectly parallel to her shoulders.

She did not dare to speak until she maintained her breathing. The longer he stood silent though, the more irritated she became.

"Don´t kill me."

His eyes narrowed, but she couldn´t see. His silence was his answer, so she continued to speak.

"If you kill me, the war won't stop. It will become worse, people will die again – "

The sword´s edge pushed the slightest bit deeper into her flesh.

"Aren´t you afraid for your own life?"

She tensed again, but her head turned to the side. A wild flare flickered in her left eye that observed the enemy with fury.

"The only lives I care about are always the ones of my people. I am a healer for a reason."

He narrowed his eyes at her again, to look into her eye this time. He pushed the sword deeper, for the third time.

A pause.

"Kneel down."

Her mouth opened to gasp and object, but was cut off by his threatening words instead.

"I won´t repeat myself twice."

The woman buried the scream inside her throat, together with the hate and agony that burned in her lungs. Her legs buckled in resistance, but she knelt down nonetheless. The only comfort to offer her pride was to straighten her back. She waited, and finally felt her enemy kneel behind her as well. His left arm locked around her throat, so that his body was pushed against her. They knelt there cheek against cheek, one's breath reaching the other's ear. Their eyes focused on a distant spot on the battlefield. He stayed there without saying a word, and she endured. This man and his actions were a mystery to her, yet not ready to be solved. What were his intentions? His goals? Why would he call her here? What was his answer to her offer? Why wouldn't he answer?

"You offered me a marriage to end this war", he finally said. His voice was husky, and barely a whisper, more a murmur. "But are you truly so selfless as to end your life as well?"

Her hands fisted. She already told him so, why wouldn´t he believe in her words?

"I already told you. The lives of my people hold more value than mine – "

"I am not meaning life nor death", his voice cut through her ears, and through the sentence she attempted to speak "I am telling you; are the lives of your people relevant enough to end your former life, and to begin with another?"

Jade eyes widened, and a realization hit her that she never considered. Her people were constantly on her mind, so there was no space to contemplate which effects the marriage would have on her.

"I suppose I do not have to tell you that marriage is the tie between two people. Our lives will be tied together, whether you like it or not. I can never be a husband that you desire, and you will never be a wife that I wish for. I know that you hate me. I see it in your eyes, but are you aware of the amount of hate you hold towards me? More important; the reasons that lie behind your hate?"

She had no intention to stay quiet about the things he said, but she had no strength to defend herself either. This was the first time this man had ever talked to her, and his words wounded her. They were sharp, and their intention was clear. They cut through her, and burned her like no touchable weapon could. He was right, and on point, and ruthless.

Was she truly prepared for the marriage she offered herself?

"I am the man who killed your people. I am the man who killed your mentor, and I committed every kill in front of your eyes, and of the eyes of other people, without shame nor remorse. Are you still up to your offer? To marry this man, who is a criminal? A killer? Your enemy?" The following word he hissed as if to spit out all the anger he had for this particular word, "Me?"

Her fisted hands trembled and longed to release all the hate which Sakura held for this man. They were able to push him away, to punch a crater into the ground, maybe even kill him, but that was not her goal. She would punch herself if she did, and worse, her people. The death of the heir to her enemy land was a crime that no one was going to forgive her for. Sakura came here to meet this man to discuss measures and methods to maintain peace between them, and here he was breathing nothing but war and death. What was she going to tell this man whose world and speech contained something she attempted to avoid? How was she going to make this a peace agreement when the man threatened her with the opposite? With hate, death and him? Him who was war himself, death himself, the reaper that would kill off everyone who attempted to oppose him in any possible way?

She could only give him what he wanted to hear, the only thing that he was going to understand; hatred.

"I hate you", she spat. "I hate you with all my being, my bones and flesh." He listened. "There is no one in this world of ours that I would hate more than you. You don´t deserve a woman like me. You don´t deserve the peace I offer to give you. You don´t deserve anything I am willing to give you."

She yelled, "But my people do! Even yours do!" He held her tighter in his arm lock. Her voice roughened through the hold, yet she yelled again, louder, "I am doing this for peace! For nothing else! Because I love my people! And my love will win over your hatred, as it did with mine!"

They kneeled there still, and she tried to catch air, breathing erratically.

They kneeled there still, and time passed.

They kneeled there still, and he stood up, holding his sword close to her throat. Circling around her, he stopped to stand in front of her, looking down at jade orbs.

"Love, you say?", he said.

It was the worst kind of a tone to express ´love´ Sakura had ever heard. It was full of irony, since it was sensible how much hate this word carried when he spoke it.

He smirked, amused, as if he was talking to a naïve child.

As fast as it had come the smirk fell immediately. The intimidating man held his sword high, took two steps back, and threw it, making it land right in front of her knees. She didn´t understand, and eyed the weapon. He only followed her eyes and their movements.

"You", he began, talking, slower, and commanding. "Kill me."

The shock was too striking for her to find the courage to gasp, but only to stare into his piercing eyes. They were cold. And they held certainty. It was a dangerous mixture of things. Sakura´s eyes held irritation, and reluctance.

"Why should I kill you? Do you even know what you are saying?" Insanity was what Sakura compared this man to, as there was no rational way for her to understand what he said. What he wanted. What he aimed for, what he intended to do.

His eyes blazed, and he crouched down on the ground. The swords handle he held in his hand, and pushed it towards her own. Her hand didn´t move.

"This is your opportunity to take revenge for those I have killed, for the people you say you love so much", he pushed the sword further into her palm. "Do it."

Her palm met his cheek, and her tears her own. The man´s head turned to the side, wiped by her hand. Red scars trailed there where her finger nails touched the flesh, leaving marks. They were very visible on his pale skin, like a punishment, burning.

"You monster!", she attempted to yell, but it came out as a choked hiss. "Your death won´t bring us anywhere!" Her eyes were glassy, wet. "If I would´ve been able to find a way to end this war on my own, I would´ve never come to you for help!"

The doves around them turned their heads to them, as if listening and observing the spectacle.

He glanced at her, from the side, bluntly, and unaffected of what was happening.

"I didn´t come here to kill! I don´t want death! I don´t want war and blood!", this time, her voice was rising, screaming.

"I want life!"

"Stop the annoying yelling", he hissed, stood up, and turned around. She wasn´t able to see his face from her angle on the ground, yet she didn´t desire to see it either. Exhaustion pushed her body down, a hopelessness, an antagonism. There was no understanding from her side as to why he wouldn´t desire what everyone did. There was no understanding for his attitude, no understanding for his thoughts. There was only death she could see, and war that every movement, every word that left the mouth of this man carried.

Why would he not desire the world of the living?

"I accept your offer", Sasuke glanced at Sakura from the side, his Sharingan activated, for a reason Sakura wasn´t able to understand. "But on one condition."

She was too weak to answer, her mind damaged by the exhaustion of all the feelings that this man brought to life inside her soul. She didn´t understand what she felt, or what he felt. When colours of water mixed, they eventually become a dirty, disgusting brown liquor. It was the same with them. They were disgusting together, if married a dysfunctional couple, yet it was their choice to make such a thing as an ugly marriage between them happen. Sakura only kneeled there, numb, and pale as her hair. Her glassy eyes never left his dark ones. She felt so full, though empty. She didn´t have another choice.

"Our marriage will only be one written on paper. I won´t be a husband to you, and you not a wife to me. I won´t let my blood touch the filthy one that is yours. You will be the property of the Uchiha, and you will have to be loyal to the Uchiha. Forever."

Sakura gulped. When a maiden leaves her home to find a new one by her spouse´s side, she should feel honour, acceptance and pride. The only thing Sakura felt, though, was anxiety, and shame to be wed to this man.

"So whatever peace-fantasy your mind possesses, you will fulfil it as an Uchiha. You will cut all ties that hold you to your own blood."

Lots of shame.

"Do you accept your own offer of marriage now?", he mocked, as if he was sure that he has frightened her, that she would back down from this. He knew what she wanted was insane, but insane was what he was himself.

Images spun inside her head. She was alone, in a large home, too huge for her tiny being. She would be alone, she knew. She would have no family anymore, no friends, no one except herself. The shoji doors opened, and there she was. Sitting on a tatami mat, alone, in the middle of the room. Her food untouched, a book in her hands she wasn´t reading, her eyes staring into the distance, longing for her former home. Longing to be beside her friends, her family, in the clan she belonged.

The house would be but a prison. The dove of peace she would become would be kept securely in the cage of her enemy.

"I do."

The doves around them emerged into the sky, hundreds, thousands of them, with cries, and sounds of their fluttering wings. They circled around the man and woman, like a pillar, flying higher and higher in circles. Their clothes and hair moved in the storm the doves created, wildly. They were together as a group, untamed, as if they were celebrating, cheering for something. It was as if they gave her a sign.

Her comrades would see peace. They would get what they deserved. They would live, and so would she. Life was what she desired to bring upon this world, life that could only be brought by peace. She would sacrifice herself, since she knew it was worth the future of so many people. The lives of people. The lives of everyone she sought to bring peace.

"Hn", he grunted, somehow disappointed, chiding, unimpressed. "Wait to hear from me, and prepare yourself." He kept on walking, not bothering to turn around. His voice was only a murmur compared to the fluttering sounds of the doves´ wings.

Left was a woman kneeling on the ground, eyes half opened, and tears flowing. The drops fell on the ground, and on the sword her enemy threw there, and left there. Soon, they would be married, and soon, peace would be brought by their marriage. She would bring life at the cost of her own.

She would be the dove that would be sacrificed for peace. She would be the dove in her own cage.

She saw him walking away, step by step, until he finally disappeared behind the walls of the doves´ white colours.

FIN.

AN: Thanks to Ombree for beta-reading this! (You are the best, Ombro!)

Thanks also to all the people who read this! It´s my third story on , and my first ever slow-burn one! Feel free to leave a review or two, to let me know what you think :)

Next update will be in April.

Until, then

Beat