'Naruto' and 'Naruto Shippuden' are the property of Masashi Kishimoto and TV Tokyo.
MAD
(Mutually Assured Destruction)
Chapter 2: Shrapnel
...
Sakura
...
"MAI!"
I scream down the store. Run through every isle and dodge through the car park. I check every bathroom stall and blast my way through loading docks.
"MAI!"
My heart is beating frantically, body shaking and uncontrollable spasms stringing out my limbs.
"MAI!"
I want to vomit. I want to breakdown crying and never get up again. But no matter how many times I call for her, all the people I ask and all the places I look-
My little girl is gone.
"I just looked away for a moment-"
"You can't! Not for a second Ino!" I cry, running my shaking fingers through my hair. Tears streak my face, hot and angry but all I feel is misery. I knew something was wrong the moment I came out of that interview. One look at my best-friends face and I was screaming for my daughter. A million awful things penetrated my head in that moment. She wandered away and got lost. She got hurt and nobody can hear her screaming. Or worse somebody kidnapped her. What if I never see her again?
"Mrs. Uchiha, you need to calm down. Security is combing the premises. We have someone reviewing the tapes as we speak."
No, I have looked under every shelf, through every back door and scoured every piece of gravel. How can you find her? How can we find her? I want my little girl!
I try to stop my fingers trembling as I dial my phone. I press it against my ear swallowing down the taste of bile. It rings and rings before hitting message bank.
"Uchiha Sasuke, you know what to do."
Why is his phone still off?! I fumble to speak after the beep. This has to be one of a dozen messages.
"S-Sasuke it's Sakura. M-Mai's missing! She was at the Ureshii shopping mall. You n-need to get down here. Please."
"Mrs. Uchiha we have the recording."
I run into the security den, an officer grabbing my arm to steady me.
I see Mai and Ino sail through the store. Ino bends down to fix Mai's shoe buckle, Mai tugs on Ino's skirt to be lifted up to look at the toys. It serves to make me more distressed. I start dialling Sasuke's number again. He needs to be here. He needs to see this.
Then it happens, Ino stopping in front of a clothes store and Mai getting free from her. A man comes into the picture immediately and squats down. I press the phone against my ear with a frown. I can only see his back but... he seems... I've seen him. He's familiar.
"She goes straight over to him. He might have lured her with something."
"She seems to know him," the other officer deduces before directing his train of thought to me. "Do you know him?"
I obsess over the back of his head, his unruly dark hair. My lip quivers. Sasuke. That is undoubtedly Sasuke. Message bank goes off in my ear.
"Uchiha Sasuke, you know what to do."
Oh I know what to do, I think. I'm going to kill you Sasuke!
"Really bad time Naruto."
I am jogging along the road with my phone glued to my ear. Furious at the bus for being slow, taxi's for being uncooperative. Sasuke, Sasuke, Sasuke I have spat his name over a hundred times. How could he do this and why? I'm going to his apartment and confronting him. I'm getting the police involved later on. How dare he!
"Why? What's going on?"
I was too upset to form the words and much too angry to speak them. I wonder if he can hear my teeth grinding on the other end? Why did he call me? I can't handle this right now.
"Anyway Sakura," he says breaking out of the stretching silence. "I'm calling you because I saw Sasuke-"
"When?" I bark out. I imagine him flinching.
"...Just 10 minutes ago," he says uncertainly as I calculate where my daughter is. "Look he asked me if he could borrow five thousand dollars. He even asked Sai for money. Is something wrong? Why would he need all that cash?"
I lost all the feeling in my body and my phone slipped from my hand and shattered to the pavement.
Sweat slicks my back like condensation on a pot lid. My sensible high heel shoes abandoned to some far off gutter as I sprint barefoot down the sidewalk. I take gaping breaths and each one hurts as my muscles scream in agony.
Because I know exactly what Sasuke would be planning to do with all that money from Naruto. He is going to skip town, disappear off the face of the earth with my daughter. He's going to take Mai and I will never get to see her again.
A car screeches to a stop and almost hits me when I sprint across the road. I don't care. I don't ease up my ungodly pace because I am close. Just one block. One more block.
I hiss when I step on a sharp rock. Blood. But it doesn't matter. I can see his parked car from here. I almost scream in joy. I'm not too late barging into the complex and running up the stairs. Somewhere I trip, chin hitting the top step and I bite down on my tongue hard. Bruised and battered I don't stop, kick off and prepare to break his door down with any means possible. Luckily I find it open and I push my way in and stop the second I see the flash of dark hair. My baby. She's staring at me. My sweet little angel.
I'm shaking so bad when I fall to my knees and pull her into a hug. I hold her so tight she fusses and wriggles in shock.
"Thank god. Thank you god," I whisper finally letting go but keeping my arms on her shoulders. She smiles when I push back her fringe. She's fine. She's here. "I love you, I love you so much," I say kissing her forehead and getting to my feet. Because there is still something I need to do. I can see the clothes thrown everywhere and the sports bag half packed. He's still here.
"Stay here darling," I tell her and somehow I just know where he is. I march into his bedroom and he is sitting on the edge of his bed, completely still. I fist my hands instinctively to try and stop the shaking, the taste of blood in my mouth fuelling rage. His back haunts me as I see him plucking my daughter away in that tape on replay.
He doesn't move. I don't think he even knows I am there. He just sits there, head down with a half packed bag of toys next to him. I stand so my feet will be in his line of vision. I am wound so tightly in my anger that the second he looks up at me I am slamming my fist in his face and kicking him in the stomach when he doubles over on the floor.
Without looking back I run to my daughter and scoop her up before sprinting out the door.
I don't stop until I get to the bus stop; I collapse down to the bench with Mai in my arms. My blackened feet hurt and I struggle to breathe in my exhaustion. I cuddle my little girl close as she is terrified and scared. What a horrible day for her. I coo to her softly, let her curl up against my shoulder and rub the back of her head soothingly. When she finally settles and I am looking into familiar dark eyes does my hysterical mind begin to function. I bite my lip in anguish and start to quiver. Her eyes widen and gently, oh so very gently, she touches my face with her tiny fingertips. Only three and she is so careful, quiet and caring towards me.
I start trembling badly when her little face droops to sadness, "What's wrong mummy?"
And I burst into tears.
...
Sasuke
...
"Sasuke? Can I use your shower?"
I glare at Sai as he holds up a towel. I have a terrible hangover; it feels like my brain is scraping against the inside of my skull, my stomach is aching from bottle necked abuse and worse of all I haven't even had my morning smoke. I can't handle him at this early hour, least I tear his fake smiling head off.
"Thanks!" he says brightly and he is far too chipper and presumptuous. Since when did a glare mean the go-ahead? Only in Sai world.
I groan at the sound of running water. I feel like I can hear each individual drop smashing against the tiles like a miniature explosion.
I need a cigarette.
I fish around for my lucky 7s, irritably throwing an empty box across the room and getting up. No time to find pants. Nicotine now.
Naruto groans at me from the couch, still asleep. I scour the room for my cigarettes, hissing when I realise Naruto is lying on them. He basically cries when I flip him off the couch to get them.
"Wha'?" he says in confusion. Not important.
"Why is Sai here?" I demand and jam a cigarette in my mouth before the horror set in.
Where. Is. My. Lighter?
Naruto takes one rummage through the house to recover, "You invited Sai remember?"
I scoff because no matter how smashed I was I know that's a lie. Sai and I don't get along. Sai loves Sakura, so that makes me the devil incarnate. He has made it clear on numerous occasions it would be better for everyone if I just ended up under a fast moving truck. The search for my lighter is futile so I pad over to my stove top. I flick it on and lean over to light the tip.
"Okay technically I invited him... but you invited me and he's my boyfriend," Naruto defended and I don't care. I open my window and take a drag of my cigarette but only feel a little better. My headache is still raging. I try to remember how much promoting I did through the murky details of last night.
"You should apologise to Sakura?"
I flinched, setting him with a flint hard glare. "Why the hell would I do that?"
He gives me that look. The one that reminds me he knows me better than anyone else. He's so fucking arrogant.
I puff away. "Who told you?"
"You did."
Stupid whiskey. Or was it the tequila? Who's idea was it to do shots? Whose idea was it to go out drinking at all? I vaguely notice the number scrawled across my hand. Some girl. But no matter how much I try to bury myself in the haze of last night I can't ignore the guilt I am feeling.
I bow my head against the window.
"Sasuke can I borrow your pants? Naruto spilled vodka on mine. Kay thanks."
I glower at Sai already wearing my pants. The audacity!
I grumble. "I need those for work." He raids my fridge and I try not to imagine tearing out his spinal cord. I really do.
"You're a bartender. You can wear what you want," he sniffs. And no.
I don't bother to correct him but instead become obsessed with his message tone. It's been going off all morning. Who's he texting non-stop...
Distraction comes in the form of Naruto pointing at the number on my hand. "You gonna call her?"
No. I shrug anyway. "I don't even remember what she looks like."
"She was hot," he nods sagely. "I'd call her."
Sai makes a pathetic squawking noise. "Excuse me?"
So begins one of their many stupid arguments. I watch the chaos unfold before yawning. Idiots. Eventually they will figure out being in any relationship is nothing but miserable. I was unhappily married by 19. I know all about it.
'Sorry' is such a small word but something I have always struggled with. If I wanted to shrink myself I would probably relate it to the fact my father never apologised for anything. Not to my mum when he hit her, my brother that he bullied and certainly not to me who he ignored completely. Being a man means never having to say you're sorry but more importantly never admitting wrong-doing.
But as I stand on Sakura's doorstep tentatively I find myself wanting nothing more than to apologise. Naruto had a point but my own mind is preparing me because I know what I almost did was incredibly hurtful. I press on the bruise around my eye finding strange comfort in the pain. I am ready.
I knock on the door and wait. The second I see her face "sorry" and if I can manage it, "It was wrong".
I keep my mouth shut in confusion when the door is only opened a crack and Mai squeezes her way out. I step forward only to have her backpack pushed out in the same manner and the door slamming.
Sakura doesn't even want to look at me. Thing is, I don't blame her.
There is a line and I have done cartwheels over it. I packed that bag but when I realised what I was doing, I unpacked it. A daughter needs her mother. Mai needed Sakura in her life. Then in a rage I started again but no matter what it played on me.
Sakura needs Mai in her life.
I sort of went catatonic after that. Why should I care about Sakura? She's hurt me so much I should always be jumping at the chance to hurt her back.
"Nice?"
I watch Mai's face blanch as she chews the crabmeat in her mouth. She sticks her tongue out in disgust and I sigh. She's always hated cooked pear and egg yolk (not the white though, no clue why) but now crabmeat.
"Not nice," we decide as she spits the crab out into my hand. I rinse with water before picking up a sweet pea and chopping it. Maybe she will like this better. She bites down and I watch her eyes crinkle happily.
"Yummy!"
I lift her down from the kitchen counter. It seems dinner won't be a complete disaster. "Well that's a relief."
I pause at the heavy knock on the door. I can already tell the person on the other side despises me from the angry, purposeful thuds. So Sakura finally decided to show up 30 minutes after the usual pick-up time. Not that I'm complaining. But...
I answer the door to confirmation the universe hates me.
"Sai," I say venomously. We both fold our arms defensively and I instinctually block the entrance to my home.
"I'm here to take Mai-"
I growled at him. "Like hell you are. I don't trust you with my daughter."
Where is Sakura and what is she thinking? I have to deal with her early and now absent.
"If you would have let me finish," Sai said irritably, "I was going to say I'm here to take Mai to Sakura at the bottom of the stairs."
I didn't let the bewilderment show on my face when I finally spotted Sakura slinking into a wall. She turned away from my gaze instantly. If she's so angry she can't even talk, that's bad. Normally she doesn't shut up.
"Whatever," I retort and call to Mai. When the door shut and I was alone it became apparent who had suggested all the drinking the night before because getting smashed was all I felt like doing.
"OI! Keep it down!"
Stupid ex-neighbour.
"Shut up Tatsuya who still lives with his mother!"
"Rich coming from Sasuke divorcing from his wife!" he hollers back.
When did this bastard get so goddamn cocky?! I have half a mind to sort him. I'm gonna go over there and smash him. I tried to make out his house through the dark, cursing when I almost lost my footing. Who moved the ground?
I stop and cover my eyes when light shines however. The door to my old house is open. Sakura is here.
"Sasuke?" There is disbelief and anger threaded through her voice. "What do you think you are doing?"
I glare at her in preparation.
"You're drunk," she observed with disgust.
"I'm sorry!" I bellow at her. I apologise. She knows what I really meant and looks absolutely stunned. She knows I'm sorry about almost taking Mai. Maybe it is the raw sound of my voice. My red face. I don't know. I just add an afterthought, "You bitch."
I stalk away because that's all I'm sorry for. Nothing else.
Aww I love you guys. This story only got 40 visitors but many helpful reviews :) Input and support is always much appreciated. Nom de plume you make me cry. You give me such amazing critique but no way to communicate the finer details :( I hope the grammar changes I made to the last chapter are right. Also I want to clear up that this story will not be about a love triangle. I'm going to pick apart a once solid relationship and why it self-destructed.
I know this chapter is going to be controversial but meh. I just hope it was emotional enough. Poor Sakura :(
