Loophole
Chapter 2: A Little Fear with Lunch.
Sakura couldn't take her eyes off the kunai dangling loosely in the deadly Uchiha's fingers, tinged with Kisame's blood. The deep red tint made a hot flash of adrenaline run through the young medic as he approached where she lay. His steps were easy and slow as if he was walking to the cupboard to get something he needed.
He stopped momentarily to wipe the blood off the silver weapon using the bedroll, which was still rolled up on the rusty makeshift bed. The fabric ripped with the touch of the extremely sharp blade dragging across it. One swipe from each side of the dirty kunai left two gaping rips with fluff dropping out of them.
Turning his attention to the shivering kunoichi, Itachi squatted in front of her, gripping her hands and lifting them up towards him. Sakura hissed audibly as he clutched her disjointed and purple-hued fingers. What does he care? He loves to hurt people. But even as she thought it, his grip loosened and shifted to her wrists instead.
"Your chakra won't reach those fingers," he said quietly.
"They're broken," she managed to whisper out from her dry lips and parched throat.
She couldn't be sure if it was her tone or what she said that made him pause, but his movement stopped abruptly. Coming back to himself, he used the kunai to cut the restraint away from her clasped wrists, easily tugging the leather away from her.
"How did he break them?" Itachi sounded curious, rather than concerned. She doubted if concern was even possible for him.
"I don't remember," she answered, trying to rub the angry red marks left on her wrists by the restraints.
It seemed that Itachi thought on that for a moment as well, but his face was unreadable. She supposed he would be the best card player in the world with a poker face like that. Had she not been in so much pain, the thought might have made her laugh. But the last thing she wanted to do was bring more pain upon herself, which is what a little chuckle at his expense would probably do. Somehow the terror was lurking just underneath, and jokes seemed way too much like losing her mind at that moment. So, reasoning told her to can the humor. The fear was displacing it anyway.
Itachi stood up as she rubbed her legs trying to get heat, but one pained hand was not enough. The other appendage, with its twisted fingers, was out of commission.
"Stand up," he directed as he stepped back.
Making a marked attempt, she knew that lying on the stone floor for two days made it impossible. Her body was cramped, sore, and what she might even term as 'seized up' with the cold she'd lay captive of for so long.
"I…I…" Admitting that she couldn't was something she really didn't want to do. To call his wrath on her so soon was not something that she would want to do. Tempting a wild animal seemed wrong, even on the best of days.
Without making her answer fully, Itachi bent and scooped her up. The sensation of being held in a killer's arms was so strange that she tensed her body in an attempt to weigh nothing. Resisting the urge to lay her tired head on his shoulder, she forced herself to remain unmoving in his strong hold. But he was warm, warmer than anything she had ever felt. The frigidity of the floor had managed to saturate her with the chill, right down to her bones. Even through the dark red and black cloak, she could feel his heat.
Itachi carried her out the door of her 'cell' and down a long stone hallway. By Sakura's estimation, the building must have been some sort of jail or holding area, perhaps a military base.
Pushing open another door, Itachi entered wordlessly and set Sakura down on her feet. This room had an oriental rug and a wooden desk in it. Two hanging lamps on either side of the door flooded the room in warm light. There was some stationary on the dark wood desk, and a decent sized bed on the other side of the room. The blanket was red and soft, maybe even a duvet of some sort. A solitary bedside table held a half-burned candle.
Letting the kunoichi try to stand of her own volition, Itachi kept his arm wrapped around her waist as she limped to sit on the bed. The entire time, Sakura avoided making eye contact with him. It would be a foolish mistake to look Uchiha Itachi in the eyes.
The bed was soft under her, and she sank into it without falling, fighting the urge to lie back and sleep. Shocking her a little, Itachi took a seat as well. His warm fingers gripped the underside of her face, gently angling it towards him. He was so close that had he been a friend, she might have thought he was going to kiss her.
"You're close to hypothermia. You have a concussion and a broken cheekbone."
Sakura just nodded feebly against his fingers. Was that a smirk? She tried hard not to look at his face, but his similarity to Sasuke was so drawing that it was hard to turn away.
"Your eye is filled with blood." His gaze dropped to her fingers. "These need to be set."
Listening to the large number of words he was letting fall from his mouth, Sakura was sort of stunned with the one sided banter. Strange really, she imagined he'd say almost nothing, much like her mental picture of him. His voice was soft, muted, and she believed if she could run her hand over it, it would have a velvety texture. She would find it relaxing, had she heard it in some other circumstance. Why do the Uchihas get the smooth voices?
Yes, he was right, she needed to see to her fingers, but the overwhelming sleepiness was getting too close behind her eyes. Maybe just a few more hours sleep. A concussion? This was most likely the reason for the lack of alertness, but perhaps if she slept, she'd die. The possibility occurred to her, but just didn't sink in.
Lifting her hand to fully take in the maimed fingers with her half lidded eyes, she got another shock as she felt his hand grab onto her wrist. He turned and tugged her body close to him. Her chin banged his shoulder as her chest crushed up to the dark cloak draped over him. Trying to ignore the comfort of his body heat, she gave a slight tug back. Her arm was suddenly wrenched under his and the realization of his intention became clear as his arm pinned hers to his body.
Grasping feebly at his back, she twisted some of his robe as she felt the first soft touches along where her broken fingers met her knuckle.
"Please, don't," she begged, "Don't…"
Immediately, she felt the first wrenching pull of her finger and amid her pained shriek, she feared he might have pulled it right off her hand. As the endorphins rushed to the injury, blood flooded her digits again. It throbbed and pulsed in agony. Sakura thought for a moment that she might pass out. All of a sudden, she felt his warmth under her cheek finding herself collapsed against his back while she tried to breathe through the nausea. Her other hand had grabbed his shoulder, but if it bothered him, he didn't let on.
His head turned slightly to look at her. At the angle she laid on him there would be no way to see her, but she felt the sweep of his black ponytail over her hand twisting in his robe.
Again, his fingers passed over her knuckle at the base of the other broken finger and she gritted her teeth. She made a small noise in anticipation of the excruciating pain about to happen. He ignored her as another jarring pain encompassed her hand, making white flashes dance in front of her eyes. She made a small shriek into the back of his shoulder as it happened. He didn't even flinch.
It took three full minutes before Sakura found the constriction in her throat give way.
"I'm going to be sick," she whispered into his back. The waves of pain and nausea drove through Sakura's stomach and she resisted heaving. The lack of eating for two days was probably a huge contributor to her current condition, but there wasn't much she could do about that now. She just pressed her forehead against his shoulder and fought it. Throwing up on Uchiha Itachi was not a good idea.
Itachi immediately turned around and she collapsed forward without his body propping her up. He caught her by her upper arms and pulled her close so that their faces were almost touching. Sakura's eyes opened up to look into those beautiful sharingan as they changed into something far more deadly than Sasuke's had ever been. Fear made her rigid in his grasp.
But suddenly, it didn't matter. Suddenly, nothing mattered. It was like floating on a warm breeze that lulled you to sleep. Nothing hurt, nothing was cold, there was no nausea. It was all just nothing now.
Itachi watched the wide jade eyes of his captive close sleepily, glazed over with the drug-like effects of the tsukiyomi. She was still caught in his firm grasp, and he admired the way his ability engulfed her. This was the first time that he'd ever used it not to hurt someone. It would have been easy to give her hours of difficult images and painful memories, but that would not suit his purpose. If the elder Uchiha was one thing, it was efficient.
Damn it, why do I keep waking up like this? Again she awoke to stone walls and almost utter silence, but at least this time no one was looming over her with shark eyes and a big scaly sword. That was a definite improvement, as was her quarters for the moment. The bed she was on was soft and larger than the rusty looking one in the last room. The heavy red blanket kept her warm and so she resisted moving out of the heated niche her body had carved in the feather mattress.
For the first time since Itachi manhandled her fingers, she managed to take a look at them. They were a better colour, with more of a pink tinge to them, and she was grateful that the chakra and blood was flowing through them. They were partially healed, which didn't surprise her. Somehow since her training with Tsunade, her body healed itself faster on it's own. A little bonus for top medics, she supposed.
They were bandaged at the top and by the knuckles against a small flat stick to keep them immobile. Itachi? Well, she figured it certainly wouldn't beKisame who helped her if anyone did. He would be more likely to stab the stick through her eye.
Stretching out her limbs a little, Saukura realized that a great deal of her body felt better. As she did this, she noticed something on her arm, a bracelet of some sort. Her fingers traced over it. It was a simple silver band, with various seals stamped on it. Admittedly it wasn't ugly or unattractive, but she began to wonder why it was there. It had a faint blue glow to it, which she imagined was chakra.
She tried to slide it off, but couldn't. It was too small to slip over her hand and there was no clasp that she could see. Strange, she mused. Turning it slowly around her wrist, she dropped into inner thoughts until she heard a sound in the room. How careless to not even notice someone else was there. Oh yeah, concussion.
"That is a chakra band. It's infused with my chakra," Itachi's voice drifted quietly through the room. She couldn't see him as he sat somewhere near the door behind the head of the bed.
"Why?" But she knew the answer.
"So I will know where you are at all times. Forgive me if I don't trust you."
"Well, at least we've got that in common," she mumbled as she took great difficulty in sitting up and turning to look at him.
"You won't be able to remove it. Only I can remove it," he said softly.
"I understand. Thank you for splinting my fingers," she added, but there was no tone of appreciation. Sakura just felt it was necessary being the person she was.
"You've been asleep for six hours. Has your nausea passed?"
Sakura took a moment to figure out if it had or not. Seemed for now she didn't need to throw up. Yay for medical chakra. But the tickle of hunger was making that change, little by little. Over two days with no food was too long. Sakura didn't have a lot of body stores to draw from so she knew that there would be no healing anything until she was fully recharged.
"I'm a little queasy," she replied.
"There is food prepared." His eyes shifted slightly to beside the bed and just then she realized she had been looking into them. Quickly, she turned to look at the bedside table, which held a small tray with soup, fruit, and water on it.
"Thank you," she said softly as her gaze remained on the floor. So as not to insult him, she tried to lift the tray from the table. Unfortunately, her previously mangled hand and still weak body prevented it and in a moment of shock, she could see it start to fall. Closing her eyes, she waited for the crash that never came.
As she opened them, Itachi was standing beside the bed, the tray in his hands, nothing spilled.
Fast!
"I'm sorry," she said timidly, her wide eyes drew to the sharingan glaring at her before she realized what she was doing. Her head dropped down with her realization.
The shift of the bed indicated he had sat down beside her, and she began to get a little nervous at his close proximity. She felt like she was the most defenseless she had ever been. Her fingers were sore, devoid of strength, and with almost no chakra to call on, she was virtually at his mercy. Then again, chakra or not, he'd already taken her over with the sharingan once. What was to prevent him from doing it again?
He set the tray on her outstretched legs, and pulled the small plastic lid off the Styrofoam bowl, which held the steaming soup.
"It's hot," she marveled, wondering if they knew exactly when she would wake.
"My tsukiyomi lasts six hours. The food was brought to you then." Itachi's voice was still quiet, but held that little threat of becoming angry just underneath.
Dipping the metal utensil in, her hand shook so hard that the soup slid off the spoon, plopping back into the bowl. Vainly, she tried again, managing to get it near her mouth, but she hesitated. Poison, maybe it was poisoned or drugged? If she had thought hard enough about it, she might have realized that Itachi wouldn't need poison, but there was something preventing coherent thought right now. Her throbbing head still screamed concussion as if it was the headliner in a thrash metal concert.
Itachi watched her. He made no move to leave while she tried feebly to eat. Now she was beginning to feel like his science experiment and wondered what else could be in the soup.
As if he understood what she was thinking, and most likely he did, he cocked his head before speaking. "There is nothing in that but soup, I assure you."
Her shaking hand still held the spoon in front of her. She continued to hesitate.
Without thinking, Itachi grasped her hand and brought the spoon to his own mouth, drawing it in. Without relinquishing her hand, he dipped it back in, and made her feed him again. Then lifting the glass to his lips, he took a drink of the water.
Sakura's eyes were wide. The feel of his hand remained on hers, even though he had let go. She shivered a little, then looked down at the fruit.
Itachi, seeing her warranted mistrust, picked up the peach and took a bite. The juice trickled at the side of his mouth, and he licked it quickly. Holding the peach up to Sakura's mouth, his face was the picture of a blank page. "Eat it."
Sakura looked at the peach, and then back to him. Something in his tone told her that the time for suspicion was over and if she didn't eat, he was going to show his darker side. Well there was just no way that she was going go that route. Leaning forward a little, she took a bite of the soft fuzzy skin while his hand held it steadily in front of her.
He put the peach down and again grasped the hand that held the spoon, leading it up to her mouth. Her eyebrows creased with the pain of him squeezing her broken fingers. The next spoonful he allowed her to take on her own.
Itachi stood up then, feeling that his work was done. "Your clothes are dirty, and you're covered in blood. There is a bath across the hallway with fresh clothes. You have half an hour to eat and get cleaned up before we discuss our agreement. If you're not ready then, I will send Kisame for you." He looked back down at her darkly before leaving. The door snapped shut behind him.
What did you get yourself into? She thought angrily Realizing that she wanted to eat, but wanted to take a bath as well, she picked up the bowl and drank the contents down in three large gulps. The water slid down her parched throat next, and it was more refreshing than she could have imagined.
Sliding her legs out from under the heavy blanket, she felt dizzy and lightheaded. She teetered on her tired feet, managing to stand up, but winced from the freezing cold on her bare toes. Itachi must have removed her shoes.
Grabbing the peach with her good hand, she walked slowly to the door and opened it, fully expecting to see the sharkman on the other side. But he wasn't there, just an open door across the hall with some steam billowing around a large bath.
It was the older kind of bath, wooden and deep. The thought of taking off her clothes and getting in was frightening, but she figured he would be angry if she didn't get cleaned up.
The boiler, heated by fire, sat just outside a window and she could see it seemed to be either early evening or early morning. With the hours of unconsciousness and the unfamiliarity of her surroundings, she was baffled as to what time it must be.
As she slid through the doorway of the bedroom, and into the bathroom, she noticed the band on her arm grew warm with chakra for a moment. After putting the peach on the sink, she took off her bloody and ripped garments to slide into the steaming tub. The water calmed her almost immediately, and made her aching body so much more comfortable.
Taking a moment, she mused on what he must have done to the chakra band. Obviously his chakra was imbedded in it, and it alerted him when she crossed the doors. But then he must have infused the doorways with his chakra as well. Tricky bastard.
It wasn't ugly, but she didn't like the silver bauble's purpose. She could never move without him knowing where she was. It wasn't a popular idea in her opinion, but she guessed for now she wasn't allowed an opinion.
The water began to soothe her as the heat washed over her skin. There was soap and a washcloth as well as a fresh towel on the floor beside the glossy wood. Her gaze rested on the small stool at the other side of the room and she saw what looked like dark pants and a dark wrap around shirt with a white tie. The thing that shocked her most was the folded Akatsuki cloak under the clothes.
He truly is crazy if he thinks I'm going to wear that, she sneered inwardly. Damn psychopath.
She estimated that she had about fifteen minutes left before sharky would come running in the door, ready to sop up what ounce of chakra she had left with his flashy fish sword. So she put her arms on the side of the tub and lay her good cheek on them to try to find some peace. It seemed her heart refused to slow down, even in the searing hot water. Slowly her eyes began to close, and she fought it, but it was no use.
Warmth.
Coming back to herself, she splashed the water over the edge and onto the stone floor while trying to remember where she was. Damn, damn, damn.
She'd fallen asleep again. Looking at her wrist, the silver band had a blue hue glowing around it. "What does that mean?" she whispered.
"It means you have failed my directions," Itachi's voice said from across the room. He sat on a chair, eating the half peach she had left on the sink. His face was cold and unreadable. Crouching forward, his robe was open, displaying his black mesh shirt and his dark pants. He leaned on his knees, while taking slow bites of the sweet fruit.
At least it's not Kisame. But truly she wasn't sure which was the lesser evil. Six of one, half-dozen of the other.
"I…fell asleep," she said with placation. She kept her eyes on the peach, instead of his eyes.
"Yes, I noticed."
"If you leave, I'll get out," she said as calmly as possible, somewhat pleased with the strength of her voice.
"I don't like to wait," he began. "We'll discuss the terms of our agreement now." He took another bite.
"I don't have any clothes on," she hissed, finally finding her embarrassment overcoming her fear.
"You aren't offending me," he said plainly.
"I'm not offe….this wasn't part of the deal," she pressed. Her eyes met his. It was just too hard to be angry at a peach.
It wasn't like he was getting nothing from their deal. Maybe two could play this game? Really, she did have some leverage with the situation. "This is a bargain. You aren't doing me a favor. You've already tagged me like an animal. What can I do with three minutes getting out of the tub? I'd prefer to keep my dignity."
Silence rode through the room, making the air thick with intensity.
Itachi suddenly stood near the tub. The shock that she hadn't seen him move scared her and she shrank into the water, letting the line of the liquid rest just below her nose. His face was unreadable. He didn't seem angry, but she likened him to a stray wolf that comes to sniff your hand calmly before taking a chunk of your leg. The adrenaline surged through her and she tried to access some chakra, just in case. The fear was getting to her, as well as the pain and she turned away from him, covering herself with her arms.
"Is this what you want? You win. I'm scared. I'm damn well terrified. How far do you need to push me until it ends?" she said, her tone fraught with fear. She trembled against the back of the wooden bath, her body turned and her back exposed to him. Silence filled the room, and the waiting began to kill her. Curiosity on whether he'd kill her in the tub or drag her out first played in her pounding head.
But Itachi just stood there, no words, no actions, just a statue. Sakura managed the bravery to turn back a little to see where he was, half expecting him to be standing on the water behind her. But he was still in the same place. When he finally moved, he bent and picked up the towel from the floor to rest it on the side of the tub.
"Five minutes," he whispered, then turned and left.
Sakura looked down at her wrist, the blue hue of the silver band died away as she leaned on the side of the tub. Crying would do no good, but unfortunately, there was no way to stop it.
A/N
Thank you, thank you, thank you, roark28.
