Well, here's another. And considerably fast knowing my update rate. Thank you uchiha miyo and Narutogirl101 for the reviews, and all the great people who favorite and alert! It truely makes my day. And for those who wonder, this is one of those 'stop at one point and make up the rest' stories. I'm pretty sure there's a word for it, but I make myself sound like a noob by not knowing it.
You are dismissed to scroll down now.
"She's tamed him?"
Pain turned, puzzled. He had expected a more gruesome report, of maybe her remains scattered throughout the cell. Not the tale of the bipolar child found asleep on her lap.
Pain had set up the little scheme himself. She had been unwilling to embrace his future views for the world, so he'd wound the lies and let her go. Surely she would change her thoughts then...but too late to repent in death.
The fact that she was still alive was appalling. But this worked in his favor two ways as well.
"Yes. But we've contained the two of them together." The man stood from the respective bow stance he'd been accustomed to complying to when in Pain's presence. "It seems he's reluctant to leave her side. And we would have had casualties otherwise."
True.
Pain turned from him in thought. If this Sakura girl could control Juugo's curse mark, then the hunt for the nine-tails would be much easier than he had originally planned.
But Sasuke's disappearance from the Akatsuki so abruptly bothered his sequence for playing his world domination out.
With the ultimate weapon for destruction by combining all nine bijuu at his whim, surely those petty resistance groups wouldn't be much of a setback as much as they were now.
Naruto must be captured and Sasuke undoubtedly killed.
"Get them."
Pain sighed as the man nodded and left, releasing his daily stress as he sank into the chair that dominated as the only piece of furniture for the rounded room.
Now he had to escalate his stress by participating in a little chat with a very unreasonable infuriating teenage girl.
World domination seemed so much easier.
-OOO-
He was a wall. A living breathing walking wall. Not that she could scale him out much since he insisted he walk behind her for the safety measures she wasn't even clear on. And he had referred to her as the angel, quiet as a whisper, too. Like he was afraid he'd hurt her with the simplest of inquiries.
Again, they'd only managed to exchange words twice now. The second time being an accident. Sakura looked to her hands with confusion twisting her stomach. The ability to comfort and quiet him had come so easily. And now she had a large puppy trailing her everywhere she went.
The guard walked in front of them. They had been walking hallways for over an hour at least, her sore feet being the only stinging hint, and he didn't really seem keen on keeping them quiet. Almost like he was afraid of something. Or someone.
"Hey, Juugo!"
She'd done in a snippy whisper and instantly felt childish.
Beside the awkward pause in between, Sakura felt the slight hesitance in his step. He'd heard her. She didn't expect a reply, he was more of the quiet type. Kind of sweet when she looked past his vastness and leaned on the fact that he had apologized, not that he converted into a bloodthirsty monster out for blood.
That in itself was pretty hard to bypass and Sakura found herself hesitant to pry.
"Why did you...Why did you call me an angel?"
He remained silent, his wide slapping steps on the stone floor the only indication that he hadn't slipped away. Sakura flushed, embarrassed, even knowing she shouldn't have expected an answer in the first place. But that moment in the cell had felt significant for her, like they were connected deeply to each other. She rubbed at her arms, cold suddenly.
A low rumble caught her off guard and she stopped. Juugo wasn't small, towering over her meager five three at six something with broad shoulders and a strong, capable build. When she stopped, he rammed into her from behind. It felt like a brick wall and she expected to go flying just when fingers curled firmly in a grip above her elbow.
"Tha–thank you." His eyes plunged through her, innocent, clear. So opposite from the twisted black they'd been before. Then he recoiled like his touch alone was enough to hurt her.
"Hey, you two. Hurry up." The guard had stopped and stood impatiently. Juugo met his gaze and the man stumbled, his once firm command becoming weak. "Master Pein won't want to be kept waiting."
This time it was more of a mumbled suggestion and Sakura looked to Juugo in wonderment. He only shrugged and continued to trail her as she followed the guard who had halted to wait at a large padlocked door. It stroked the ceiling and stretched at least twenty feet along the wall with its iron knobs gleaming maliciously at them.
Sakura squared her shoulders as Juugo watched her in meager interest. She knew what laid in waiting for the two of them behind these doors. Certain death. But one thing was for sure–
Adrenaline simmered in her veins, powering the fury she held toward the man.
–she wasn't going down without a fight.
-OOO-
Pain watched in judging silence as the medic girl stepped through the heavy ironed doors.
Involuntarily, his mouth twitched slightly at the corners seeing she had opened the door herself. Even in their first meeting Pain had taken notice of Sakura's strong character, but it was still amusing to see her struggle against a fate she'd already been forcefully succumbed to.
The same girl he had witnessed burning Konan alive in the same very room as him still breathing with all limbs attached. All for the plan, he had reminded himself countless times after his partner's death. But Konan's passing hadn't been in the plan. Sakura's had.
Sure, he had claimed her abilities and relationship to Naruto an important tie for the Nine Tail's capture. But a deep hatred had burned fresh from within him every image of Konan half transformed into her paper jutsu disappearing in seconds, engulfed in treacherous whip lashing flame. Her quiet smile of accepted defeat was etched into his retinas like a poisoned image that never stopped to cease his inner turmoil.
He hated Sakura Haruno.
And here she stood before him, staring into his gaze with a level of defiance all her own.
Not dead. Not scarred beyond repair. Still alive.
She squared her shoulders stiffly when he lifted a hand for signal. Two of his men shot forward and seized her from behind, caging her on her knees so she bowed below him. This only succeeding so easily from her low energy levels and chakra depletion. He had deprived her of the basic survival necessities as precaution against her supposed skill as a ninja.
The orange headed boy's eyes smoldered brightly when she screamed out in surprise. Pain looked to him in meager interest, but didn't call them off of her. Of course he had seen the destruction the boy could cause, Pain having slipped once and nicked in the cheek bringing him in after Sasuke's unsuspected abandonment.
He smoothed a thumb over the scar lightly, remembering the small setback of losing over twenty-five highly trained men.
It didn't matter now.
"Sakura. Pleased to see you so energetic this morning."
It wasn't exactly a lie. He would just be more pleased if she were dead.
She then released a low grunt that could have passed as a snarl and Pain remembered with twisted amusement that the angry little medic that laid before him loathed his very being as well. And for the petty reason of wanting to sacrifice her friend for the ultimate peace.
How selfish.
"What you're doing is wrong!"
Pain resisted a sigh. No matter how far she surpassed his expectations, the girl did have a flaw. She had the pure desire to help people that didn't need the advice in the first place.
In this instance it was like telling the opposing side of an army that their enemies were just like them.
All useless in his state of mind no matter how good or bad the intention was.
He cocked his head to the side, a gesture that inflamed her green eyes with rage.
"To you it seems so," he said calmly. "But the world is already running sufficiently enough without hundreds of governments ruining the security people should have with their figure heads and political advisers."
He could tell she was biting her tongue, but Pain was disappointed. He'd been hoping for the fiery debate she'd launch into. Then her mouth quivered and Pain saw she so badly wanted to knock his skull in with her own presumption of how the world used to be.
Then she met his eyes again, and he was surprised at the solid confirmation he saw there.
"What's wrong with a world people are content with?" she asked, the question not meant to be answered. "War is horrible, it causes...pain...and often leaves people with physical and emotional wounds heal."
Pain watched her as she watched him with a certain gleam in her eyes. What was that? It was familiar. Like–
"You still don't understand." She flinched away from his cold tone, and Pain knew no matter how solid of a front she put on, he still held the power. He intimidated her. "There will always be pain in this world. And I am stopping it. I am helping the world. I care about the people."
He held up a hand and twitched two fingers forward.
"You're still too naive to realize pain just yet."
One of the men at her left stepped back, and she laid there still as she had been when held down, like she knew what was about to happen.
Pain had to give her credit for her bravery. But also inwardly shake his head at her foolishness.
The man wasted no time and began twisting his hands rapidly into his known bloodline jutsu.
Pain watched Juugo in earnest patience. Pain didn't expect Haruno to be injured too harshly before the curse marked boy snapped. He just had a few loose ends to make sure of.
Pain's attention was thrown from Juugo as the man stepped toward Sakura with the precision of a master, his fingers resting lightly on her temples.
Seconds passed in silence, then came an almost inaudible mumble from the man and Sakura's body literally caved in on itself. She didn't yell, she screamedas the man's chakra flew through her system, shocking every nerve ending in her body. When people had to choose between death and this jutsu, they chose death. Experiencing it was like dying in itself, but it never ended. You just suffered and suffered. It was a whole new level of pain.
Pain cherished that scream like no other, and felt no speck of remorse as she writhed on the ground screaming, her face an ashen glow from the pain and sweat.
Then her shrill cries stopped suddenly and Pain opened his eyes. The Juugo boy had his mutated fingers curled around the man's neck, laughing as the squirming man saw the death he couldn't avoid. Juugo's normal serene look was replaced with the look of a mad man, blood shot with the curse mark staining the whites in his eyes black.
Even now it looked terrifying and Pain understood why his underling pleaded mercy, abandoning his pride before the neck beneath Juugo's irrational hands crunched sickeningly against bone.
Pain leaned into his hand, feeling a little bored watching as Sakura crawled away, Juugo swinging his gnarled trunk of an arm into Pain's other guard. The impact sent him through the air and thudding against the wall, his head caving in at impact. Checking for breaths would have been meaningless.
Juugo turned toward Pain, his eyes pulsating, a grin so twisted and bloodthirsty on his face that made Pain nearly cringe.
People called him a horrible man, but he never did that. He never destroyed a person from the inside out.
Killing for peace was one thing. Forceful experimentation was another.
Pain's gaze flicked to Sakura for a moment. She sat with wide eyes, catching herself in the small moment of fear and looking to Juugo then the ground. Almost like she didn't know exactly what to do.
Hesitation was all it took. Juugo's inflamed eyes cited in on the girl. Her body grew rigid for a second, surprising Pain for the barest of a second when she didn't shrink back.
"You think you can beat me?" Juugo screamed at Sakura. "Go ahead and try, woman! I'll rip you in two at the slightest twitch!"
Sakura shrank away, then realized her mistake when he sent her flailing through the air before she hit the ground. Her body laid motionless.
"Heh." He grinned like it was her mistake for existing. "You moved."
Pain watched completely still as Juugo hesitated mid-step toward a struggling Sakura on the ground. His blood-shot eyes scanned her form as she leaned against an elbow and took him in, her normal fiery eyes weakened to a smolder. Her eyes burned bright as she struggled an inward battle of confusion between two opposite judgements.
Pain surveyed the display, a slight interest that she might not die clouding his better logic to call forth help to take them both down.
He couldn't kill them. Not...yet.
"Juugo."
Sakura tone was strong, firm as she pushed herself up on her knees, reaching tentative fingers for a hold on him.
"No!" he growled, resisting the calming sensation of her voice.
He wanted to fall into her embrace so, so badly. Juugo knew it down deep, and she knew it, too.
That's what scared him most.
One side chided his thoughts seductively. One swing, or a hand over that thin, delicate neck. She'd be dead in a matter of one, two insignificant moves.
The other opposed the idea strongly. Yelling, screaming at him to fight the urge. But this voice was too small.
"It's not enough!"
He swung his arm against her throat, confused when he felt a deep hatred for himself when the feeling of her beneath him was so unfavorable. She coughed in reaction, bloody specks littering his arm and making his eyes go wide.
This was bad.
"No! No! This is what should happen!" He watched her twist under the weight against her throat, a loan whimper sending an icy sliver stabbing through his subconscious. The distraction had him releasing his hold an inch.
"Please–" she gasped for breath, "–please, Juugo!"
Juugo confused her cries as pleading mercy and gripped her hair back in a tight hold with his other hand to quiet the voice that amplified his other side's agonizing cries.
"Shut up!"
Sakura cried out as he ripped at her roots. Sakura bit her tongue and found the bare strength that ran thinly through her veins to grab hold of his face, her touch distracting him the few seconds she needed.
"I won't let you lose yourself," she whispered. "You can't let you lose yourself."
Juugo hesitated. His eye flashed calmly for a split second.
Sakura took advantage of his hesitation and wrapped her fingers warmly around the knobby purple hand that had halted just above her face. "You're okay. I'm right here."
Juugo sank back, looking down at the hand that touched him gently. He'd hurt the angel attached to that hand. And yet, she didn't run away. Like she knew he would lose himself wholly to his blood lust if she didn't heal him with smooth words and a kind hand.
He felt himself waver back to his calm self slowly, the gnarled stump of an arm retracting into normal tendons and smooth, pale skin.
But she was scared. The long fingers that laid curled around the inside of his hand shook lightly, and her face was pale, her skin taunt around her cheekbones.
Juugo laid there, feeling horrible as he watched her suffer again for the second witness of the monstrosity that was himself. He'd never had much social experience with other people, his interactions mostly limited to Kimmimaru's guidance and team Hebi with Suigetsu, Karin, and Sasuke.
And they weren't even here anymore.
He closed his eyes and crumbled to his knees. Defeat thrummed hot in his veins, quickly receding with relief. He hadn't killed her, he had been able to forbade the want, the curse.
And Pain sat, watching carefully as Sakura stood up and set him with a spark-flying gaze. Now she was really angry. She spat at the ground, a bloody glob that spoke wonders of how her insides fared. Her determination was certainly something to reconcile with, but not if he couldn't avoid it. Nothing was worse than a hot-blooded woman on his hide.
So Pain stood, all to well aware of the pair of murky green eyes that calculated the slightest breath he took. Which he took slowly, just wanting them to wonder. "Congratulations," he said, devoid of any surprise. Because hadn't he expected it? But it didn't hurt to prepare, because preparation had won the battle.
Soul didn't count for anything if it could be crushed.
Sakura caught his gaze in a searching wonderment. This man had killed a nation, but she withstood the fear that shook her legs and burned her lungs. To lose against this man-this monster wasn't something she'd let herself think. Everyone fell, even the ones who thought themselves above the rest. Pain was no exception.
He stopped a few feet from them, glancing at the breathless boy and the girl who shakily held her ground.
"You protect him." Pain watched her face carefully as it twisted subsequently from his words. Confusion, realization, and finally again to stone.
She merely stared him down. The corner of his lip twitched in a barely smile. "Even after he nearly killed you." He met her eyes finally. "Multiple times. Yet you continue to fight back."
"Who else," she said, her jaw clenched tightly at the urge to take back what he had stolen. The village crushed, and so many people dead burned behind her eyes. This was all she had left. "You tantalize the strong and make them weak."
"Together the weak are indestructible. That is what you believe..." Sakura watched as he put a fisted hand to his face, maneuvering his signs for a teleportation jutsu. "Look harder, Sakura Haruno. Ignorance will be your downfall."
Her legs instantly collapsed when he disappeared. And she screamed then, tearing the walls with wail after wail. He was right in front on me, she thought to herself. And I could do nothing.
Her eyes turned to Juugo. "Are you alright? Scratches?" She ignored the waver of her voice, and tried not to notice the way her fingers shook as she examined his arm. The same one that had kicked her around like a doll moments before.
"That man..." His eyes darted to ground and sideways when she looked up at him. "He's gone."
Juugo restless gaze settled for the empty space Pain had stood. Under her tentative hands, his muscles remained stiff and ready for action.
"For now. But he'll be back." She stood with little ease, the pain in her side escalating the caution against her low chakra level. "He would have killed us otherwise."
"You should go. I'll only hurt you again." He met her eyes briefly. "So you should leave while they're thinking of what to do about us."
Before I turn back, he thought. The words only stuck to his tongue.
"I'm not afraid of you." Sakura shook her head, and smiled a small smile. "You're not the one who hurts me."
Juugo stared up at her while she looked down at him.
This girl...
Their reactions were simultaneous as the door cracked open. A man with blue skin and a mouth lined with tiny knives smiled at the two of them as he twirled a blinking bracelet between his fingers.
Sakura glared at him, her memory itching with angry familiarity as the man stepped forward. "Who are you?"
His jagged smile only grew. "The gift bearer." He held up the flashing bracelet, switching it in the air between the two of them. "Now who wants theirs first?"
